The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1056 page)

(980–1037 (AH 370–429)).
Muslim philosopher, scholar, theologian, physician, natural scientist, and statesman, known in the West as Avicenna.
Of his large number of written works, most are in Arabic, with a few in Persian. Among his best known are works on philosophy and metaphysics, such as
Kit
b al-Shif
’
(Book of Healing, i.e. for the soul), and
ayy ibn Yaq
n
, a symbolic narrative. His belief in God as creator was combined with theories derived from
Plotinus
(as conveyed in the ‘theology of Aristotle’), particularly the idea of
emanation
through various spheres of being. God as first cause and prime mover produces a single intelligence, which is able in turn to give rise to others. Although he was sometimes accused by other Muslims of being an unbeliever and of contradicting Islamic teaching, Ibn S
n
considered himself a Muslim attempting to show that philosophy was compatible with religious teachings.
His works were tr. into Latin under the name Avicenna, and had considerable influence in the later Middle Ages. Ibn S
n
's medical encyclopaedia the
Q
n
n
, latinized as
Canon Medicinae
, gave rise to many commentaries, influenced the development of European medicine, and was not superseded until the arrival of modern W. medical theories and discoveries.

 
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