title
stringlengths 1
261
| section
stringlengths 0
15.6k
| text
stringlengths 0
145k
|
|---|---|---|
Foreign relations of Armenia | References | References
|
Foreign relations of Armenia | External links | External links
Argentina
List of Treaties ruling the relations Argentina and Armenia (Argentine Foreign Ministry, in Spanish)
Canada
Armenian embassy in Ottawa
Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade about relations with Armenian
Chile
Chilean Senate: recognition of the Armenian genocide (in Spanish only)
Czech
Armenian embassy in London
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office about relations with Armenia *British embassy in Yerevan
Denmark
Danish Foreign Ministry: development program with Armenia
NATO
Iskandaryan, Alexander:"NATO and Armenia: A Long Game of Complementarism" in the Caucasus Analytical Digest No. 5
International
Khachatrian, Haroutiun: "Foreign Investments in Armenia: Influence of the Crisis and Other Peculiarities" in the Caucasus Analytical Digest No. 28
|
Foreign relations of Armenia | Table of Content | Short description, Foreign relations, Armenian genocide recognition, Disputes, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Countries without diplomatic relations, Africa, The Americas, Asia, Oceania, Countries with diplomatic relations, Multilateral relations, Bilateral relations, Africa, The Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania, Other international organizations, See also, Footnotes, References, External links |
Demographics of American Samoa | Short description | Demographics of American Samoa include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects. American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean.
alt=A rising line graph|thumb|Population in thousands; Data of FAO, year 2005. |
Demographics of American Samoa | Population | Population
The statistics from 1900 to 1950 and every decennial census are from the U.S. Census Bureau. There was no census taken in 1910, but a special census taken in 1912. Beginning with the 1930 Census, Swain Island is included in the population count for American Samoa. The remaining statistics are from the World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
Approximately 55,212, but the Factbook states 49,437 (2020 estimate). About 65% of the population are U.S. nationals, of whom at least 10% are U.S. citizens.2010 American Samoa Demographic Profile Data, U.S. Census Bureau. Of the foreign-born population, 81% are from Samoa, 9% are from other parts of Oceania, and 9% are from Asia. |
Demographics of American Samoa | Structure of the population | Structure of the population
Age GroupMaleFemaleTotal% Total 28 164 27 355 55 519 100 0–4 3 417 3 194 6 611 11.91 5–9 3 470 3 065 6 535 11.77 10–14 3 214 3 065 6 279 11.31 15–19 3 218 3 078 6 296 11.34 20–24 1 944 1 947 3 891 7.01 25–29 1 670 1 654 3 324 5.99 30–34 1 726 1 784 3 510 6.32 35–39 1 845 1 764 3 609 6.50 40–44 1 793 1 807 3 600 6.48 45–49 1 673 1 716 3 389 6.10 50–54 1 335 1 344 2 679 4.83 55–59 1 011 1 038 2 049 3.69 60–64 755 725 1 480 2.67 65–69 500 460 960 1.73 70–74 321 333 654 1.18 75–79 155 182 337 0.61 80–84 76 130 206 0.37 85+ 41 69 110 0.20Age groupMaleFemaleTotalPercent 0–14 10 101 9 324 19 425 34.99 15–64 16 970 16 857 33 827 60.93 65+ 1 093 1 174 2 267 4.08 |
Demographics of American Samoa | Vital statistics | Vital statistics |
Demographics of American Samoa | Registered births and deaths | Registered births and deaths
+21st-century demography of American SamoaYearPopulationLive birthsDeathsNatural increaseCrude birth rateCrude death rateRate of natural increaseTotal Fertility Rate 2001 59,400 1,655 239 1,416 27.9 4.0 23.9 3.50 2002 60,800 1,629 295 1,334 26.8 4.9 21.9 3.86 2003 62,600 1,608 257 1,351 25.7 4.1 21.6 3.85 2004 64,100 1,713 289 1,424 26.7 4.5 22.2 4.14 2005 65,500 1,720 279 1,441 26.3 4.3 22.0 3.92 2006 66,900 1,442 267 1,175 21.6 4.0 17.6 3.52 2007 68,200 1,293 251 1,042 19.0 3.7 15.3 2.87 2008 69,200 1,338 240 1,098 19.3 3.5 15.8 2.91 2009 70,100 1,375 324 1,051 19.6 4.6 15.0 2.86 2010 67,380 1,279 247 1,032 19.0 3.7 15.3 3.11 2011 64,292 1,287 283 1,004 20.0 4.4 15.6 3.10 2012 63,596 1,175 282 893 18.5 4.4 14.1 2.85 2013 62,610 1,161 270 891 18.5 4.3 14.2 2.61 2014 61,811 1,084 259 825 17.5 4.2 13.3 2.60 2015 60,863 1,096 314 782 18.0 5.2 12.8 2.55 2016 60,200 1,013 280 733 16.8 4.7 12.1 2.69 2017 60,300 1,001 310 691 16.6 5.1 11.5 2.59 2018 59,600 921 298 623 15.5 5.0 10.5 2019 58,500 840 278 562 14.4 4.8 9.6 2020 49,841 734 322 412 14.7 6.5 8.2 2021 51,561 706 331 375 13.7 6.4 7.3 2022 51,269 706 399 307 13.8 7.8 6.0 2023 737 356 381 13.8 6.7 7.1 |
Demographics of American Samoa | Ethnic groups | Ethnic groups
Pacific Islander 92.6% (includes Samoan 88.9%, Tongan 2.9%, other 0.8%)
Asian 3.6% (includes Filipino 2.2%, other 1.4%)
Mixed 2.7%
Other 1.2% (2010 est.) |
Demographics of American Samoa | Languages | Languages
thumb|Sign in English and Samoan in American Samoa
Native languages include:
Samoan 88.6%
English 3.9%
Tongan 2.7%
Other Pacific islander 3%
Other 1.8% (2010 est.)
English proficiency is very high. |
Demographics of American Samoa | Religion | Religion
Christian 98.3%
Other 1%
Unaffiliated 0.7% (2010 est.)
Major Christian denominations on the island include the Congregational Christian Church in American Samoa, the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Methodist Church of Samoa. Collectively, these churches account for the vast majority of the population.
J. Gordon Melton in his book claims that the Methodists, Congregationalists with the London Missionary Society, and Catholics led the first Christian missions to the islands. Other denominations arrived later, beginning in 1895 with the Seventh-day Adventists, various Pentecostals (including the Assemblies of God), Church of the Nazarene, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The World Factbook 2010 estimate shows the religious affiliations of American Samoa as 98.3% Christian, other 1%, unaffiliated 0.7%. World Christian Database 2010 estimate shows the religious affiliations of American Samoa as 98.3% Christian, 0.7% agnostic, 0.4% Chinese Universalist, 0.3% Buddhist, and 0.3% Baháʼí.
According to Pew Research Center, 98.3% of the total population is Christian. Among Christians, 59.5% are Protestant, 19.7% are Catholic and 19.2% are other Christians. A major Protestant church on the island, gathering a substantial part of the local Protestant population, is the Congregational Christian Church in American Samoa, a Reformed denomination in the Congregationalist tradition. , The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website claims membership of 16,180 or one-quarter of the whole population, with 41 congregations, and 4 family history centers in American Samoa. The Jehovah's Witnesses claim 210 "ministers of the word" and 3 congregations. |
Demographics of American Samoa | References | References
Category:Economy of American Samoa
Category:Geography of American Samoa
Category:Society of American Samoa
American Samoa |
Demographics of American Samoa | Table of Content | Short description, Population, Structure of the population, Vital statistics, Registered births and deaths, Ethnic groups, Languages, Religion, References |
Politics of American Samoa | Short description |
Politics of American Samoa takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic dependency, whereby the governor is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. American Samoa is an unincorporated and unorganized territory of the United States, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior. Its constitution was ratified in 1966 and came into effect in 1967. Executive power is discharged by the governor and the lieutenant governor. Legislative power is vested in the two chambers of the legislature. The party system is based on the United States party system. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
There is also the traditional village politics of the Samoan Islands, the and the , which continues in American Samoa and in independent Samoa, and which interacts across these current boundaries. The is the language and customs, and the the protocols of the (council) and the chiefly system. The and the take place at all levels of the Samoan body politic, from the family, to the village, to the region, to national matters. The (chiefs) are elected by consensus within the of the extended family and village(s) concerned. The and the (which is itself made of ) decide on distribution of family exchanges and tenancy of communal lands. The majority of lands in American Samoa and independent Samoa are communal. A can represent a small family group or a great extended family that reaches across islands, and to both American Samoa and independent Samoa. |
Politics of American Samoa | Government | Government
The government of American Samoa is defined under the Constitution of American Samoa. As an unincorporated territory, the Ratification Act of 1929 vested all civil, judicial, and military powers in the president, who in turn delegated authority to the secretary of the interior in . The secretary promulgated the Constitution of American Samoa which was approved by a constitutional convention of the people of American Samoa and a majority of the voters of American Samoa voting at the 1966 election, and came into effect in 1967.Revised Constitution of American Samoa, American Samoa Bar Association.
The governor of American Samoa is the head of government and along with the lieutenant governor of American Samoa is elected on the same ticket by popular vote for four-year terms.4.0105 Term of office, Annotated Code of American Samoa, American Samoa Bar Association.
The legislative power is vested in the American Samoa Fono, which has two chambers. The House of Representatives has 21 members serving two-year terms, being 20 representatives popularly elected from various districts and one delegate from Swains Island elected in a public meeting. The Senate has 18 members, elected for four-year terms by and from the chiefs of the islands.
The judiciary of American Samoa is composed of the High Court of American Samoa, a District Court, and village courts.3.0101 Vesting of judicial power, Annotated Code of American Samoa, American Samoa Bar Association. The High Court is led by a chief justice and an associate justice, appointed by the secretary of the interior.3.1001 Chief and Associate Justices-Appointment, Annotated Code of American Samoa, American Samoa Bar Association. Other judges are appointed by the governor upon the recommendation of the chief justice and confirmed by the Senate.3.1010 District court judges-Term, Annotated Code of American Samoa, American Samoa Bar Association.3.1004 Associate judges-Appointment-Term, Annotated Code of American Samoa, American Samoa Bar Association. |
Politics of American Samoa | Elections | Elections |
Politics of American Samoa | International organization participation | International organization participation
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (associate)
Interpol (subbureau)
International Olympic Committee
Pacific Community |
Politics of American Samoa | See also | See also
Political party strength in American Samoa
American Samoa's at-large congressional district |
Politics of American Samoa | References | References
|
Politics of American Samoa | Table of Content | Short description, Government, Elections, International organization participation, See also, References |
Economy of American Samoa | Short description | The economy of American Samoa is a traditional Polynesian economy in which more than 90% of the land is communally owned. American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States; economic activity is strongly linked to the main customs zone of the U.S., with which American Samoa conducts the great bulk of its trade. Tuna fishing and processing plants are the backbone of the private sector, with canned tuna being the primary export. Transfers from the U.S. federal government add substantially to American Samoa's economic well-being. Attempts by the government to develop a larger and broader economy are restrained by Samoa's remote location, its limited transportation, and its devastating hurricanes.
thumb|A StarKist tuna cannery. Tuna canning represents a major export industry in the territory |
Economy of American Samoa | Statistics | Statistics
thumb|Employment in the canning industry in American Samoa. Employment in the industry fell following the 2009 closure of a Chicken of the Sea cannery
GDP: purchasing power parity – $537 million (2007 est.)
country comparison to the world: 210
GDP (official exchange rate): $462.2 million (2005)
GDP – real growth rate: 3% (2003)
country comparison to the world: 139
GDP – per capita: purchasing power parity – $7,874 (2008)
country comparison to the world: 120
GDP – composition by sector:
agriculture:
NA%
industry:
NA%
services:
NA% (2002)
Labor Force: 17,630 (2005)
country comparison to the world: 203
Labor force – by occupation: government 33%, tuna canneries 34%, other 33% (1990)
Unemployment rate: 23.8% (2010)
country comparison to the world: 175
Population below poverty line:
NA% (2002 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%:
NA%
highest 10%:
NA%
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
NA% (2003 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $155.4 million (37% in local revenue and 63% in US grants)
expenditures: $183.6 million (FY07)
Agriculture – products: bananas, coconuts, vegetables, taro, breadfruit, yams, copra, pineapples, papayas; dairy products, livestock
Industries: tuna canneries (largely dependent on foreign fishing vessels), handicrafts
Industrial production growth rate: NA%
Electricity – production: 180 GWh (2006)
country comparison to the world: 179
Electricity – production by source:
fossil fuel:
100%
hydro:
0%
nuclear:
0%
other:
0% (2001)
Electricity – consumption: 167.4 GWh (2006)
country comparison to the world: 179
Electricity – exports: 0 kWh (2007)
Electricity – imports: 0 kWh (2007)
Oil – production: (2007 est.)
country comparison to the world: 209
Oil – consumption: (604 m3/d), 2006
country comparison to the world: 170
Oil – exports: (2005)
country comparison to the world: 142
Oil – imports: (2005)
country comparison to the world: 166
Natural gas – production: 0 cu m (2007)
country comparison to the world: 208
Natural gas – consumption: 0 cu m (2007)
country comparison to the world: 207
Natural gas – exports: 0 cu m (2007)
country comparison to the world: 202
Natural gas – imports: 0 cu m (2007)
country comparison to the world: 201
Natural gas – proved reserves: 0 cu m (2006)
country comparison to the world: 205
Exports: $445.6 million (2004)
country comparison to the world: 167
Exports – commodities:
canned tuna 93% (2004)
Exports – partners:
Indonesia 70%, Australia 6.7%, Japan 6.7%, Samoa 6.7% (2002)
Imports: $308.8 million (2004)
country comparison to the world: 195
Imports – commodities:
materials for canneries 56%, food 8%, petroleum products 7%, machinery and parts 6% (2004)
Imports – partners:
Australia 36.6%, New Zealand 20.3%, South Korea 16.3%, Mauritius 4.9% (2002)
Debt – external:
$NA (2002 est.)
Economic aid – recipient:
$NA; note – important financial support from the US, more than $40 million in 1994
Currency:
US dollar (USD)
Currency code:
USD
Exchange rates:
US dollar is used
Fiscal year:
1 October – 30 September |
Economy of American Samoa | References | References |
Economy of American Samoa | External links | External links
|
Economy of American Samoa | Table of Content | Short description, Statistics, References, External links |
August 13 | pp-pc1 | |
August 13 | Events | Events |
August 13 | Pre-1600 | Pre-1600
29 BC – Octavian holds the first of three consecutive triumphs in Rome to celebrate the victory over the Dalmatian tribes.
523 – John I becomes the new Pope after the death of Pope Hormisdas.
554 – Emperor Justinian I rewards Liberius for his service in the Pragmatic Sanction, granting him extensive estates in Italy.
582 – Maurice becomes Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
871 – Emperor Louis II of Italy and Empress Engelberga are captured by Prince Adelchis of Benevento.Barbara Kreutz, Before the Normans: Southern Italy in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), pp. 46–47.
900 – Count Reginar I of Hainault rises against Zwentibold of Lotharingia and slays him near present-day Susteren.
1099 – Raniero is elected as Pope Paschal II, who would become deeply entangled in the Investiture Controversy.
1516 – The Treaty of Noyon between France and Spain is signed. Francis I of France recognizes Charles's claim to Naples, and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, recognizes Francis's claim to Milan.
1521 – After an extended siege, forces led by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés capture Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc and conquer the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.
1532 – Union of Brittany and France: The Duchy of Brittany is absorbed into the Kingdom of France.
1536 – Buddhist monks from Kyoto, Japan's Enryaku-ji temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto in what will be known as the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance.
1553 – Michael Servetus is arrested by John Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland as a heretic. |
August 13 | 1601–1900 | 1601–1900
1624 – The French king Louis XIII appoints Cardinal Richelieu as prime minister.
1645 – Sweden and Denmark sign Peace of Brömsebro.
1650 – Colonel George Monck of the English Army forms Monck's Regiment of Foot, which will later become the Coldstream Guards.
1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Blenheim: English and Imperial forces are victorious over French and Bavarian troops.
1724 – Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, BWV 101, a chorale cantata on a famous tune.
1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Royal Navy defeats the Penobscot Expedition with the most significant loss of United States naval forces prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
1792 – King Louis XVI of France is formally arrested by the National Tribunal, and declared an enemy of the people.
1806 – Battle of Mišar during the Serbian Revolution begins. The battle ends two days later with a Serbian victory over the Ottomans.
1814 – The Convention of London, a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United Netherlands, is signed in London, England.
1868 – The 8.5–9.0 Arica earthquake struck southern Peru with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), causing 25,000+ deaths and a destructive basin wide tsunami that affected Hawaii and New Zealand.
1889 – William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut is granted United States Patent Number 408,709 for "Coin-controlled apparatus for telephones."
1898 – Spanish–American War: Spanish and American forces engage in a mock battle for Manila, after which the Spanish commander surrendered in order to keep the city out of Filipino rebel hands.
1898 – Carl Gustav Witt discovers 433 Eros, the first near-Earth asteroid to be found.
1900 – The steamer Deutschland of Hamburg America Lines set a new record for the eastward passage when it docked on Plymouth, England, five days, 11 hours and 45 minutes after sailing from New York, breaking by three hours, six minutes its previous mark in its maiden voyage in July. |
August 13 | 1901–present | 1901–present
1905 – Norwegians vote to end the union with Sweden.
1906 – The all black infantrymen of the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Regiment are accused of killing a white bartender and wounding a white police officer in Brownsville, Texas, despite exculpatory evidence; all are later dishonorably discharged. (Their records were later restored to reflect honorable discharges but there were no financial settlements.)
1913 – First production in the UK of stainless steel by Harry Brearley.
1918 – Women enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first time. Opha May Johnson is the first woman to enlist.
1918 – Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) established as a public company in Germany.
1920 – Polish–Soviet War: The Battle of Warsaw begins and will last till August 25. The Red Army is defeated.
1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Shanghai begins.
1942 – Major General Eugene Reybold of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorizes the construction of facilities that would house the "Development of Substitute Materials" project, better known as the Manhattan Project.
1944 – World War II: German troops begin the pillage and razing of Anogeia in Crete that would continue until September 5.
1954 – Radio Pakistan broadcasts the "Qaumī Tarāna", the national anthem of Pakistan for the first time.
1960 – The Central African Republic declares independence from France.
1961 – Cold War: East Germany closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin to thwart its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West, and construction of the Berlin Wall is started. The day is known as Barbed Wire Sunday.
1964 – Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans are hanged for the murder of John Alan West becoming the last people executed in the United Kingdom.
1967 – Two young women became the first fatal victims of grizzly bear attacks in the 57-year history of Montana's Glacier National Park in separate incidents.
1968 – Alexandros Panagoulis attempts to assassinate the Greek dictator Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos in Varkiza, Athens.
1969 – The Apollo 11 astronauts enjoy a ticker-tape parade in New York City. That evening, at a state dinner in Los Angeles, they are awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Richard Nixon.
1973 – Aviaco Flight 118 crashes on approach to A Coruña Airport in A Coruña, Spain, killing all 85 people on the plane and one other one the ground.
1977 – Members of the British National Front (NF) clash with anti-NF demonstrators in Lewisham, London, resulting in 214 arrests and at least 111 injuries.
1978 – One hundred fifty Palestinians in Beirut are killed in a terrorist attack during the second phase of the Lebanese Civil War.
1990 – A mainland Chinese fishing boat Min Ping Yu No. 5202 is hit by a Taiwanese naval vessel and sinks in a repatriation operation of mainland Chinese immigrants, resulting in 21 deaths. This is the second tragedy less than a month after Min Ping Yu No. 5540 incident.
2004 – One hundred fifty-six Congolese Tutsi refugees are massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi.
2008 – Russo-Georgian War: Russian units occupy the Georgian city of Gori.
2014 – A Cessna Citation Excel crashes in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil killing all seven people aboard, including Brazilian Socialist Party presidential candidate Eduardo Campos.
2015 – At least 76 people are killed and 212 others are wounded in a truck bombing in Baghdad, Iraq.
2020 – Israel–United Arab Emirates relations are formally established. |
August 13 | Births | Births |
August 13 | Pre-1600 | Pre-1600
985 – Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, Fatimid caliph (d. 1021)
1311 – Alfonso XI, king of Castile and León (d. 1350)
1567 – Samuel de Champlain, French explorer (d. 1635)Fischer (2008), p. 3
1584 – Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, English admiral and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Cumberland (d. 1640)
1592 – William, Count of Nassau-Siegen, German count, field marshal of the Dutch State Army (d. 1642) |
August 13 | 1601–1900 | 1601–1900
1625 – Rasmus Bartholin, Danish physician, mathematician, and physicist (d. 1698)
1662 – Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, English politician, Lord President of the Council (d. 1748)
1666 – William Wotton, English linguist and scholar (d. 1727)
1700 – Heinrich von Brühl, Polish-German politician (d. 1763)
1717 – Louis François, Prince of Conti (d. 1776)
1756 – James Gillray, English caricaturist and printmaker (d. 1815)
1764 – Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers, French general (d. 1813)
1790 – William Wentworth, Australian journalist, explorer, and politician (d. 1872)
1803 – Vladimir Odoyevsky, Russian philosopher and critic (d. 1869)
1814 – Anders Jonas Ångström, Swedish physicist and astronomer (d. 1874)
1818 – Lucy Stone, American abolitionist and suffragist (d. 1893)
1819 – Sir George Stokes, 1st Baronet, Anglo-Irish mathematician and physicist (d. 1903)
1820 – George Grove, English musicologist and historian (d. 1900)
1823 – Goldwin Smith, English-Canadian historian and journalist (d. 1910)
1824 – John J. Robison, American politician in Michigan (d. 1897)
1831 – Salomon Jadassohn, German pianist and composer (d. 1902)
1841 – Johnny Mullagh, Australian cricketer (d. 1891)
1842 – Charles Wells, English brewer, founded Charles Wells Ltd (d. 1914)
1849 – Leonora Barry, Irish-born American social activist (d. 1930)
1851 – Felix Adler, German-American religious leader and educator (d. 1933)
1860 – Annie Oakley, American target shooter (d. 1926)
1866 – Giovanni Agnelli, Italian businessman, founded Fiat S.p.A. (d. 1945)
1867 – George Luks, American painter and illustrator (d. 1933)
1871 – Karl Liebknecht, German politician, co-founded Communist Party of Germany (d. 1919)
1872 – Richard Willstätter, German-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1942)
1879 – John Ireland, English composer and educator (d. 1962)
1884 – Harry Dean, English cricketer and coach (d. 1957)
1888 – John Logie Baird, Scottish engineer, invented the television (d. 1946)
1888 – Gleb W. Derujinsky, Russian-American sculptor (d. 1975)
1889 – Camillien Houde, Canadian lawyer and politician, 34th Mayor of Montreal (d. 1958)
1895 – István Barta, Hungarian water polo player (d. 1948)
1895 – Bert Lahr, American actor (d. 1967)
1898 – Jean Borotra, French tennis player (d. 1994)
1898 – Regis Toomey, American actor (d. 1991)
1899 – Alfred Hitchcock, English-American director and producer (d. 1980)
1899 – José Ramón Guizado, Panamanian politician, 17th President of Panama (d. 1964) |
August 13 | 1901–present | 1901–present
1902 – Felix Wankel, German engineer (d. 1988)
1904 – Buddy Rogers, American actor and musician (d. 1999)
1904 – Margaret Tafoya, Native American Pueblo potter (d. 2001)
1906 – Chuck Carroll, American football player and lawyer (d. 2003)
1906 – Art Shires, American baseball player and boxer (d. 1967)
1907 – Basil Spence, Scottish architect, designed Coventry Cathedral (d. 1976)
1908 – Gene Raymond, American actor and pilot (d. 1998)
1911 – William Bernbach, American advertiser, co-founded DDB Worldwide (d. 1982)
1912 – Claire Cribbs, American basketball player and coach (d. 1985)
1912 – Ben Hogan, American golfer and sportscaster (d. 1997)
1912 – Salvador Luria, Italian-American microbiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
1913 – Makarios III, Greek archbishop and politician, 1st President of Cyprus (d. 1977)
1913 – Fred Davis, English snooker player (d. 1998)
1914 – Grace Bates, American mathematician and academic (d. 1996)
1917 – Sid Gordon, American baseball player (d. 1975)
1918 – Noor Hassanali, Trinidadian lawyer and politician, 2nd President of Trinidad and Tobago (d. 2006)
1918 – Frederick Sanger, English biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
1919 – Rex Humbard, American evangelist and television host (d. 2007)
1919 – George Shearing, English jazz pianist and bandleader (d. 2011)
1920 – Neville Brand, American actor (d. 1992)
1921 – Louis Frémaux, French conductor (d. 2017)
1921 – Jimmy McCracklin, American blues/R&B singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2012)
1921 – Mary Lee, Scottish singer (d. 2022)
1922 – Chuck Gilmur, American basketball player, coach, and educator (d. 2011)
1925 – Benny Bailey, American trumpet player, songwriter, and producer (d. 2005)
1925 – José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz, Argentine executive and policy maker (d. 2013)
1926 – Fidel Castro, Cuban lawyer and politician, ex-President of Cuba (d. 2016)
1928 – John Tidmarsh, English journalist and radio host (d. 2019)
1929 – Pat Harrington, Jr., American actor (d. 2016)
1930 – Wilfried Hilker, German footballer and referee
1930 – Don Ho, American singer and ukulele player (d. 2007)
1930 – Bernard Manning, English comedian (d. 2007)
1930 – Wilmer Mizell, American baseball player and politician (d. 1999)
1930 – Bob Wiesler, American baseball player (d. 2014)
1933 – Joycelyn Elders, American admiral and physician, 15th Surgeon General of the United States
1935 – Alex de Renzy, American director and producer (d. 2001)
1935 – Mudcat Grant, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 2021)
1938 – Dave "Baby" Cortez, American R&B pianist, organist, and composer
1938 – Bill Masterton, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1968)
1940 – Bill Musselman, American basketball player and coach (d. 2000)
1942 – Hissène Habré, Chadian politician and war criminal, 5th president of Chad (d. 2021)
1943 – Fred Hill, American football player
1943 – Ertha Pascal-Trouillot, President of Haiti
1943 – Michael Willetts, English sergeant; George Cross recipient (d. 1971)
1944 – Kevin Tighe, American actor
1945 – Lars Engqvist, Swedish politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden
1945 – Gary Gregor, American basketball player
1945 – Robin Jackman, Indian-English cricketer and sportscaster (d. 2020)
1945 – Howard Marks, Welsh cannabis smuggler, writer, and legalisation campaigner (d. 2016)
1946 – Janet Yellen, American economist, 78th United States secretary of the treasury
1947 – Fred Stanley, American baseball player and manager
1947 – John Stocker, Canadian voice actor and director
1947 – Margareta Winberg, Swedish politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden
1948 – Kathleen Battle, American operatic soprano
1949 – Jim Brunzell, American wrestler
1949 – Bobby Clarke, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
1949 – Philippe Petit, French tightrope walker
1949 – Willy Rey, Dutch-Canadian model (d. 1973)
1950 – Jane Carr, English actress
1950 – Rusty Gerhardt, American baseball player, coach, and manager
1951 – Dan Fogelberg, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2007)
1952 – Dave Carter, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2002)
1952 – Gary Gibbs, American football player and coach
1952 – Suzanne Muldowney, American performance artist
1952 – Herb Ritts, American photographer and director (d. 2002)
1952 – Hughie Thomasson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2007)
1952 – Eugenio Lopez III, Filipino businessperson, CEO and chairman of ABS-CBN Corporation
1953 – Tom Cohen, American philosopher, theorist, and academic
1953 – Ron Hilditch, Australian rugby league player and coach
1953 – Thomas Pogge, German philosopher and academic
1953 – Peter Wright, English historian and author
1954 – Nico Assumpção, Brazilian bass player (d. 2001)
1955 – Keith Ahlers, English race car driver
1955 – Hideo Fukuyama, Japanese race car driver
1955 – Paul Greengrass, English director and screenwriter
1956 – Rohinton Fali Nariman, Judge of the Supreme Court of India
1958 – David Feherty, Northern Irish golfer and sportscaster
1958 – Feargal Sharkey, Northern Irish singer-songwriter
1958 – Randy Shughart, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1993)
1959 – Danny Bonaduce, American actor and wrestler
1959 – Bruce French, English cricketer and coach
1959 – Tom Niedenfuer, American baseball player
1960 – Ivar Stukolkin, Estonian swimmer
1961 – Koji Kondo, Japanese composer and sound director
1961 – Dawnn Lewis, American actress
1961 – Neil Mallender, English cricketer and umpire
1961 – Tom Perrotta, American novelist and screenwriter
1962 – John Slattery, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1963 – Steve Higgins, American talk show co-host and announcer, writer, producer, comedian and impressionist
1963 – Valerie Plame, American CIA agent and author
1963 – Sridevi, Indian actress (d. 2018)
1964 – Jay Buhner, American baseball player and sportscaster
1964 – Debi Mazar, American actress
1964 – Tom Prince, American baseball player and manager
1965 – Mark Lemke, American baseball player, coach, and radio host
1965 – Hayato Matsuo, Japanese composer and conductor
1966 – Scooter Barry, American basketball player
1966 – Shayne Corson, Canadian ice hockey player
1967 – Quinn Cummings, American actress, author, and entrepreneur
1967 – Dave Jamerson, American basketball player
1967 – Digna Ketelaar, Dutch tennis player
1968 – Tal Bachman, Canadian singer-songwriter
1968 – Todd Hendricks, American football player and coach
1968 – Tony Jarrett, English sprinter and hurdler
1969 – Midori Ito, Japanese figure skater
1970 – Will Clarke, American author
1970 – Elvis Grbac, American football player and coach
1970 – Seana Kofoed, American actress
1970 – Alan Shearer, English footballer and manager
1971 – Patrick Carpentier, Canadian race car driver
1971 – Adam Housley, American baseball player and journalist
1971 – Moritz Bleibtreu, German actor
1972 – Kevin Plank, American businessman, founded Under Armour
1973 – Molly Henneberg, American journalist
1973 – Eric Medlen, American race car driver (d. 2007)
1974 – Scott MacRae, American baseball player and coach
1974 – Joe Perry, English snooker player
1974 – Niklas Sundin, Swedish musician and artist
1974 – Jarrod Washburn, American baseball player and coach
1975 – Shoaib Akhtar, Pakistani cricketer
1975 – Marty Turco, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
1976 – Geno Carlisle, American basketball player
1976 – Nicolás Lapentti, Ecuadorian tennis player
1977 – Michael Klim, Polish-Australian swimmer
1977 – Kenyan Weaks, American basketball player and coach
1978 – Dwight Smith, American football player
1979 – Román Colón, Dominican baseball player
1979 – Corey Patterson, American baseball player
1979 – Taizō Sugimura, Japanese politician
1980 – Murtz Jaffer, Canadian journalist
1982 – Christopher Raeburn, English fashion designer
1982 – Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Governor of Arkansas, American political consultant and press secretary
1982 – Sebastian Stan, Romanian-American actor
1983 – Dallas Braden, American baseball player
1983 – Aleš Hemský, Czech ice hockey player
1983 – Ľubomír Michalík, Slovak footballer
1983 – Christian Müller, German footballer
1984 – Alona Bondarenko, Ukrainian tennis player
1984 – Niko Kranjčar, Croatian footballer
1984 – Boone Logan, American baseball player
1984 – James Morrison, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1985 – Gerrit van Look, German rugby player and coach
1987 – Jose Lorenzo Diokno, Filipino director, producer, and screenwriter
1987 – Devin McCourty, American football player
1987 – Jason McCourty, American football player
1987 – Jamie Reed, Welsh footballer
1988 – Keith Benson, American basketball player
1988 – Jerry Hughes, American football player
1988 – Brandon Workman, American baseball player
1989 – Greg Draper, New Zealand footballer
1989 – Justin Greene, American basketball player
1989 – Israel Jiménez, Mexican footballer
1990 – DeMarcus Cousins, American basketball player
1990 – Benjamin Stambouli, French footballer
1991 – Dave Days, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1991 – Lesley Doig, Scottish lawn bowler
1992 – Katrina Gorry, Australian football player
1992 – Lucas Moura, Brazilian footballer
1992 – Alicja Tchórz, Polish swimmer
1992 – Taijuan Walker, American baseball player
1993 – Johnny Gaudreau, American ice hockey player (d. 2024)
1993 – Moses Mbye, Australian rugby league player
1994 – Filip Forsberg, Swedish ice hockey player
1996 – Antonia Lottner, German tennis player
1998 – Dalma Gálfi, Hungarian tennis player
1999 – Lennon Stella, Canadian singer and actress
2000 – Na Jaemin, South Korean rapper, singer, dancer and actor |
August 13 | Deaths | Deaths |
August 13 | Pre-1600 | Pre-1600
587 – Radegund, Frankish princess and saint (b. 520)
604 – Wen, emperor of the Sui Dynasty (b. 541)
612 – Fabia Eudokia, Byzantine empress (b. 580)
662 – Maximus the Confessor, Byzantine theologian
696 – Takechi, Japanese prince
900 – Zwentibold, king of Lotharingia (b. 870)
908 – Al-Muktafi, Abbasid caliph
981 – Gyeongjong, king of Goryeo (Korea) (b. 955)
1134 – Irene of Hungary, Byzantine empress (b. 1088)
1297 – Nawrūz, Mongol emir
1311 – Pietro Gradenigo, doge of Venice
1382 – Eleanor of Aragon, queen of Castile (b. 1358)
1447 – Filippo Maria Visconti, duke of Milan (b. 1392)
1523 – Gerard David, Flemish painter (b. 1460) |
August 13 | 1601–1900 | 1601–1900
1608 – Giambologna, Italian sculptor (b. 1529)
1617 – Johann Jakob Grynaeus, Swiss clergyman and theologian (b. 1540)
1667 – Jeremy Taylor, Irish bishop and saint (b. 1613)
1686 – Louis Maimbourg, French priest and historian (b. 1610)
1721 – Jacques Lelong, French priest and author (b. 1665)
1744 – John Cruger, Danish-American businessman and politician, 39th Mayor of New York City (b. 1678)
1749 – Johann Elias Schlegel, German poet and critic (b. 1719)
1766 – Margaret Fownes-Luttrell, English painter (b. 1726)
1795 – Ahilyabai Holkar, Queen of Indore (b. 1725)
1826 – René Laennec, French physician, invented the stethoscope (b. 1781)
1863 – Eugène Delacroix, French painter and lithographer (b. 1798)
1865 – Ignaz Semmelweis, Hungarian physician and obstetrician (b. 1818)
1900 – Collis Potter Huntington, American railway magnate (b. 1821) |
August 13 | 1901–present | 1901–present
1910 – Florence Nightingale, Italian-English nurse and theologian (b. 1820)
1912 – Jules Massenet, French composer (b. 1842)
1917 – Eduard Buchner, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1860)
1934 – Mary Hunter Austin, American author and playwright (b. 1868)
1937 – Sigizmund Levanevsky, Soviet aircraft pilot of Polish origin (b. 1902)
1946 – H. G. Wells, English novelist, historian, and critic (b. 1866)
1954 – Demetrius Constantine Dounis, Greek violinist and mandolin player (b. 1886)
1958 – Francis J. McCormick, American football, basketball player, and coach (b. 1903)
1963 – Louis Bastien, French cyclist and fencer (b. 1881)
1965 – Hayato Ikeda, Japanese lawyer and politician, 58th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1899)
1971 – W. O. Bentley, English race car driver and engineer, founded Bentley Motors Limited (b. 1888)
1974 – Ida McNeil, American broadcaster and designer of the flag of South Dakota (b. 1888)
1975 – Murilo Mendes, Brazilian poet and telegrapher (b. 1901)
1978 – Lonnie Mayne, American wrestler (b. 1944)
1979 – Andrew Dasburg, American painter and sculptor (b. 1887)
1984 – Tigran Petrosian, Georgian-Armenian chess player (b. 1929)
1986 – Helen Mack, American actress (b. 1913)
1989 – Tim Richmond, American race car driver (b. 1955)
1989 – Larkin I. Smith, American police officer and politician (b. 1944)
1991 – James Roosevelt, American general and politician (b. 1907)
1995 – Alison Hargreaves, English mountaineer (b. 1963)
1995 – Jan Křesadlo, Czech-English psychologist and author (b. 1926)
1995 – Mickey Mantle, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1931)
1996 – António de Spínola, Portuguese general and politician, 14th President of Portugal (b. 1910)
1998 – Nino Ferrer, Italian-French singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1934)
1998 – Edward Ginzton, Ukrainian-American physicist and academic (b. 1915)
1998 – Julien Green, American author (b. 1900)
1998 – Rafael Robles, Dominican-American baseball player (b. 1947)
1999 – Ignatz Bubis, German Jewish religious leader (b. 1927)
1999 – Jaime Garzón, Colombian journalist and lawyer (b. 1960)
2000 – Nazia Hassan, Pakistani singer-songwriter (b. 1965)
2001 – Otto Stuppacher, Austrian race car driver (b. 1947)
2001 – Jim Hughes, American baseball player and manager (b. 1923)
2001 – Betty Cavanna, American author (b. 1909)
2003 – Ed Townsend, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1929)
2004 – Julia Child, American chef, author, and television host (b. 1912)
2005 – Miguel Arraes, Brazilian lawyer and politician (b. 1916)
2005 – David Lange, New Zealand lawyer and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1942)
2006 – Tony Jay, English actor and singer (b. 1933)
2006 – Jon Nödtveidt, Swedish musician (b. 1975)
2007 – Brian Adams, American wrestler (b. 1964)
2007 – Brooke Astor, American philanthropist and socialite (b. 1902)
2007 – Phil Rizzuto, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1917)
2008 – Henri Cartan, French mathematician and academic (b. 1904)
2008 – Bill Gwatney, American politician (b. 1959)
2008 – Jack Weil, American businessman (b. 1901)
2009 – Lavelle Felton, American basketball player (b. 1980)
2010 – Panagiotis Bachramis, Greek footballer (b. 1976)
2010 – Lance Cade, American wrestler (b. 1981)
2010 – Edwin Newman, American journalist and author (b. 1919)
2011 – Tareque Masud, Bangladeshi director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1957)
2011 – Mishuk Munier, Bangladeshi journalist and cinematographer (b. 1959)
2012 – Hugo Adam Bedau, American philosopher and academic (b. 1926)
2012 – Helen Gurley Brown, American journalist and author (b. 1922)
2012 – Ray Jordon, Australian cricketer and coach (b. 1937)
2012 – Johnny Pesky, American baseball player and manager (b. 1919)
2012 – Joan Roberts, American actress and singer (b. 1917)
2013 – Lothar Bisky, German politician (b. 1941)
2013 – Aaron Selber, Jr., American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1927)
2013 – Jean Vincent, French footballer and manager (b. 1930)
2014 – Frans Brüggen, Dutch flute player and conductor (b. 1934)
2014 – Eduardo Campos, Brazilian politician, 14th Brazilian Minister of Science and Technology (b. 1965)
2014 – Martino Finotto, Italian race car driver (b. 1933)
2014 – Süleyman Seba, Turkish footballer and manager (b. 1926)
2015 – Watban Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Iraqi politician, Iraqi Minister of Interior (b. 1952)
2015 – Bob Fillion, Canadian ice hockey player and manager (b. 1920)
2015 – Om Prakash Munjal, Indian businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Hero Cycles (b. 1928)
2016 – Kenny Baker, English actor and musician (b. 1934)
2016 – Pramukh Swami Maharaj, Indian Hindu leader (b. 1921)
2018 – Jim Neidhart, American wrestler (b. 1955)
2021 – Nanci Griffith, American singer-songwriter (b. 1953)
2024 – Richard Alatorre, American politician (b. 1943)
2024 – Wally Amos, American entrepreneur, founder of Famous Amos (b. 1936)
2024 – Sergio Donati, Italian screenwriter (b. 1933)
2024 – Greg Kihn, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1949)
2024 – Frank Selvy, American basketball player and coach (b. 1932) |
August 13 | Holidays and observances | Holidays and observances
Christian feast day:
Benedetto Sinigardi
Benildus Romançon
Centola and Helen
Cassian of Imola
Clara Maass (Lutheran Church)
Fachtna of Rosscarbery
Florence Nightingale, Octavia Hill (Lutheran Church)
Herulph
Hippolytus of Rome
Jeremy Taylor (Anglican Communion)
John Berchmans (before 1970)
Junian of Mairé
Blessed Marco d'Aviano
Maximus the Confessor
Nerses Glaietsi (Catholic Church)
Pope Pontian
Radegunde
Wigbert
August 13 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Central African Republic from France in 1960.
International Lefthanders Day (International)
Women's Day, commemorates the enaction of Tunisian Code of Personal Status in 1956. (Tunisia)
World Organ Donation Day |
August 13 | References | References |
August 13 | External links | External links
Category:Days of August |
August 13 | Table of Content | pp-pc1, Events, Pre-1600, 1601–1900, 1901–present, Births, Pre-1600, 1601–1900, 1901–present, Deaths, Pre-1600, 1601–1900, 1901–present, Holidays and observances, References, External links |
Avicenna | Short description | Ibn Sina (; – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna ( ), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian rulers.* .(page 113) "For one thing, it means that he[Avicenna] had a Persian cultural background...he spoke Persian natively and did use it to write philosophy."(page 117) "But for the time being, it was a Persian from Khurasan who would have commentaries lavished upon him. Avicenna would be known by the honorific of "leading master" (al-shaykh al-raʾis)."(page 206) "Persians like Avicenna"
. "Avicenna was a Persian whose father served the Samanids of Khurasan and Transoxania as the administrator of a rural district outside Bukhara."
. "He was born in 370/980 in Afshana, his mother's home, near Bukhara. His native language was Persian."
"Avicenna was the greatest of all Persian thinkers; as physician and metaphysician ..." (excerpt from A.J. Arberry, Avicenna on Theology, Kazi Publications Inc, 1995).
. "Whereas the name of Avicenna (Ibn Sina, died 1037) is generally listed as chronologically first among noteworthy Iranian philosophers, recent evidence has revealed previous existence of Ismaili philosophical systems with a structure no less complete than of Avicenna." He is often described as the father of early modern medicine. His philosophy was of the Peripatetic school derived from Aristotelianism.
His most famous works are The Book of Healing, a philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and The Canon of Medicine, a medical encyclopediaEdwin Clarke, Charles Donald O'Malley (1996), The human brain and spinal cord: a historical study illustrated by writings from antiquity to the twentieth century, Norman Publishing, p. 20 ().Iris Bruijn (2009), Ship's Surgeons of the Dutch East India Company: Commerce and the progress of medicine in the eighteenth century, Amsterdam University Press, p. 26 (). which became a standard medical text at many medieval European universities and remained in use as late as 1650.e.g. at the universities of Montpellier and Leuven (see ). Besides philosophy and medicine, Avicenna's corpus includes writings on astronomy, alchemy, geography and geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics, and works of poetry.
Avicenna wrote most of his philosophical and scientific works in Arabic, but also wrote several key works in Persian, while his poetic works were written in both languages. Of the 450 works he is believed to have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine. |
Avicenna | Name | Name
is a Latin corruption of the Arabic patronym Ibn Sīnā (),. meaning "Son of Sina". However, Avicenna was not the son but the great-great-grandson of a man named Sina. His formal Arabic name was Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn bin ʿAbdallāh bin al-Ḥasan bin ʿAlī bin Sīnā al-Balkhī al-Bukhārī (). |
Avicenna | Circumstances | Circumstances
Avicenna created an extensive corpus of works during what is commonly known as the Islamic Golden Age, in which the translations of Byzantine, Greco-Roman, Persian, and Indian texts were studied extensively. Greco-Roman (Middle Platonic, Neoplatonic, and Aristotelian) texts translated by the Kindi school were commented, redacted and developed substantially by Islamic intellectuals, who also built upon Persian and Indian mathematical systems, astronomy, algebra, trigonometry and medicine.
The Samanid Empire in the eastern part of Persia, Greater Khorasan, and Central Asia, as well as the Buyid dynasty in the western part of Persia and Iraq, provided a thriving atmosphere for scholarly and cultural development. Under the Samanids, Bukhara rivaled Baghdad for cultural capital of the Muslim world. There, Avicenna had access to the great libraries of Balkh, Khwarazm, Gorgan, Rey, Isfahan and Hamadan.
Various texts (such as the 'Ahd with Bahmanyar) show that Avicenna debated philosophical points with the greatest scholars of the time. Nizami Aruzi described how before ibn Sina left Khwarazm, he had met al-Biruni (a scientist and astronomer), Abu Nasr Mansur (a renowned mathematician), Abu Sahl 'Isa ibn Yahya al-Masihi (a respected philosopher) and ibn al-Khammar (a great physician). The study of the Quran and the Hadith also thrived, and Islamic philosophy, fiqh "jurisprudence", and kalam "speculative theology" were all further developed by ibn Sina and his opponents at this time. |
Avicenna | Biography | Biography |
Avicenna | Early life and education | Early life and education
Avicenna was born in in the village of Afshana in Transoxiana to a Persian family.According to , Avicenna was "of Persian descent". According to , Avicenna was "born of Persian parentage". According to , Avicenna was "Persian by birth". , mentions Avicenna as an example for "Persian-born authors" and speaks of "presumed Persian origins" for Avicenna. , states "An ethnic Persian, he [Avicenna] was born in Kharmaithen, near Bukhara". The village was near the Samanid capital of Bukhara, which was his mother's hometown. His father Abd Allah was a native of the city of Balkh in Bactria. An official of the Samanid bureaucracy, he had served as the governor of a village of the royal estate of Harmaytan near Bukhara during the reign of Nuh II (). Avicenna also had a younger brother. A few years later, the family settled in Bukhara, a center of learning, which attracted many scholars. It was there that Avicenna was educated, which early on was seemingly administered by his father.
Although both Avicenna's father and brother had converted to Isma'ilism, he himself did not follow the faith. He was instead a Hanafi Sunni, the same school followed by the Samanids.
Avicenna was first schooled in the Quran and literature, and by the age of 10, he had memorized the entire Quran. He was later sent by his father to an Indian greengrocer, who taught him arithmetic. Afterwards, he was schooled in fiqh by the Hanafi jurist Ismail al-Zahid. Sometime later, his father invited the physician and philosopher al-Natili to their house to educate ibn Sina. Together, they studied the Isagoge of Porphyry (died 305) and possibly the Categories of Aristotle (died 322 BCE) as well. After Avicenna had read the Almagest of Ptolemy (died 170) and Euclid's Elements, al-Natili told him to continue his research independently. By the time Avicenna was eighteen, he was well-educated in Greek sciences. Although ibn Sina only mentions al-Natili as his teacher in his autobiography, he most likely had other teachers as well, such as the physicians Qumri and Abu Sahl 'Isa ibn Yahya al-Masihi. |
Avicenna | Career | Career |
Avicenna | In Bukhara and Gurganj | In Bukhara and Gurganj
thumb|right|300px|alt=Geophysical map of southern Central Asia (Khurasan and Transoxiana) with the major settlements and regions|Map of Khurasan and Transoxiana
At the age of seventeen, Avicenna was made a physician of Nuh II. By the time Avicenna was at least 21 years old, his father died. He was subsequently given an administrative post, possibly succeeding his father as the governor of Harmaytan. Avicenna later moved to Gurganj, the capital of Khwarazm, which he reports that he did due to "necessity". The date he went to the place is uncertain, as he reports that he served the Khwarazmshah, the ruler of Khwarazm, the Ma'munid ruler Abu al-Hasan Ali. The latter ruled from 997 to 1009, which indicates that Avicenna moved sometime during that period.
He may have moved in 999, the year in which the Samanid Empire fell after the Kara-Khanid Khanate captured Bukhara and imprisoned the Samanid emir Abd al-Malik II. Due to his high position and strong connection with the Samanids, ibn Sina may have found himself in an unfavorable position after the fall of his suzerain.
It was through the minister of Gurganj, Abu'l-Husayn as-Sahi, a patron of Greek sciences, that Avicenna entered into the service of Abu al-Hasan Ali. Under the Ma'munids, Gurganj became a centre of learning, attracting many prominent figures, such as ibn Sina and his former teacher Abu Sahl al-Masihi, the mathematician Abu Nasr Mansur, the physician ibn al-Khammar, and the philologist al-Tha'alibi. |
Avicenna | In Gorgan | In Gorgan
Avicenna later moved due to "necessity" once more (in 1012), this time to the west. There he travelled through the Khurasani cities of Nasa, Abivard, Tus, Samangan and Jajarm. He was planning to visit the ruler of the city of Gorgan, the Ziyarid Qabus (), a cultivated patron of writing, whose court attracted many distinguished poets and scholars. However, when Avicenna eventually arrived, he discovered that the ruler had been dead since the winter of 1013. Avicenna then left Gorgan for Dihistan, but returned after becoming ill. There he met Abu 'Ubayd al-Juzjani (died 1070) who became his pupil and companion. Avicenna stayed briefly in Gorgan, reportedly serving Qabus's son and successor Manuchihr () and resided in the house of a patron. |
Avicenna | In Ray and Hamadan | In Ray and Hamadan
thumb|Coin of Majd al-Dawla (), the amir (ruler) of the Buyid branch of Ray
In , Avicenna went to the city of Ray, where he entered into the service of the Buyid amir Majd al-Dawla () and his mother Sayyida Shirin, the de facto ruler of the realm. There he served as the physician at the court, treating Majd al-Dawla, who was suffering from melancholia. Avicenna reportedly later served as the "business manager" of Sayyida Shirin in Qazvin and Hamadan, though details regarding this tenure are unclear. During this period, Avicenna finished writing The Canon of Medicine and started writing his The Book of Healing.
In 1015, during Avicenna's stay in Hamadan, he participated in a public debate, as was customary for newly arrived scholars in western Iran at that time. The purpose of the debate was to examine one's reputation against a prominent resident. The person whom Avicenna debated against was Abu'l-Qasim al-Kirmani, a member of the school of philosophers of Baghdad. The debate became heated, resulting in ibn Sina accusing Abu'l-Qasim of lack of basic knowledge in logic, while Abu'l-Qasim accused ibn Sina of impoliteness.
After the debate, Avicenna sent a letter to the Baghdad Peripatetics, asking if Abu'l-Qasim's claim that he shared the same opinion as them was true. Abu'l-Qasim later retaliated by writing a letter to an unknown person in which he made accusations so serious that ibn Sina wrote to Abu Sa'd, the deputy of Majd al-Dawla, to investigate the matter. The accusation made towards Avicenna may have been the same as he had received earlier, in which he was accused by the people of Hamadan of copying the stylistic structures of the Quran in his Sermons on Divine Unity. The seriousness of this charge, in the words of the historian Peter Adamson, "cannot be underestimated in the larger Muslim culture".
Not long afterwards, Avicenna shifted his allegiance to the rising Buyid amir Shams al-Dawla, the younger brother of Majd al-Dawla, which Adamson suggests was due to Abu'l-Qasim also working under Sayyida Shirin. Avicenna had been called upon by Shams al-Dawla to treat him, but after the latter's campaign in the same year against his former ally, the Annazid ruler Abu Shawk (), he forced Avicenna to become his vizier.
Although Avicenna would sometimes clash with Shams al-Dawla's troops, he remained vizier until the latter died of colic in 1021. Avicenna was asked to stay as vizier by Shams al-Dawla's son and successor Sama' al-Dawla (), but he instead went into hiding with his patron, Abu Ghalib al-Attar, to wait for better opportunities to emerge. It was during this period that Avicenna was secretly in contact with Ala al-Dawla Muhammad (), the Kakuyid ruler of Isfahan and uncle of Sayyida Shirin.
It was during his stay at Attar's home that Avicenna completed The Book of Healing, writing 50 pages a day. The Buyid court in Hamadan, particularly the Kurdish vizier Taj al-Mulk, suspected Avicenna of correspondence with Ala al-Dawla, and as a result, had the house of Attar ransacked and ibn Sina imprisoned in the fortress of Fardajan, outside Hamadan. Juzjani blames one of ibn Sina's informers for his capture. He was imprisoned for four months until Ala al-Dawla captured Hamadan, ending Sama al-Dawla's reign. |
Avicenna | In Isfahan | In Isfahan
thumb|left|Coin of Ala al-Dawla Muhammad (), the Kakuyid ruler of Isfahan
Avicenna was subsequently released, and went to Isfahan, where he was well received by Ala al-Dawla. In the words of Juzjani, the Kakuyid ruler gave Avicenna "the respect and esteem which someone like him deserved". Adamson also says that Avicenna's service under Ala al-Dawla "proved to be the most stable period of his life". Avicenna served as the advisor, if not vizier of Ala al-Dawla, accompanying him in many of his military expeditions and travels. Avicenna dedicated two Persian works to him, a philosophical treatise named Danish-nama-yi Ala'i ("Book of Science for Ala"), and a medical treatise about the pulse.
thumb|The Mausoleum of Avicenna, Hamadan, Iran
During the brief occupation of Isfahan by the Ghaznavids in January 1030, Avicenna and Ala al-Dawla relocated to the southwestern Iranian region of Khuzistan, where they stayed until the death of the Ghaznavid ruler Mahmud (), which occurred two months later. It was seemingly when Avicenna returned to Isfahan that he started writing his Pointers and Reminders. In 1037, while Avicenna was accompanying Ala al-Dawla to a battle near Isfahan, he contracted a severe colic, having suffered from colic throughout his life. He died shortly afterwards in Hamadan, where he was buried. |
Avicenna | Philosophy | Philosophy
Avicenna wrote extensively on early Islamic philosophy, especially the subjects logic, ethics and metaphysics, including treatises named Logic and Metaphysics. Most of his works were written in Arabic, then the language of science in the Muslim world, and some in Early New Persian. Of linguistic significance even to this day are a few books that he wrote in Persian, particularly the Danishnama. Avicenna's commentaries on Aristotle often criticized the philosopher, encouraging a lively debate in the spirit of ijtihad.
Avicenna's Neoplatonic scheme of emanations became fundamental in kalam in the 12th century.Nahyan A.G. Fancy (2006), pp. 80–81, "Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection: The Interaction of Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in the Works of Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288)", Electronic Theses and Dissertations, University of Notre Dame
The Book of Healing became available in Europe in a partial Latin translation some fifty years after its composition under the title Sufficientia, and some authors have identified a "Latin Avicennism" as flourishing for some time paralleling the more influential Latin Averroism, but it was suppressed by the Parisian decrees of 1210 and 1215.cf. e.g.
Henry Corbin, History of Islamic Philosophy, Routledge, 2014, p. 174.
Henry Corbin, Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, Princeton University Press, 2014, p. 103.
Avicenna's psychology and theory of knowledge influenced the theologian William of Auvergne and Albertus Magnus, while his metaphysics influenced the thought of Thomas Aquinas. |
Avicenna | Metaphysical doctrine | Metaphysical doctrine
Early Islamic philosophy and Islamic metaphysics, imbued as it is with kalam, distinguishes between essence and existence more clearly than Aristotelianism. Whereas existence is the domain of the contingent and the accidental, essence endures within a being beyond the accidental. The philosophy of Avicenna, particularly that part relating to metaphysics, owes much to al-Farabi. The search for a definitive Islamic philosophy separate from Occasionalism can be seen in what is left of his work.
Following al-Farabi's lead, Avicenna initiated a full-fledged inquiry into the question of being, in which he distinguished between essence () and existence (). He argued that the fact of existence cannot be inferred from or accounted for by the essence of existing things, and that form and matter by themselves cannot interact and originate the movement of the universe or the progressive actualization of existing things. Existence must, therefore, be due to an agent-cause that necessitates, imparts, gives, or adds existence to an essence. To do so, the cause must be an existing thing and coexist with its effect. |
Avicenna | Impossibility, contingency, necessity | Impossibility, contingency, necessity
Avicenna's consideration of the essence-attributes question may be elucidated in terms of his ontological analysis of the modalities of being; namely impossibility, contingency and necessity. Avicenna argued that the impossible being is that which cannot exist, while the contingent in itself (mumkin bi-dhatihi) has the potentiality to be or not to be without entailing a contradiction. When actualized, the contingent becomes a 'necessary existent due to what is other than itself' (wajib al-wujud bi-ghayrihi). Thus, contingency-in-itself is potential beingness that could eventually be actualized by an external cause other than itself. The metaphysical structures of necessity and contingency are different. Necessary being due to itself (wajib al-wujud bi-dhatihi) is true in itself, while the contingent being is 'false in itself' and 'true due to something else other than itself'. The necessary is the source of its own being without borrowed existence. It is what always exists.Avicenna, Kitab al-shifa', Metaphysics II, (eds.) G.C. Anawati, Ibrahim Madkour, Sa'id Zayed (Cairo, 1975), p. 36Nader El-Bizri, "Avicenna and Essentialism," Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 54 (2001), pp. 753–778 |
Avicenna | Differentia | Differentia
The Necessary exists 'due-to-Its-Self', and has no quiddity/essence other than existence. Furthermore, It is 'One' (wahid ahad)Avicenna, Metaphysica of Avicenna, trans. Parviz Morewedge (New York, 1973), p. 43. since there cannot be more than one 'Necessary-Existent-due-to-Itself' without differentia (fasl) to distinguish them from each other. Yet, to require differentia entails that they exist 'due-to-themselves' as well as 'due to what is other than themselves'; and this is contradictory. If no differentia distinguishes them from each other, then, in no sense are these 'Existents' not the same.Nader El-Bizri, The Phenomenological Quest between Avicenna and Heidegger (Binghamton, N.Y.: Global Publications SUNY, 2000) Avicenna adds that the 'Necessary-Existent-due-to-Itself' has no genus (jins), nor a definition (hadd), nor a counterpart (nadd), nor an opposite (did), and is detached (bari) from matter (madda), quality (kayf), quantity (kam), place (ayn), situation (wad) and time (waqt).Avicenna, Kitab al-Hidaya, ed. Muhammad 'Abdu (Cairo, 1874), pp. 262–263Salem Mashran, al-Janib al-ilahi 'ind Ibn Sina (Damascus, 1992), p. 99Nader El-Bizri, "Being and Necessity: A Phenomenological Investigation of Avicenna's Metaphysics and Cosmology," in Islamic Philosophy and Occidental Phenomenology on the Perennial Issue of Microcosm and Macrocosm, ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2006), pp. 243–261 |
Avicenna | Reception | Reception
Avicenna's theology on metaphysical issues (ilāhiyyāt) has been criticized by some Islamic scholars, among them al-Ghazali, ibn Taymiyya, and ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya.Ibn al-Qayyim, Eghaathat al-Lahfaan, Published: Al Ashqar University (2003) Printed by International Islamic Publishing House: Riyadh. While discussing the views of the theists among the Greek philosophers, namely Socrates, Plato and Aristotle in Al-Munqidh min ad-Dalal "Deliverance from Error", al-Ghazali noted: |
Avicenna | Argument for God's existence | Argument for God's existence
Avicenna made an argument for the existence of God which would be known as the "Proof of the Truthful" (wajib al-wujud). Avicenna argued that there must be a Proof of the Truthful, an entity that cannot not exist and through a series of arguments, he identified it with God in Islam. Present-day historian of philosophy Peter Adamson called this argument one of the most influential medieval arguments for God's existence, and Avicenna's biggest contribution to the history of philosophy. |
Avicenna | Al-Biruni correspondence | Al-Biruni correspondence
Correspondence between ibn Sina with his student Ahmad ibn ʿAli al-Maʿsumi and al-Biruni has survived in which they debated Aristotelian natural philosophy and the Peripatetic school. al-Biruni began by asking eighteen questions, ten of which were criticisms of Aristotle's On the Heavens.Rafik Berjak and Muzaffar Iqbal, "Ibn Sina—Al-Biruni correspondence", Islam & Science, June 2003. |
Avicenna | Theology | Theology
Ibn Sina was a devout Muslim and sought to reconcile rational philosophy with Islamic theology. He aimed to prove the existence of God and His creation of the world scientifically and through reason and logic.Lenn Evan Goodman (2003), Islamic Humanism, pp. 8–9, Oxford University Press, . His views on Islamic theology and philosophy were enormously influential, forming part of the core of the curriculum at Islamic religious schools until the 19th century.James W. Morris (1992), "The Philosopher-Prophet in Avicenna's Political Philosophy", in C. Butterworth (ed.), The Political Aspects of Islamic Philosophy, , Chapter 4, Cambridge Harvard University Press, pp. 152–198 [p. 156].
Avicenna wrote several short treatises dealing with Islamic theology. These included treatises on the prophets and messengers in Islam, whom he viewed as "inspired philosophers", and also on various scientific and philosophical interpretations of the Quran, such as how Quranic cosmology corresponds to his philosophical system. In general, these treatises linked his philosophical writings to Islamic religious ideas; for example, the body's afterlife.
There are occasional brief hints and allusions in his longer works, however, that Avicenna considered philosophy as the only sensible way to distinguish real prophecy from illusion. He did not state this more clearly because of the political implications of such a theory if prophecy could be questioned, and also because most of the time he was writing shorter works which concentrated on explaining his theories on philosophy and theology clearly, without digressing to consider epistemological matters which could only be properly considered by other philosophers.James W. Morris (1992), "The Philosopher-Prophet in Avicenna's Political Philosophy", in C. Butterworth (ed.), The Political Aspects of Islamic Philosophy, Chapter 4, Cambridge Harvard University Press, pp. 152–198 [pp. 160–161].
Later interpretations of Avicenna's philosophy split into three different schools; those (such as al-Tusi) who continued to apply his philosophy as a system to interpret later political events and scientific advances; those (such as al-Razi) who considered Avicenna's theological works in isolation from his wider philosophical concerns; and those (such as al-Ghazali) who selectively used parts of his philosophy to support their own attempts to gain greater spiritual insights through a variety of mystical means. It was the theological interpretation championed by those such as al-Razi which eventually came to predominate in the madrasahs.James W. Morris (1992), "The Philosopher-Prophet in Avicenna's Political Philosophy", in C. Butterworth (ed.), The Political Aspects of Islamic Philosophy, Chapter 4, Cambridge Harvard University Press, pp. 152–198 [pp. 156–158].
Avicenna memorized the Quran by the age of ten, and as an adult, wrote five treatises commenting on surahs of the Quran. One of these texts included the Proof of Prophecies, in which he comments on several Quranic verses and holds the Quran in high esteem. Avicenna argued that the Islamic prophets should be considered higher than philosophers.Jules Janssens (2004), "Avicenna and the Qur'an: A Survey of his Qur'anic commentaries", MIDEO 25, p. 177–192.
Avicenna is generally understood to have been aligned with the Hanafi school of Sunni thought. Avicenna studied Hanafi law, many of his notable teachers were Hanafi jurists, and he served under the Hanafi court of Ali ibn Mamun. Avicenna said at an early age that he remained "unconvinced" by Ismaili missionary attempts to convert him.
Medieval historian Ẓahīr al-dīn al-Bayhaqī (d. 1169) believed Avicenna to be a follower of the Brethren of Purity. excerpt: "... Dimitri Gutas's Avicenna's maḏhab convincingly demonstrates that I.S. was a sunnî-Ḥanafî." |
Avicenna | Thought experiments | Thought experiments
While he was imprisoned in the castle of Fardajan near Hamadhan, Avicenna wrote his famous "floating man"—literally falling man—a thought experiment to demonstrate human self-awareness and the substantiality and immateriality of the soul. Avicenna believed his "Floating Man" thought experiment demonstrated that the soul is a substance, and claimed humans cannot doubt their own consciousness, even in a situation that prevents all sensory data input. The thought experiment told its readers to imagine themselves created all at once while suspended in the air, isolated from all sensations, which includes no sensory contact with even their own bodies. He argued that, in this scenario, one would still have self-consciousness. Because it is conceivable that a person, suspended in air while cut off from sense experience, would still be capable of determining his own existence, the thought experiment points to the conclusions that the soul is a perfection, independent of the body, and an immaterial substance.See a discussion of this in connection with an analytic take on the philosophy of mind in: Nader El-Bizri, 'Avicenna and the Problem of Consciousness', in Consciousness and the Great Philosophers, eds. S. Leach and J. Tartaglia (London: Routledge, 2016), 45–53 The conceivability of this "Floating Man" indicates that the soul is perceived intellectually, which entails the soul's separateness from the body. Avicenna referred to the living human intelligence, particularly the active intellect, which he believed to be the hypostasis by which God communicates truth to the human mind and imparts order and intelligibility to nature. Following is an English translation of the argument:
However, Avicenna posited the brain as the place where reason interacts with sensation. Sensation prepares the soul to receive rational concepts from the universal Agent Intellect. The first knowledge of the flying person would be "I am," affirming his or her essence. That essence could not be the body, obviously, as the flying person has no sensation. Thus, the knowledge that "I am" is the core of a human being: the soul exists and is self-aware. Avicenna thus concluded that the idea of the self is not logically dependent on any physical thing, and that the soul should not be seen in relative terms, but as a primary given, a substance. The body is unnecessary; in relation to it, the soul is its perfection. In itself, the soul is an immaterial substance. |
Avicenna | Principal works | Principal works |
Avicenna | ''The Canon of Medicine'' | The Canon of Medicine
thumb|Canons of medicine book from Avicenna, Latin translation located at UT Health of San Antonio
Avicenna authored a five-volume medical encyclopedia, The Canon of Medicine (). It was used as the standard medical textbook in the Islamic world and Europe up to the 18th century. The Canon still plays an important role in Unani medicine.Indian Studies on Ibn Sina's Works by Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman, Avicenna (Scientific and Practical International Journal of Ibn Sino International Foundation, Tashkent/Uzbekistan. 1–2; 2003: 40–42 |
Avicenna | ''Liber Primus Naturalium'' | Liber Primus Naturalium
Avicenna considered whether events like rare diseases or disorders have natural causes.Avicenna Latinus. 1992. Liber Primus Naturalium: Tractatus Primus, De Causis et Principiis Naturalium. Leiden (The Netherlands): E.J. Brill. He used the example of polydactyly to explain his perception that causal reasons exist for all medical events. This view of medical phenomena anticipated developments in the Enlightenment by seven centuries.Axel Lange and Gerd B. Müller. Polydactyly in Development, Inheritance, and Evolution. The Quarterly Review of Biology Vol. 92, No. 1, Mar. 2017, pp. 1–38. . |
Avicenna | ''The Book of Healing'' | The Book of Healing |
Avicenna | Earth sciences | Earth sciences
Avicenna wrote on Earth sciences such as geology in The Book of Healing.Stephen Toulmin and June Goodfield (1965), The Ancestry of Science: The Discovery of Time, p. 64, University of Chicago Press While discussing the formation of mountains, he explained: |
Avicenna | Philosophy of science | Philosophy of science
In the Al-Burhan (On Demonstration) section of The Book of Healing, Avicenna discussed the philosophy of science and described an early scientific method of inquiry. He discussed Aristotle's Posterior Analytics and significantly diverged from it on several points. Avicenna discussed the issue of a proper methodology for scientific inquiry and the question of "How does one acquire the first principles of a science?" He asked how a scientist would arrive at "the initial axioms or hypotheses of a deductive science without inferring them from some more basic premises?" He explained that the ideal situation is when one grasps that a "relation holds between the terms, which would allow for absolute, universal certainty". Avicenna then added two further methods for arriving at the first principles: the ancient Aristotelian method of induction (istiqra), and the method of examination and experimentation (tajriba). Avicenna criticized Aristotelian induction, arguing that "it does not lead to the absolute, universal, and certain premises that it purports to provide." In its place, he developed a "method of experimentation as a means for scientific inquiry." |
Avicenna | Logic | Logic
An early formal system of temporal logic was studied by Avicenna.History of logic: Arabic logic , Encyclopædia Britannica. Although he did not develop a real theory of temporal propositions, he did study the relationship between temporalis and the implication. Avicenna's work was further developed by Najm al-Dīn al-Qazwīnī al-Kātibī and became the dominant system of Islamic logic until modern times. Avicennian logic also influenced several early European logicians such as Albertus Magnus and William of Ockham.Kneale p. 229Kneale: p. 266; Ockham: Summa Logicae i. 14; Avicenna: Avicennae Opera Venice 1508 f87rb Avicenna endorsed the law of non-contradiction proposed by Aristotle, that a fact could not be both true and false at the same time and in the same sense of the terminology used. He stated, "Anyone who denies the law of non-contradiction should be beaten and burned until he admits that to be beaten is not the same as not to be beaten, and to be burned is not the same as not to be burned."Avicenna, Metaphysics, I; commenting on Aristotle, Topics I.11.105a4–5 |
Avicenna | Physics | Physics
In mechanics, Avicenna, in The Book of Healing, developed a theory of motion, in which he made a distinction between the inclination (tendency to motion) and force of a projectile, and concluded that motion was a result of an inclination (mayl) transferred to the projectile by the thrower, and that projectile motion in a vacuum would not cease.Fernando Espinoza (2005). "An analysis of the historical development of ideas about motion and its implications for teaching", Physics Education 40 (2), p. 141. He viewed inclination as a permanent force whose effect is dissipated by external forces such as air resistance.A. Sayili (1987), "Ibn Sīnā and Buridan on the Motion of the Projectile", Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 500 (1), pp. 477–482: "It was a permanent force whose effect got dissipated only as a result of external agents such as air resistance. He is apparently the first to conceive such a permanent type of impressed virtue for non-natural motion."
The theory of motion presented by Avicenna was probably influenced by the 6th-century Alexandrian scholar John Philoponus. Avicenna's is a less sophisticated variant of the theory of impetus developed by Buridan in the 14th century. It is unclear if Buridan was influenced by Avicenna, or by Philoponus directly.Jack Zupko, "John Buridan" in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2014
(fn. 48 )
"We do not know precisely where Buridan got the idea of impetus, but a less sophisticated notion of impressed forced can be found in Avicenna's doctrine of mayl (inclination). In this he was possibly influenced by Philoponus, who was developing the Stoic notion of hormé (impulse). For discussion, see Zupko (1997) ['What Is the Science of the Soul? A Case Study in the Evolution of Late Medieval Natural Philosophy,' Synthese, 110(2): 297–334]."
In optics, Avicenna was among those who argued that light had a speed, observing that "if the perception of light is due to the emission of some sort of particles by a luminous source, the speed of light must be finite."George Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science, Vol. 1, p. 710. He also provided a wrong explanation of the rainbow phenomenon. Carl Benjamin Boyer described Avicenna's ("Ibn Sīnā") theory on the rainbow as follows:
In 1253, a Latin text entitled Speculum Tripartitum stated the following regarding Avicenna's theory on heat: |
Avicenna | Psychology | Psychology
Avicenna's legacy in classical psychology is primarily embodied in the Kitab al-nafs parts of his Kitab al-shifa (The Book of Healing) and Kitab al-najat (The Book of Deliverance). These were known in Latin under the title De Anima (treatises "on the soul"). Notably, Avicenna develops what is called the Flying Man argument in the Psychology of The Cure I.1.7 as defence of the argument that the soul is without quantitative extension, which has an affinity with Descartes's cogito argument (or what phenomenology designates as a form of an "epoche").Nader El-Bizri, The Phenomenological Quest between Avicenna and Heidegger (Binghamton, NY: Global Publications SUNY, 2000), pp. 149–171.Nader El-Bizri, "Avicenna's De Anima between Aristotle and Husserl," in The Passions of the Soul in the Metamorphosis of Becoming, ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003), pp. 67–89.
Avicenna's psychology requires that connection between the body and soul be strong enough to ensure the soul's individuation, but weak enough to allow for its immortality. Avicenna grounds his psychology on physiology, which means his account of the soul is one that deals almost entirely with the natural science of the body and its abilities of perception. Thus, the philosopher's connection between the soul and body is explained almost entirely by his understanding of perception; in this way, bodily perception interrelates with the immaterial human intellect. In sense perception, the perceiver senses the form of the object; first, by perceiving features of the object by our external senses. This sensory information is supplied to the internal senses, which merge all the pieces into a whole, unified conscious experience. This process of perception and abstraction is the nexus of the soul and body, for the material body may only perceive material objects, while the immaterial soul may only receive the immaterial, universal forms. The way the soul and body interact in the final abstraction of the universal from the concrete particular is the key to their relationship and interaction, which takes place in the physical body.
The soul completes the action of intellection by accepting forms that have been abstracted from matter. This process requires a concrete particular (material) to be abstracted into the universal intelligible (immaterial). The material and immaterial interact through the Active Intellect, which is a "divine light" containing the intelligible forms. The Active Intellect reveals the universals concealed in material objects much like the sun makes colour available to our eyes. |
Avicenna | Other contributions | Other contributions |
Avicenna | Astronomy and astrology | Astronomy and astrology
thumb|Skull of Avicenna, found in 1950 during construction of the new mausoleum
Avicenna wrote an attack on astrology titled Missive on the Champions of the Rule of the Stars () in which he cited passages from the Quran to dispute the power of astrology to foretell the future.George Saliba (1994), A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam, pp. 60, 67–69. New York University Press, . He believed that each classical planet had some influence on the Earth but argued against current astrological practices.
Avicenna's astronomical writings had some influence on later writers, although in general his work could be considered less developed than that of ibn al-Haytham or al-Biruni. One important feature of his writing is that he considers mathematical astronomy a separate discipline from astrology. He criticized Aristotle's view of the stars receiving their light from the Sun, stating that the stars are self-luminous, and believed that the planets are also self-luminous. He claimed to have observed the transit of Venus. This is possible as there was a transit on 24 May 1032, but ibn Sina did not give the date of his observation and modern scholars have questioned whether he could have observed the transit from his location at that time; he may have mistaken a sunspot for Venus. He used his transit observation to help establish that Venus was, at least sometimes, below the Sun in the geocentric model, i.e. the sphere of Venus comes before the sphere of the Sun when moving out from the Earth.
He also wrote the Summary of the Almagest based on Ptolemy's Almagest with an appended treatise "to bring that which is stated in the Almagest and what is understood from Natural Science into conformity". For example, ibn Sina considers the motion of the solar apsis, which Ptolemy had taken to be fixed. |
Avicenna | Chemistry | Chemistry
Avicenna was first to derive the attar of flowers from distillation and used steam distillation to produce essential oils such as rose essence, which he used as aromatherapeutic treatments for heart conditions.Marlene Ericksen (2000). Healing with Aromatherapy, p. 9. McGraw-Hill Professional. .
Unlike al-Razi, Avicenna explicitly disputed the theory of the transmutation of substances commonly believed by alchemists:
Four works on alchemy attributed to Avicenna were translated into Latin as:Georges C. Anawati (1996), "Arabic alchemy", in Roshdi Rashed, ed., Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, Vol. 3, pp. 853–885 [875]. Routledge, London and New York.
was the most influential, having influenced later medieval chemists and alchemists such as Vincent of Beauvais. However, Anawati argues (following Ruska) that the de Anima is a fake by a Spanish author. Similarly the Declaratio is believed not to be actually by Avicenna. The third work (The Book of Minerals) is agreed to be Avicenna's writing, adapted from the Kitab al-Shifa (Book of the Remedy). Avicenna classified minerals into stones, fusible substances, sulfurs and salts, building on the ideas of Aristotle and Jabir. The epistola de Re recta is somewhat less sceptical of alchemy; Anawati argues that it is by Avicenna, but written earlier in his career when he had not yet firmly decided that transmutation was impossible. |
Avicenna | Poetry | Poetry
Almost half of Avicenna's works are versified.E.G. Browne, Islamic Medicine (sometimes also printed under the title Arabian medicine), 2002, Goodword Pub., , p61 His poems appear in both Arabic and Persian. As an example, Edward Granville Browne claims that the following Persian verses are incorrectly attributed to Omar Khayyám, and were originally written by Ibn Sīnā:E.G. Browne, Islamic Medicine (sometimes also printed under the title Arabian medicine), 2002, Goodword Pub., , pp. 60–61) |
Avicenna | Legacy | Legacy |
Avicenna | Classical Islamic civilization | Classical Islamic civilization
Robert Wisnovsky, a scholar of Avicenna attached to McGill University, says that "Avicenna was the central figure in the long history of the rational sciences in Islam, particularly in the fields of metaphysics, logic and medicine" but that his works did not only have an influence in these "secular" fields of knowledge alone, as "these works, or portions of them, were read, taught, copied, commented upon, quoted, paraphrased and cited by thousands of post-Avicennian scholars—not only philosophers, logicians, physicians and specialists in the mathematical or exact sciences, but also by those who specialized in the disciplines of ʿilm al-kalām (rational theology, but understood to include natural philosophy, epistemology and philosophy of mind) and usūl al-fiqh (jurisprudence, but understood to include philosophy of law, dialectic, and philosophy of language)." |
Avicenna | Medieval and Renaissance Europe | Medieval and Renaissance Europe
thumb|upright|Inside view of the Avicenna Mausoleum, designed by Hooshang Seyhoun in 1945–1950
As early as the 14th century when Dante Alighieri depicted him in Limbo alongside the virtuous non-Christian thinkers in his Divine Comedy such as Virgil, Averroes, Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucan, Socrates, Plato and Saladin. Avicenna has been recognized by both East and West as one of the great figures in intellectual history. Johannes Kepler cites Avicenna's opinion when discussing the causes of planetary motions in Chapter 2 of Astronomia Nova.Johannes Kepler, New Astronomy, translated by William H. Donahue, Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1992.
George Sarton, the author of The History of Science, described Avicenna as "one of the greatest thinkers and medical scholars in history"George Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science.(cf. A. Zahoor and Z. Haq (1997). Quotations From Famous Historians of Science , Cyberistan.) and called him "the most famous scientist of Islam and one of the most famous of all races, places, and times". He was one of the Islamic world's leading writers in the field of medicine.
thumb|Avicenna at the sickbed, miniature by Walenty z Pilzna, Kraków (c. 1479–1480)
Along with Rhazes, Abulcasis, Ibn al-Nafis and al-Ibadi, Avicenna is considered an important compiler of early Muslim medicine. He is remembered in the Western history of medicine as a major historical figure who made important contributions to medicine and the European Renaissance. His medical texts were unusual in that where controversy existed between Galen and Aristotle's views on medical matters (such as anatomy), he preferred to side with Aristotle, where necessary updating Aristotle's position to take into account post-Aristotelian advances in anatomical knowledge. Aristotle's dominant intellectual influence among medieval European scholars meant that Avicenna's linking of Galen's medical writings with Aristotle's philosophical writings in the Canon of Medicine (along with its comprehensive and logical organisation of knowledge) significantly increased Avicenna's importance in medieval Europe in comparison to other Islamic writers on medicine. His influence following translation of the Canon was such that from the early fourteenth to the mid-sixteenth centuries he was ranked with Hippocrates and Galen as one of the acknowledged authorities, ("prince of physicians"). |
Avicenna | Modern reception | Modern reception
thumb|left|A monument to Avicenna in Qakh (city), Azerbaijan
thumb|Soviet Union in 1980 published a stamp entitled "1000th anniversary of the birth of Ibn Sina"
thumb|left|Image of Avicenna on the Tajikistani somoni
Institutions in a variety of counties have been named after Avicenna in honour of his scientific accomplishments, including the Avicenna Mausoleum and Museum, Bu-Ali Sina University, Avicenna Research Institute and Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences. There is also a crater on the Moon named Avicenna.
The Avicenna Prize, established in 2003, is awarded every two years by UNESCO and rewards individuals and groups for their achievements in the field of ethics in science.
thumb|The statue of Avicenna in United Nations Office in Vienna as a part of the Persian Scholars Pavilion donated by Iran
The Avicenna Directories (2008–2015; now the World Directory of Medical Schools) list universities and schools where doctors, public health practitioners, pharmacists and others, are educated. The original project team stated:
In June 2009, Iran donated a "Persian Scholars Pavilion" to the United Nations Office in Vienna. It now sits in the Vienna International Center. |
Avicenna | In popular culture | In popular culture
The 1982 Soviet film Youth of Genius () by recounts Avicenna's younger years. The film is set in Bukhara at the turn of the millennium."Youth of Genius" (USSR, Uzbekfilm and Tajikfilm, 1982): 1984 – State Prize of the USSR (Elyer Ishmuhamedov); 1983 – VKF (All-Union Film Festival) Grand Prize (Elyer Ishmuhamedov); 1983 – VKF (All-Union Film Festival) Award for Best Cinematography (Tatiana Loginov). See annotation on kino-teatr.ru .
In Louis L'Amour's 1985 historical novel The Walking Drum, Kerbouchard studies and discusses Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine.
In his book The Physician (1988) Noah Gordon tells the story of a young English medical apprentice who disguises himself as a Jew to travel from England to Persia and learn from Avicenna, the great master of his time. The novel was adapted into a feature film, The Physician, in 2013. Avicenna was played by Ben Kingsley. |
Avicenna | List of works | List of works
The treatises of Avicenna influenced later Muslim thinkers in many areas including theology, philology, mathematics, astronomy, physics and music. His works numbered almost 450 volumes on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived. In particular, 150 volumes of his surviving works concentrate on philosophy and 40 of them concentrate on medicine. His most famous works are The Book of Healing, and The Canon of Medicine.
Avicenna wrote at least one treatise on alchemy, but several others have been falsely attributed to him. His Logic, Metaphysics, Physics, and De Caelo, are treatises giving a synoptic view of Aristotelian doctrine, though Metaphysics demonstrates a significant departure from the brand of Neoplatonism known as Aristotelianism in Avicenna's world; Arabic philosophers have hinted at the idea that Avicenna was attempting to "re-Aristotelianise" Muslim philosophy in its entirety, unlike his predecessors, who accepted the conflation of Platonic, Aristotelian, Neo- and Middle-Platonic works transmitted into the Muslim world.
The Logic and Metaphysics have been extensively reprinted, the latter, e.g., at Venice in 1493, 1495 and 1546. Some of his shorter essays on medicine, logic, etc., take a poetical form (the poem on logic was published by Schmoelders in 1836).Thought Experiments: Popular Thought Experiments in Philosophy, Physics, Ethics, Computer Science & Mathematics by Fredrick Kennard, p. 115 Two encyclopedic treatises, dealing with philosophy, are often mentioned. The larger, Al-Shifa' (Sanatio), exists nearly complete in manuscript in the Bodleian Library and elsewhere; part of it on the De Anima appeared at Pavia (1490) as the Liber Sextus Naturalium, and the long account of Avicenna's philosophy given by Muhammad al-Shahrastani seems to be mainly an analysis, and in many places a reproduction, of the Al-Shifa'. A shorter form of the work is known as the An-najat (Liberatio). The Latin editions of part of these works have been modified by the corrections which the monastic editors confess that they applied. There is also a (hikmat-al-mashriqqiyya, in Latin Philosophia Orientalis), mentioned by Roger Bacon, the majority of which is lost in antiquity, which according to Averroes was pantheistic in tone.
Avicenna's works further include:Tasaneef lbn Sina by Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman, Tabeeb Haziq, Gujarat, Pakistan, 1986, pp. 176–198
Sirat al-shaykh al-ra'is (The Life of Avicenna), ed. and trans. WE. Gohlman, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1974. (The only critical edition of Avicenna's autobiography, supplemented with material from a biography by his student Abu 'Ubayd al-Juzjani. A more recent translation of the Autobiography appears in D. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition: Introduction to Reading Avicenna's Philosophical Works, Leiden: Brill, 1988; second edition 2014.)
Al-isharat wa al-tanbihat (Remarks and Admonitions), ed. S. Dunya, Cairo, 1960; parts translated by S.C. Inati, Remarks and Admonitions, Part One: Logic, Toronto, Ont.: Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies, 1984, and Ibn Sina and Mysticism, Remarks and Admonitions: Part 4, London: Kegan Paul International, 1996.
Al-Qanun fi'l-tibb (The Canon of Medicine), ed. I. a-Qashsh, Cairo, 1987. (Encyclopedia of medicine.) manuscript, Latin translation, Flores Avicenne, Michael de Capella, 1508, Modern text. Ahmed Shawkat Al-Shatti, Jibran Jabbur.
Risalah fi sirr al-qadar (Essay on the Secret of Destiny), trans. G. Hourani in Reason and Tradition in Islamic Ethics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Danishnama "The Book of Scientific Knowledge", ed. and trans. P. Morewedge, The Metaphysics of Avicenna, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973.
The Book of Healing, Avicenna's major work on philosophy. He probably began to compose al-Shifa' in 1014, and completed it in 1020. Critical editions of the Arabic text have been published in Cairo, 1952–83, originally under the supervision of I. Madkour.
Kitab al-Najat "The Book of Salvation", trans. F. Rahman, Avicenna's Psychology: An English Translation of Kitab al-Najat, Book II, Chapter VI with Historical-philosophical Notes and Textual Improvements on the Cairo Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952. (The psychology of al-Shifa'.) (Digital version of the Arabic text)
Risala fi'l-Ishq "A Treatise on Love". Translated by Emil L. Fackenheim. |
Avicenna | Persian works | Persian works
Avicenna's most important Persian work is the Danishnama (, "Book of Knowledge". Avicenna created a new scientific vocabulary that had not previously existed in Persian. The Danishnama covers such topics as logic, metaphysics, music theory and other sciences of his time. It has been translated into English by Parwiz Morewedge in 1977.Avicenna, Danish Nama-i 'Alai. trans. Parviz Morewedge as The Metaphysics of Avicenna (New York: Columbia University Press), 1977. The book is also important in respect to Persian scientific works.
Andar Dānish-i Rag (, "On the Science of the Pulse") contains nine chapters on the science of the pulse and is a condensed synopsis.
Persian poetry from Avicenna is recorded in various manuscripts and later anthologies such as Nozhat al-Majales. |
Avicenna | See also | See also
Al-Qumri (possibly Avicenna's teacher)
Abdol Hamid Khosro Shahi (Iranian theologian)
Mummia (Persian medicine)
Eastern philosophy
Iranian philosophy
Islamic philosophy
Contemporary Islamic philosophy
Science in the medieval Islamic world
List of scientists in medieval Islamic world
Sufi philosophy
Science and technology in Iran
Ancient Iranian medicine
List of pre-modern Iranian scientists and scholars |
Avicenna | Namesakes of Ibn Sina | Namesakes of Ibn Sina
Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences in Aligarh
Avicenna Bay in Antarctica
Avicenna (crater) on the far side of the Moon
Avicenna Cultural and Scientific Foundation
Avicenne Hospital in Paris, France
Avicenna International College in Budapest, Hungary
Avicenna Mausoleum (complex dedicated to Avicenna) in Hamadan, Iran
Avicenna Research Institute in Tehran, Iran
Avicenna Tajik State Medical University in Dushanbe, Tajikistan
Bu-Ali Sina University in Hamedan, Iran
Ibn Sina Peak – named after the Scientist, on the Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan border
Ibn Sina Foundation in Houston, Texas
Ibn Sina Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq
Ibn Sina Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey
Ibn Sina Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Ibn Sina University Hospital of Rabat-Salé at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco
Ibne Sina Hospital, Multan, Punjab, Pakistan
International Ibn Sina Clinic, Dushanbe, Tajikistan |
Avicenna | References | References |
Avicenna | Citations | Citations |
Avicenna | Sources | Sources
|
Avicenna | Further reading | Further reading |
Avicenna | Encyclopedic articles | Encyclopedic articles
(PDF version)
Avicenna entry by Sajjad H. Rizvi in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |
Avicenna | Primary literature | Primary literature
For an old list of other extant works, C. Brockelmann's Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (Weimar 1898), vol. i. pp. 452–458. (XV. W.; G. W. T.)
For a current list of his works see A. Bertolacci (2006) and D. Gutas (2014) in the section "Philosophy".
Avicenne: Réfutation de l'astrologie. Edition et traduction du texte arabe, introduction, notes et lexique par Yahya Michot. Préface d'Elizabeth Teissier (Beirut-Paris: Albouraq, 2006) .
William E. Gohlam (ed.), The Life of Ibn Sina. A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation, Albany, State of New York University Press, 1974.
For Ibn Sina's life, see Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, translated by de Slane (1842); F. Wüstenfeld's Geschichte der arabischen Aerzte und Naturforscher (Göttingen, 1840).
Madelung, Wilferd and Toby Mayer (ed. and tr.), Struggling with the Philosopher: A Refutation of Avicenna's Metaphysics. A New Arabic Edition and English Translation of Shahrastani's Kitab al-Musara'a. |
Avicenna | Secondary literature | Secondary literature
This is, on the whole, an informed and good account of the life and accomplishments of one of the greatest influences on the development of thought both Eastern and Western. ... It is not as philosophically thorough as the works of D. Saliba, A.M. Goichon, or L. Gardet, but it is probably the best essay in English on this important thinker of the Middle Ages. (Julius R. Weinberg, The Philosophical Review, Vol. 69, No. 2, Apr. 1960, pp. 255–259)
This is a distinguished work which stands out from, and above, many of the books and articles which have been written in this century on Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā) (980–1037). It has two main features on which its distinction as a major contribution to Avicennan studies may be said to rest: the first is its clarity and readability; the second is the comparative approach adopted by the author. ... (Ian Richard Netton, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Vol. 4, No. 2, July 1994, pp. 263–264)
Y.T. Langermann (ed.), Avicenna and his Legacy. A Golden Age of Science and Philosophy, Brepols Publishers, 2010,
For a new understanding of his early career, based on a newly discovered text, see also: Michot, Yahya, Ibn Sînâ: Lettre au vizir Abû Sa'd. Editio princeps d'après le manuscrit de Bursa, traduction de l'arabe, introduction, notes et lexique (Beirut-Paris: Albouraq, 2000) .
This German publication is both one of the most comprehensive general introductions to the life and works of the philosopher and physician Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā, d. 1037) and an extensive and careful survey of his contribution to the history of science. Its author is a renowned expert in Greek and Arabic medicine who has paid considerable attention to Avicenna in his recent studies. ... (Amos Bertolacci, Isis, Vol. 96, No. 4, December 2005, p. 649)
Shaikh al Rais Ibn Sina (Special number) 1958–59, Ed. Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman, Tibbia College Magazine, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. |
Avicenna | Medicine | Medicine
Browne, Edward G. Islamic Medicine. Fitzpatrick Lectures Delivered at the Royal College of Physicians in 1919–1920, reprint: New Delhi: Goodword Books, 2001.
Pormann, Peter & Savage-Smith, Emilie. Medieval Islamic Medicine, Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2007.
Prioreschi, Plinio. Byzantine and Islamic Medicine, A History of Medicine, Vol. 4, Omaha: Horatius Press, 2001.
Syed Ziaur Rahman. Pharmacology of Avicennian Cardiac Drugs (Metaanalysis of researches and studies in Avicennian Cardiac Drugs along with English translation of Risalah al Adwiya al Qalbiyah), Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences, Aligarh, India, 2020 |
Avicenna | Philosophy | Philosophy
Amos Bertolacci, The Reception of Aristotle's Metaphysics in Avicenna's Kitab al-Sifa'. A Milestone of Western Metaphysical Thought, Leiden: Brill 2006, (Appendix C contains an Overview of the Main Works by Avicenna on Metaphysics in Chronological Order).
Dimitri Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition: Introduction to Reading Avicenna's Philosophical Works, Leiden, Brill 2014, second revised and expanded edition (first edition: 1988), including an inventory of Avicenna' Authentic Works.
Andreas Lammer: The Elements of Avicenna's Physics. Greek Sources and Arabic Innovations. Scientia graeco-arabica 20. Berlin / Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2018.
Jon McGinnis and David C. Reisman (eds.) Interpreting Avicenna: Science and Philosophy in Medieval Islam: Proceedings of the Second Conference of the Avicenna Study Group, Leiden: Brill, 2004.
Michot, Jean R., La destinée de l'homme selon Avicenne, Louvain: Aedibus Peeters, 1986, .
Nader El-Bizri, The Phenomenological Quest between Avicenna and Heidegger, Binghamton, N.Y.: Global Publications SUNY, 2000 (reprinted by SUNY Press in 2014 with a new Preface).
Nader El-Bizri, "Avicenna and Essentialism," Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 54 (June 2001), pp. 753–778.
Nader El-Bizri, "Avicenna's De Anima between Aristotle and Husserl," in The Passions of the Soul in the Metamorphosis of Becoming, ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2003, pp. 67–89.
Nader El-Bizri, "Being and Necessity: A Phenomenological Investigation of Avicenna's Metaphysics and Cosmology," in Islamic Philosophy and Occidental Phenomenology on the Perennial Issue of Microcosm and Macrocosm, ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2006, pp. 243–261.
Nader El-Bizri, 'Ibn Sīnā's Ontology and the Question of Being', Ishrāq: Islamic Philosophy Yearbook 2 (2011), 222–237
Nader El-Bizri, 'Philosophising at the Margins of 'Sh'i Studies': Reflections on Ibn Sīnā's Ontology', in The Study of Sh'i Islam. History, Theology and Law, eds. F. Daftary and G. Miskinzoda (London: I.B. Tauris, 2014), pp. 585–597.
Reisman, David C. (ed.), Before and After Avicenna: Proceedings of the First Conference of the Avicenna Study Group, Leiden: Brill, 2003. |
Avicenna | External links | External links
Avicenna (Ibn-Sina) on the Subject and the Object of Metaphysics with a list of translations of the logical and philosophical works and an annotated bibliography
Category:980s births
Category:Year of birth unknown
Category:1037 deaths
Category:11th-century astronomers
Category:11th-century Persian-language poets
Category:11th-century philosophers
Category:11th-century Iranian physicians
Category:Alchemists of the medieval Islamic world
Category:Aristotelian philosophers
Category:Buyid viziers
Category:Characters in the Divine Comedy
Category:Classical humanists
Category:Muslim critics of atheism
Category:Epistemologists
Category:Iranian music theorists
Category:Islamic philosophers
Category:Transoxanian Islamic scholars
Category:Logicians
Category:People from Bukhara Region
Category:Medieval Iranian pharmacologists
Category:Music theorists of the medieval Islamic world
Category:Ontologists
Category:People from Khorasan
Category:Medieval Iranian physicists
Category:Philosophers of logic
Category:Philosophers of mind
Category:Philosophers of psychology
Category:Philosophers of religion
Category:Philosophers of science
Category:Unani medicine
Category:Iranian logicians
Category:Iranian ethicists
Category:Samanid officials
Category:Philosophers of mathematics
Category:Court physicians
Category:Iranian courtiers |
Avicenna | Table of Content | Short description, Name, Circumstances, Biography, Early life and education, Career, In Bukhara and Gurganj, In Gorgan, In Ray and Hamadan, In Isfahan, Philosophy, Metaphysical doctrine, Impossibility, contingency, necessity, Differentia, Reception, Argument for God's existence, Al-Biruni correspondence, Theology, Thought experiments, Principal works, ''The Canon of Medicine'', ''Liber Primus Naturalium'', ''The Book of Healing'', Earth sciences, Philosophy of science, Logic, Physics, Psychology, Other contributions, Astronomy and astrology, Chemistry, Poetry, Legacy, Classical Islamic civilization, Medieval and Renaissance Europe, Modern reception, In popular culture, List of works, Persian works, See also, Namesakes of Ibn Sina, References, Citations, Sources, Further reading, Encyclopedic articles, Primary literature, Secondary literature, Medicine, Philosophy, External links |
Analysis | Short description |
thumb|Adriaen van Ostade, "Analysis" (1666)
Analysis (: analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (384–322 BC), though analysis as a formal concept is a relatively recent development.
The word comes from the Ancient Greek (analysis, "a breaking-up" or "an untying" from ana- "up, throughout" and lysis "a loosening"). From it also comes the word's plural, analyses.
As a formal concept, the method has variously been ascribed to René Descartes (Discourse on the Method), and Galileo Galilei. It has also been ascribed to Isaac Newton, in the form of a practical method of physical discovery (which he did not name).
The converse of analysis is synthesis: putting the pieces back together again in a new or different whole. |
Analysis | Science and technology | Science and technology |
Analysis | Chemistry | Chemistry
thumb|A clinical chemistry analyzer
The field of chemistry uses analysis in three ways: to identify the components of a particular chemical compound (qualitative analysis), to identify the proportions of components in a mixture (quantitative analysis), and to break down chemical processes and examine chemical reactions between elements of matter. For an example of its use, analysis of the concentration of elements is important in managing a nuclear reactor, so nuclear scientists will analyze neutron activation to develop discrete measurements within vast samples. A matrix can have a considerable effect on the way a chemical analysis is conducted and the quality of its results. Analysis can be done manually or with a device. |
Analysis | Types of Analysis | Types of Analysis
A) Qualitative Analysis: It is concerned with which components are in a given sample or compound.
Example: Precipitation reaction
B) Quantitative Analysis: It is to determine the quantity of individual component present in a given sample or compound.
Example: To find concentration by uv-spectrophotometer. |
Analysis | Isotopes | Isotopes
Chemists can use isotope analysis to assist analysts with issues in anthropology, archeology, food chemistry, forensics, geology, and a host of other questions of physical science. Analysts can discern the origins of natural and man-made isotopes in the study of environmental radioactivity. |
Analysis | Computer science | Computer science
Requirements analysis – encompasses those tasks that go into determining the needs or conditions to meet for a new or altered product, taking account of the possibly conflicting requirements of the various stakeholders, such as beneficiaries or users.
Competitive analysis (online algorithm) – shows how online algorithms perform and demonstrates the power of randomization in algorithms
Lexical analysis – the process of processing an input sequence of characters and producing as output a sequence of symbols
Object-oriented analysis and design – à la Booch
Program analysis (computer science) – the process of automatically analysing the behavior of computer programs
Semantic analysis (computer science) – a pass by a compiler that adds semantical information to the parse tree and performs certain checks
Static code analysis – the analysis of computer software that is performed without actually executing programs built from that
Structured systems analysis and design methodology – à la Yourdon
Syntax analysis – a process in compilers that recognizes the structure of programming languages, also known as parsing
Worst-case execution time – determines the longest time that a piece of software can take to run |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.