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DOI: https://doi.org/10.37547/history-crjh-02-06-04 
ISSN 2767-472X 
©2021 Master Journals 

   
  Accepted 11th June, 2021 &  Published 16thJune, 2021  

 

 
 

 

CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY                           
ISSN – 2767-472X 

16 

   https://masterjournals.com/index.php/CRJH 

 

AVICENNA - HISTORY'S PRODIGY 
 

Shakhnoza Ganieva 

Phd, Academy Of Arts Of Uzbekistan National Institute Of Arts And Design Named After Kamoliddin Behzod Tashkent, 
Uzbekistan 

Professor Kamola Baltabayevna Akilova 

Doctor Of Arts, National Institute Of Arts And Design Named After Kamoliddin Behzod Tashkent, Uzbekistan 

 

INTRODUCTION 

What part of our vast heritage we have already 
discovered, and what part still keeps its unique 
secrets and stories? Handwritten masterpieces 
and their fates...  

For the author, the study of a unique folio - the 
most famous book in the history of world 
medicine "Kitab al - Kanun fi - t-tibb" - "The 
Canon of Medicine" by Abu Ali ibn Sina or 
Avicenna, as he is known in the West, was an 
absolute exclusivity. The author was lucky to 
hold the world's earliest manuscript of 
Avicenna's "Canon", dating back to the 12th 
century, while working in the Muslim collection 
of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the 

Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.  

THE MAIN RESULTS AND FINDINGS 

The basis of the Institute's Muslim collection is 
the collection of the famous French diplomat 
Jean Baptiste Louis Jacques Rousseau (1780-
1831), who lived for many years in Aleppo and 
Tripoli. The French diplomat had hundreds of 
handwritten books in his collection. A passionate 
collector and Orientalist, he decided in two 
stages, in 1819 and 1825, to sell seven hundred 
manuscripts from his collection to the Imperial 
Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 
Among these books was the priceless manuscript 
of Avicenna's "Canon of Medicine. Thus, this 
masterpiece made its way to St. Petersburg. 

ABSTRACT  
 
The earliest of the manuscripts available in the world, "Kitab al-Qanun fi-t-tibb" ("Canon of Medicine"), by 
the great Abu Ali ibn Sina (980-1037), dating back to the 12th century, is kept in the Institute of Oriental 
Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. This major work has been the most 
complete encyclopedia of medicine for a millennium. As early as in the 12th century, it was translated in 
Europe from Arabic into Latin by the Italian Gerard of Cremona (1114-1187) and then disseminated in many 
manuscripts. "The Canon of Medicine," Avicenna began writing when he was twenty years old and completed 
this work in 1020-at the age of forty, when Avicenna's medical and life experience was vast. This article is 
just an attempt to lift the veil over the mystery of the genius' formation, and how this priceless folio, created 
in the ancient Uzbek land, came to St. Petersburg. 
 
KEYWORDS: - Manuscript, capital work, encyclopedia, Koran, medicine, collection, mystery, folio, genius, 
Central Asia, Europe. 



CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY 2(6): 16-19, June 2021      
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37547/history-crjh-02-06-04 
ISSN 2767-472X 
©2021 Master Journals 

   
  Accepted 11th June, 2021 &  Published 16thJune, 2021  

 

 
 

 

CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY                           
ISSN – 2767-472X 

17 

   https://masterjournals.com/index.php/CRJH 

A few words about the curious pedigree of Jean 
Baptiste Louis Jacques Rousseau. He was a 
nephew of the great philosopher and enlightener 
of France, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and belonged 
to a family of hereditary diplomats. His 
grandfather, as a goldsmith, worked in the 
Embassy of France in Persia under King Louis 
XIV of France, and then served for many years as 
a jeweler at the court of Safavid Shah Hussain I 
(1694-1722). Jean Baptiste Louis Rousseau's 
father was also a diplomat. As consul in Basra 
and Baghdad, it was he who started the 
collection of manuscripts that were destined to 
make his son famous.  It is not known whether 
the Canon of Medicine was purchased by Jean 
Baptiste Rousseau himself or by his father.  

This capital work was the most complete 
encyclopedia of medicine for a millennium. It 
was translated from Arabic into Latin as early as 
the 12th century in Europe by the Italian Gerard 
of Cremona (1114-1187), and was then 
disseminated in many manuscripts. And when 
the printing press was invented, the Canon 
became one of the first printed books, after the 
Bible, and even rivaled it in number of editions.  

The Latin text was published in the second half of 
the 15th century, in 1473, but the Arabic text was 
printed in Italy in the late 16th century, in 1593, 
in the print shop of the famous Dukes of 
Florence, practically the "godfathers" of the 
Italian Renaissance, the Medicis. No translation 
of the Canon from the Arabic original into any 
other language (except Latin) has been made in 
any country of the world. Although in the 1930s 
an attempt was made to translate the Canon into 
English, but unfortunately only half of the first 
book was translated. Only from 1934 to 1961, 
the Uzbek scholars, in cooperation with the USSR 
Academy of Medicine were able to translate the 
entire Canon into Russian and Uzbek languages, 
with all comments. The work lasted for 27 years.  

It is now known that Avicenna began to write 

The Canon of Medicine when he was twenty 
years old and completed it in 1020 - at the age of 
forty, when Avicenna's medical and life 
experience was vast.  

 "I became addicted to the science of medicine, 
and medical science is not a difficult one, and of 
course I succeeded in it, in no time at all. Famous 
doctors began to come to me for advice... And I 
was at the time 16 years old"[1]. 

These lines are from the biography of Ibn Sina, 
which he dictated around 1012 to his disciple 
and friend, Abu Ubeid al-Jurjani (d. 1070). It 
covers the first half of Avicenna's life. The second 
half of the biography of the great healer, Jurjani 
wrote from what he saw in person while staying 
with him until the end of his days. In the 
biography dictated by Jurjani, there is one 
curious fact that reveals very authentically the 
essence of the character of the young genius.  

So what kind of person was this young man? 
Already at age 10, knew by heart all surahs from 
the Holy Koran, and by the age of 16 had 
independently studied the works of ancient 
authors. Avicenna brilliantly knew the treatises 
of Euclid (3rd century BC) and the Almagest of 
Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century), the Fiqh - 
Islamic religious law and logic. And only one 
book did not lend itself to his understanding.  

"When I had perfectly studied logic and the 
natural and mathematical sciences, I turned to 
theology and read Aristotle's Metaphysics. But I 
did not understand its meaning, the purpose of 
its writer was hidden from me". 

Avicenna read Aristotle's Metaphysics forty 
times. Just think, forty times, moreover, he 
learned it by heart, but never understood its 
purpose. "And I despaired of being able to 
understand it and said to myself, this is the book, 
the way to understand it is not there".  

And so, one day before sunset Avicenna came to 
the rows of scribes where handwritten books 



CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY 2(6): 16-19, June 2021      
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37547/history-crjh-02-06-04 
ISSN 2767-472X 
©2021 Master Journals 

   
  Accepted 11th June, 2021 &  Published 16thJune, 2021  

 

 
 

 

CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY                           
ISSN – 2767-472X 

18 

   https://masterjournals.com/index.php/CRJH 

were sold. Bukhara, at that time, was a unique 
cultural center. And the rows of books, a place 
where philosophers, poets and scholars met and 
debated. Avicenna was a frequent visitor there. A 
merchant acquaintance was praising a certain 
book and offered it to Avicenna. It was a 
commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics. "There 
is no use for this book," said Avicenna, and 
resolutely dismissed it. But the merchant began 
to persuade the young man, telling him that the 
owner of the manuscript needed what would be 
paid for it. Avicenna bought it. It was a book by 
the eminent scholarly encyclopedist Abu Nasr 
Muhammad Farabi [2] (circa 870-950). His 
commentaries on Aristotle's Metaphysics.   

"The doors of the main thoughts of this book 
opened before me. I was overjoyed and the next 
day I gave an abundant handout to the needy," 
recounts in Avicenna's biography. Truly, in the 
East, Farabi is called the second teacher after 
Aristotle. But this is another story.    

We have only tried in this narration to lift the veil 
over the mystery of the formation of a genius 
personality. One of the greatest thinkers of 
humanity, a scientist and encyclopedist Avicenna 
created more than four hundred and fifty works 
in the field of medicine and philosophy, 
astronomy and mathematics, physics and 
chemistry, music and literature. The extant 
correspondence between Abu Ali ibn Sina and 
Abu Rayhan Biruni (Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn 
Ahmad al-Biruni, 973-1048) is a unique example 
of scientific dialogue, profound understanding, 
philosophical views of the ancient, ancient 
authors, devotion to science and intellectual 
search of "the cornerstone of the universe".  

His major work "Kitab al - Kanun fi - t-tibb" 
defined the development of medicine for many 
centuries ahead and actually became the 
foundation of practical medicine and 
pharmacology.  

Avicenna's work was admired by the great 

geniuses of the European Renaissance. Leonardo 
da Vinci (1452-1519) wrote about Avicenna in 
his "Codex" on human anatomy around 1500, 
which demonstrates the careful study and 
analysis of the "Canon of Medicine" by Avicenna. 
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) also ranked 
Avicenna among the great ancient scholars:  

"There's the geometer Euclid - there's Ptolemy,  

Hippocrates, Galen and Avicenna..."[3]. 

CONCLUSION 

According to historians, Omar Khayyam passed 
away bent over the treatise of Ibn Sina.  While 
working on this study, the author found 
information that most recently, Avicenna's Canon 
of Medicine, translated into Irish back in the 16th 
century, had been found in Ireland. This folio was 
published in London in 1530. 

In his famous rubai, Avicenna writes, "From 
black ashes to heavenly bodies, I have solved the 
mysteries of great words and deeds...". 

 

REFERENCES 

 

1. Victor Belyaev, Arabic manuscripts in the 
collection of the Institute of Oriental 
Studies of the Russian Academy of 
Sciences, 1935. Vol. VI, P. 55. 

2. Abu Ali ibn Sino Vol. I, Medical Literature 
Publishers, 1996. P. 21. 

3. Stephen Frederick Starr, Lost 
Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age 
from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane, 
Princeton University Press, 2015. 

4. Peter Adamson, Philosophy in the Islamic 
World: A History of Philosophy                      
Without Gaps. Oxford University Press. 
2016, P. 115.   



CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY 2(6): 16-19, June 2021      
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37547/history-crjh-02-06-04 
ISSN 2767-472X 
©2021 Master Journals 

   
  Accepted 11th June, 2021 &  Published 16thJune, 2021  

 

 
 

 

CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY                           
ISSN – 2767-472X 

19 

   https://masterjournals.com/index.php/CRJH 

5. Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, the 
Inferno, the Purgatorio, and the Paradiso, 
Berkley Publisher, 2003. P. 928 


