J Islamabad Med Dental Coll 2020 233 

O p e n  A c c e s s   

 Ibn-e-Sina’s “Canon of Medicine” 
 

Syed Irfan Ahmed 

Professor and Head, Department of Medicine, Islamabad Medical & Dental College, Islamabad Pakistan 

 

 

Perhaps the most famous philosopher-scientist of a 

thousand years hence was Ibn-e-Sina (Avicenna) 

who was born near Bukhara in 980 AD. While his 

writings on astronomy, Islamic theology, 

mathematics as well as poetry gained fame, it is for 

his contribution in medicine that he is remembered. 

Al-Qanun (The Canon of Medicine), his most famous 

work on the subject was the standard textbook for 

students and practitioners alike, both in East and 

West and taught in medical schools of Baghdad and 

Europe right up to the 18th century.1  

Al-Qanun consists of five books, each subdivided 

into Fanns, then Fasl and finally Maqala. Book One 

deals with the constitution and parts of human 

body. Common afflictions, with their causes, 

complications and treatment are also described 

here. Materia Medica is dealt with in the Second 

Book. Diseases affecting a specific part of the body, 

or entire body as in fever, are highlighted in Books 

Three and Four respectively. Pharmacology, with a 

formulary of compound medications is outlined in 

Book Five.1 

In Avicenna’s own words: “My plan is to deal with 

the general aspects of each of the two divisions of 

medicine, the speculative and the practical. Then I 

shall treat of the general principles applicable to the 

diagnosis of the properties of the simples, following 

this with a detailed account of them. Then I shall 

take up the disorders which befall each individual 

member, beginning with an account of its anatomy 

and that of its auxiliary. The anatomy of several 

members and their auxiliaries is dealt with in the 

first book. Having completed the account of the 

anatomy, I shall show the health of member is to be 

maintained.” 

“This subject being completed, I proceed to a 

general discourse about general diseases, their 

causes, the signs by which they are recognized and 

the modes of treatment. After this, I pass on to the 

special diseases and will point out in as many cases 

as possible.2 

I. The general diagnosis of their characters, 

causes and signs. 

II. The special diagnostic features. 

III. The general rules of treatment by 

a. Singles, 

b. Compounded medicines” 

The section on “The Urine” is very extensive and 

outlines in great detail various points about its 

collection, characters, variations in normality, 

abnormalities, relationship to various disease states 

and methods of examination. “Points to observe in a 

sample of urine are quantity, odor, color, foam, 

texture, clarity and sediment.” These points are then 

discussed in detail with reference to their 

pathological significance.  

Ibn-e-Sina’s description of the pulse is remarkably 

close to what is practiced in present times. Method 

of examination of the pulse at the wrist is described 

in great detail, with special reference to rate, 

rhythm, condition of the vessel walls, “emptiness” 

E D I T O R I A L  

Correspondence:  
Syed Irfan Ahmed 
Email: irfan.ahmad@imdcollege.com 
Cite this editorial: Ahmed SI. Ibn-e-Sina’s “Canon of 
Medicine. J Islamabad Med Dental Coll. 2020; 9(4): 233-234 
Doi: 10.35787/jimdc.v9i4.629 



 

             J Islamabad Med Dental Coll 2020 234 

or “fullness” of successive beats and the pauses or 

intermissions, whether regular or irregular.2 

According to Dr. O. Cameron Gruner, the author of 

“treatise on the Canon”, a delightful classic, the 

Canon of Medicine of Avicenna has an esteemed 

position in modern thought. The importance of idea 

over material achievement is not to be forgotten. 

The accomplishments of any age are subject to 

decay with the lapse of eras, but the ideas which give 

rise to them remain living through all cycles. It is 

agreed that there is an elevated place for Avicenna 

in modern thought and he shall be viewed as one, 

who was entrusted with a mission to express for that 

age, by means of various tools he found in it, an 

unchanging and impersonal wisdom. Today, there is 

the need that this wisdom should be re-expressed 

for this age by means of the new data, which lie in 

our hands.3 

R e f e r e n c e s  

1. Habib M, Ahmed SI. Prince of Physicians. The life and 

times of Ibn-e-Sina (Avicenna). Islamabad, 2017. 

2. Shah MH. The general principles of Avicenna’s Canon 

of Medicine. Karachi, 1966. 

3. Gruner OC. A treatise on the Canon of Medicine of 

Avicenna. London, 1930. Special edition, the Classics 

of Medicine Library, Birmingham, Alabama, 1940