IBN SINA and THE LİTTLE BOOK OF CANON

«KÂNÛN-u SAGÎR»

Kadircan KESKINBORA M.D., Prof., Ph.D.

Bahcesehir University School of Medicine

Istanbul, TURKEY

ABU ALI AL- USAYN IBN ABDALLAH IBN SINAḤ , KNOWN AS ABU ALI SINA OR, MORE COMMONLY IBN SINA, HIS LATINIZED NAME AVICENNA

• The foremost physician

• al-Sheikh al-Rais (Leader among the wise men)

• and the foremost philosopher of his time

• Hellenistic Islamic tradition that also includes al-Farabi

• His philosophical theory is a comprehensive, detailed and rationalistic account of the nature of God and Being,

• he finds a systematic place for the corporeal world, spirit, insight, and the varieties of logical thought including • dialectic, / rhetoric /poetry

IBN SINA

He was also an

• astronomer,

• chemist, physicist,

• geologist, mathematician,

• logician,

• paleontologist,

• psychologist,

• scientist and teacher.

IBN SINA

developed a medical system that combined • his own personal experience with that of Islamic medicine, • the medical system of the Greek physician

• Galen, • Aristotelian metaphysics (Avicenna was one of the main interpreters of Aristotle),

• ancient Egypt, Persian, Mesopotamian, • Uigur, Chinese and Indian medicine

IBN SINA and KANUN

• The best-known amongst the books written by Ibn Sina that to which Ibn Sina owed his European reputation • 5-volume The Canon of Medicine • It was a standard medical text in Europe and the Islamic world up until the 18th century.

The main topic of my speech is the presentation of The Book Of Ibn Sina, Kânûn-u Sagîr (The Little Canon) which was translated in Turkish.

THE LİTTLE BOOK OF CANON OF IBN SINA

İBN SİNA’NIN KÜÇÜK TIP KANUNU

All books that written by Ibn Sina are in Arabic but one (Danishname- in Persian). Arabic was accepted as the scientific language at that age and writing in Arabic was a scientific tradition.

• The original copy of this book is at

• Bayezid State Library, Istanbul

• section of hand-written books

• recorded in Catalogue of Veliyuddin Efendi, nr. 2529.

• This book was translated in Turkish

by a committee under the head of

mine and

• published in 2013 June,

• by Bahçeşehir Üniversitesi Yayınları (University Press)

• Ibn Sina systematizes the subject of the book in coherenece as he does in the Great Canon.

• Kânûn-u Sagir consists of ten separate articles.

• At the beginning of every article he gave a short information and divide the article into chapters.

In the first section Ibn Sina summarize the creation of the human being, the segments of medicine.

FİRST ARTICLE (7 Chapters - bâb)

1) Creation the human being

2) The structure of the human body from seperate organs (parts)

3) The structure of the body from compound pieces (organs in groups)

4) The different sections of the science of medicine, their descriptions and importance

5) The flow of the blood through the vessels (pulse)

6) Urine

7) Information about the other parts of the body

• The second article is about the functions and energy of food, beverages (drinks), and clothes (fabrics). There are twenty chapters.

• Ibn Sina says that the foods and drinks affect the body by three ways:

1) quality, 2) elements, 3) the nature

1) Bread and types2) Meat and Egg 3) Fish4) Milk, Butter, Cheese,

Skimmings5) Leguminous plants6) Basic legumes7) Fresh fruits8) Dried foods9) Lipids10) Aromatic (odourous)

plants

11) Fragrances (Fine odours)12) Clothes (fabrics) 13) Spices14) Vinegar, Zythum (boza), Olive,

Pickle, Marmalade (jam)15) Water, Snow, Ice16) Wines17) Beverages, fizzy drinks18) Drinks made of medicines19) Grills and boiled foods20) Sweets and Desserts

The functions and energy of the foods/beverages and clothes 20 chapters

• In the third article (10 chapters) he address how to deal with newborns, especially the actions necessary at the time of the birth, and he advises the breast feeding from the mother.

• Then he cites the conditions that must be available in nursing woman, and how to manage the nurse when she needs.

• Then he ensures about taking care of children's training through six years of his/her age. Then he talks about keeping adult's health, and defines sports.

Hygiene, Training The Children, Moderation of The Pregnant And Breastfeeding Women

1) Doing Sports

2) Things to be done in bathroom / hamam

3) Eating and drinking

4) States of sleeping and wakefulness

5) Sexual potency

6) Psychologic behaviors

7) Moderating the pregnant women

8) Moderating the breastfeeding mother

9) Moderating the children untill puberty

10) Moderating the human being from 14 years old to the end of the life

• After the fourth article he address the diseases as a sequence from the head to the feet. The fourth section consists of 18 chapters

• Some kinds of headache, eye ache, epiphora, influenza, ear ache, nose ache, teeth problems, engrowths of the epiglottus, tonsils and the mouth are main topics.

• The beginning of the throat is the last segment of the fourth section.

1) Headache, semiheadache, Facialgia (facial pain)

2) Drowsiness with fever3) Depression /Melancholia4) Epilepsy5) Love (infatuation)6) Stroke7) Facial palsy, numbness,

chilling cramps 8) Catarh9) Eye pain

10) Weakness of the eye, Epiphora11) Ear ache12) The pain of the nose 13) Cleft lip14) The pain of the Teeth, Gingiva and

Molar Teeth15) Oral acnes16) Polishing the teeth, betterment of the

foul breath17) Turgescence on the Uvula, Tonsils

and Throat18) Adhesive mucus in the throat

The Diseases Of The Body Region From The Head to The Border of The Chest.

• The throat diseases comprises the fifth article.

• Divided into four chapters:

• Cough, pleuresy, influenza

• Asthma

• Palpitations

• Hemopthisia (Blood in the saliva)

• The sixth article consists of the gastrointestinal system diseases.

consists of 14 chapters.

• The topics begin with nausea and the ache resembles colic.

• The arrange in a row finishes at the anus.

• The liver ache, spleen ache, kidney ache, icterus are in this section.

1) Debility of stomach (atony?)

2) Nausea

3) Colic

4) Hiccups (singiltus)

5) Diarrhea

6) Dysentery

7) Cramps (severe pain)

8) Worms (consisted in abdomen)

9) Pain of the liver

10) Pain of the spleen

11) Icterus (jaundice)

12) Kidney diseases

13) Bladder diseases

14) Anus diseases

About The Abdomen (Stomach) And Food Tools (Gastrointestinal System) Diseases

The seventh article is about the urinary and sexual organs (6 chap.)

Ibn Sina tells about other issues related to the maintenance of health, about the benefits of sexual intercourse, and its harms, conditions, and bad types, and the proper times in relation to eating and sleep and other conditions, to avoid damages of the sexual intercourse.

About The Genital Organ Diseases

1) Diseases of penis

2) Outputting of semen and spermatic fluid

3) Diseases of testis

4) Hernias

5) Diseases of uterus

6) Intercourse

The eighth article is belong to

• the gout disease,

• ischialgia (schiatica)

• the pain of the joints.

In the ninth article (consist of 16 chapters) Ibn Sina tells about

• the dermal eruptions, and some dermatologic diseases,

• some infectious diseases,

• poisons,

• drawing blood,

• vomiting

1) Hair diseases2) Cleaning the fleck and

flickers3) Herpetic and fungal

diseases4) Whiteness of the skin

(vitiligo)5) Itching6) Variola, rubeola, urticaria

and impetigo7) Warts (verruca)8) Boils (carbuncle)

9) Tumors around the nails

10) Fissures in the heels and edges of the finger and toe

11) Fire, water and oil burns

12) Poisoning

13) Drawing blood

14) Cupping

15) Diarrhea, scours

16) Vomiting

Diseases Seen on The Skin, Stings of Poisonous Insects, Drawing Blood

In the tenth article the main subject is febrile disease. 7 chapters:

1-Temporary daily fever, 2- The fever which comes every day flegm

origin, 3- The fever which comes in intervals from yellow bile,

4- The melancholic fever continues 1 or 2 days, 5- Blood fever which

covers all the body, 6-compound fevers, 7-short duration daily fever

Pulse (Kinds And Subtypes) (1st Article- chap.5)

1) Related with expansion and contraction of the vessels. 3 subtypes

2) Related with movement of the pulse . 3 subtypes

3) Related to the force of the pulse. 3 subtypes

4) Viscosity of the physical structure of the artery 3 subtypes

5) The fatigue and tiredness of the pulse movement 3 subtypes

6) Regularity of the pulse

7) Irregular pulse, faulty maintenance of the pulse

8) Lingering pulse

9) The heat and the coldness of the artery 3 subtypes

10) Materials at the border of the artery. 3 subtypes

EL-KÂNÛN fi’t-TIBB Great Canon Of Ibn Sina; 5 Volume

1. Vol. (Külliyat el-Kanun): Anatomy and physiology

2. Vol. (Müfredat): The simple drugs used in treatment in alphabetical row

3. Vol. (Mualecat): systematically from the head to the foot, the diseases of the organs of the body

4. Vol. (Hummiyat): Diseases with fever , minor surgery, fractures, luxations, diseases with skin eruptions like rubeola, variola etc..

5. Vol. (Mürekkebat / Akrabadin): Recipe of compound drugs and instructions of preparing

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