It is incredible once again to be reminded of

what one man, a genius at that, can do to shape the civilization.

Avicenna is like Albert Einstein, who made a history in shaping

the origins of modern medicine, science and philosophy.

In the large scale of things it is indeed ridiculous and absurd to talk about

islamophobia and the Arab's hatred towards the west when in fact

the Greek and the western civilization went to the Islamic world, then

came back to the western world in much improved version, and

both worlds benefited from each other.

"Ibn Sina (Persian: ابن سینا‎), also known as Abu Ali Sina (ابوعلی سینا), Pur Sina (پورسینا), and often known in the West as Avicenna (/ˌævɪˈsɛnə, ˌɑːvɪ-/; c. 980 – June 1037), was a Persian^[7][8][9] polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age,^[10] and the father of early modern medicine.^[11][12][13] Sajjad H. Rizvi has called Avicenna "arguably the most influential philosopher of the pre-modern era".^[14] He was a Muslim Peripatetic philosopher influenced by Aristotelian philosophy. Of the 450 works he is believed to have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine.^[15]

Avicenna Ibn Sina
ابن سینا
Conventional modern portrait (on a silver vase, Avicenna Mausoleum and Museum, Hamadan)
Born	August 23, 980[1] Afshona, Bukhara, Samanid Empire(now in present-day Uzbekistan)
Died	June 22, 1037(aged 56)[1] Hamadan, Iran
Other names	Sharaf al-Mulk Hujjat al-Haq Sheikh al-Rayees Ibn-Sino (Abu Ali Abdulloh Ibn-Sino) Bu Alī Sīnā (بو علی سینا)
Academic background
Influences	Hippocrates Aristotle Galen Neoplatonism al-Farabi Rhazes Al-Biruni al-Masihi Abul Hasan Hankari
Academic work
Era	Islamic Golden Age
School or tradition	Avicennism
Main interests	Medicine Aromatherapy Philosophy and logic Kalām (Islamic theology) Science Poetry
Notable works	The Book of Healing The Canon of Medicine
Influenced	Al-Biruni Omar Khayyám Ibn Rushd Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi Tusi Ibn al-Nafis Ibn Tufail Albertus Magnus Maimonides Duns Scotus[2] Aquinas William of Ockham Abu 'Ubayd al-Juzjani Enlightenment philosophers Hossein Nasr[3]

His most famous works are The Book of Healing, a philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and The Canon of Medicine, a medical encyclopedia^[16][17][18] which became a standard medical text at many medieval universities^[19] and remained in use as late as 1650.^[20]

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.^[21]"

Dr. Lee, you brought me such awfully embarrassing moment I will never forget! When did you learn about Avicenna? I never heard of him till Year 2000! So shameful on my ignorance!

Indeed, my wife still loves to use that most embarrassing moment to humiliate me whenever she has a chance - she was happened to be at that moment to watch and listen whole event-.

Yes, I have never heard of Avicenna, 'father of medicine' until the night of September 2000 when we were invited to the dinner by the former mayor of Buchara, Uzbekistan, to his house with the rest of companions - it was a part of the trip extended from Tashkent after I delivered the workshop for the vascular malformation-.

Over the dinner, he gave a welcome speech for us to come all the way to Buchara, Avicenna, the father of  medicine, was born! I missed the name he spoke about since I have never heard of before so that when I asked him to give a precise name, he was shocked to my ignorance and further humiliatedd to my confession that I have never heard of him before, instead of pretending to know about him!

The mayor was so mad when I tried to make up with my confusion with Azucena of Il Trovatore only to have made worse that he stopped talking to me but remained sarcastic to say how much Americans are ignorant all evening to make me sweat! 

I have never had such stupid embarrassing moment in my life and cursed my ignorance/무식 all evening!

Indeed I learned belatedly Avicenna made much more contribution than Hippocrates in medical history but how in the world no one ever mentioned during our medical school days. I was simply stupid to have overlooked every medical history book writing about him to remind me of such painful memory!

So embarrassing!!!!

BB Lee

sorry to hear the embarrassment you had to endure there.

I can just imagine how uncomfortable you were.

In retrospect, however, I believe that at least partly it is not your fault.

First of all, the lecturer on medical history at our alma mater, I believe, neglected

to introduce Avicenna to us. More importantly the modern western medicine you and I 

have been trained for, I believe, almost never brought up the great contribution

by Avicenna in the old Islamic world in any medical meetings or circles.

It was only through my own interest scanning the literature that I had found Avicenna

sometime ago.

I am still shuddering when I recall that moment! I just don't know how the hell I spill the name of the witch, Azucena of Opera Il Trovatore to have made me look so stupid!

Indeed I was so surprised how much Avicenna contributed through the period of medival period as the flower of Islamic civilization. Through the dark age, whole Europe was so behind to Middle East with flourishing Islamic culture so that every aspect of Western medicine was originated from Islamic medicine but no one gave proper credits. So no wonder why they gripe at such unfair ignorance by the Westerners!

BB Lee