This paper
examines the work and enduring contributions of this 10th- and 11th-century Iranian Islamic philosopher and physician,
Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Abd Allah ibn Sina (Avicenna). It details his medical career and examines his work "The Canon of
Medicine," used in the Middle East and in Europe as a medical textbook as it is a systematic classification and summary of medical and pharmaceutical knowledge up to and including Avicenna's time. It also details Avicenna's best-known philosophical work "Kitab ash-Shifa" or "The Book of Healing" and looks at some of the same issues as does the Canon, although from a metaphysical as opposed to more purely physical perspective. Avicenna was a great man who helped to create a spirit of enterprise and innovation within the practice of medicine at the heart of modern Western medical
philosophy.