The Canon of Medicine (al-Qanun fi al-Tibb)
The Canon is a five-volume medical encyclopedia that organized the entire corpus of Greek and Islamic medicine into a systematic, practical framework:
Volume 1: General principles of medicine — the four humors (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile), temperaments, the nature of health and disease, diagnosis, prognosis
Volume 2: Simple drugs — organized alphabetically with properties, indications, and applications
Volume 3: Diseases organized by organ system (head to foot)
Volume 4: Conditions not specific to one organ (fevers, poisons, skin conditions)
Volume 5: Compound medicines (ma’ajin, tiryaqat, kuhulat)
The Canon’s durability lay in its systematic organization: Ibn Sina was not merely reporting treatments but building a coherent theoretical structure. Latin translations (Liber Canonis, 12th century) made it the standard European medical curriculum from 1150-1650.
The Book of Healing (Kitab al-Shifa’)
The Shifa’ is Ibn Sina’s philosophical encyclopedia, covering:
- Logic (following Aristotle’s Organon)
- Natural sciences (physics, meteorology, mineralogy, botany, zoology, psychology)
- Mathematics (geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, music)
- Metaphysics (ilahiyyat)
His “Floating Man” thought experiment — a man suspended in air, deprived of all sensory input — who still knows “I exist” — anticipated Descartes’ cogito by 600 years and established the self’s non-reducibility to the physical.
His Ismaili Connection
Ibn Sina’s father was an Ismaili, and Ibn Sina grew up in an Ismaili household where discussions of philosophy were regular. His early access to Neoplatonic texts and Ismaili theological literature shaped his philosophical formation, even as his mature works are not formally Ismaili in framing.
See also: Fadl Al Ilm, Akhlaq, Tawhid Divine Unity, Al Ghazali, Maqamat Al Sulook, Quran Sciences