The Book of Healing (Arabic: کتاب الشفاء Kitab Al-Shifaʾ, Latin: Sufficientia) is a scientific and philosophical encyclopedia written by Abū Alī ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) from Asfahana, near Bukhara in Greater Persia. Despite its English title, it is not concerned with medicine. Also called The Cure it is intended to "cure" or "heal" ignorance of the soul. This book is Ibn Sina’s major work on science and philosophy. He probably began to compose the al-Shifa in 1014, completed it around 1020, and published it in 1027.
The book is divided into four parts: logic, natural sciences, mathematics (a quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music), and metaphysics. It was influenced by ancient Greek philosophers, such as Aristotle, Hellenistic thinkers such as Ptolemy, earlier Persian and Muslim scientists and philosophers such as Al-Kindi (Alkindus), Al-Farabi (Alfarabi) and Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī.
Read more about The Book Of Healing: Philosophy, Sections of The Text
Famous quotes containing the words book and/or healing:
“Too much traffic with a quotation book begets a conviction of ignorance in a sensitive reader. Not only is there a mass of quotable stuff he never quotes, but an even vaster realm of which he has never heard.”
—Robertson Davies (b. 1913)
“Most blest believer he!
Who in that land of darkness and blind eyes
Thy long-expected healing wings could see,
When thou didst rise,
And what can never more be done
Did at midnight speak with the Sun!”
—Henry Vaughan (1622–1695)