Hundred Great Muslims

ABU ALI SINA
Nooh ibn Mansur, the Samanid king of Bukhara (976-97 A.C.) was lying
in a precarious condition on his sick bed, and the court physicians had given
up all hopes of his recovery. In consequence, a boy of 17 years was summoned
and ushered into the Chamber of the sick King, passing through a congregation
of astonished dignitaries composed of distinguished courtiers and talented
physicians. This boy was Ibn Sina who was finally entrusted with the treatment
of the King. The marvellous boy cured the dying Ruler, to the great astonishment
of all and was accorded due honour and prestige at the Court. He was
given the privilege of using the Ruler's remarkable library, which, in fact, could
be the highest award for his great work.
Ibn Sina, the greatest intellectual giant of the Middle Ages and one of the
greatest of all times, was a versatile genius who influenced the course of thought
in diverse ways. Being an outstanding encyclopaedist, he made lasting
contributions to medical sciences, philosophy, logic, occult sciences, mathematics,
astronomy, music and poetry. He was an eminent rational philosopher, whose
invaluable discoveries in varied branches of knowledge forestalled many later
discoveries and won for him an immortal place among the galaxy of eminent
scientists and thinkers of the world. "He is important as Universal Encyclopaedist,'
adds the Encyclopaedia of Islam, who fixed the system oflearning for
centuries following".
Abu Ali Husain ibn Abdullah ibn Hasan ibn Ali ibn Sina, known as
Shaikh-ur-Rais (Prince of all Teachers), was born in 980 A.C. at Afshinah near
Bukhara (Turkistan). His father Abdullah who hailed from Balkh was appointed
as a Samanite Governor and was later posted at Bukhara, where the young Abu
Ali received his early education. From the very beginning he showed such an
extraordinary intelligence and made so remarkable progress in his education that
at the early age of 10, he was well versed in Quran and different branches of
literature.
Being brought up in an Ismaili family, he was deeply influenced by
Ismaili proselytism and developed a taste for philosophy which enabled him to
study Greek, Islamic and other material on the subject. Meanwhile Abu Abdullah,
an Natili, a leading philosopher of his time, visited Bukhara and stayed at his
house. Ibn Sina studied logic, geometry and astronomy from him. The intelligent
157