Thoughts In Medieval Islamic World

Mehmet Okonsar

Discography by Mehmet Okonsar

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The "Doctor of Doctors" Ibn Sina, His Life and Work

Short overview on the life and contributions of Ibn Sina.

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Ibn Sina was born in 980 with what has become Uzbekistan, and died in 1037 with what has become Iran. He would be a vibrant child, studying not only the Koran, but additionally philosophy and science.

He is known as Avicenna in the western world. He was possibly the finest of this Muslim savants who within the first couple of century from the Islamic calendar, elevated the status of Islamic learning very high.

He was born at a time of instability and decentralization within the Muslim world. This affected ibn Sina whole his existence. He moved frequently, hunting for a stable, well-paid position. At various occasions, he labored like a political administrator, court physician, soldier as well as periodic outcast and prisoner.

No single nation can claim the loan or blame for modern scientific advances. Human understanding is really a storehouse by which all nations around the globe have led their share. And among such great contributing factors stand the immortal title of Ali Husein ibn Sina, an excellent physician.

Ibn Sina had many new scientific ideas. For example, in his twenties, he was the very first we know about, who recognized that "impetus is proportional to weight x velocity." This is actually the fundamental equation that describes momentum today.

He also contended that an object in vacuum (no pressure) would move without slowing down also this is true.

Ibn Sina also stated that researchers would not flourish in turning metals like lead or copper into gold, despite the fact that many researchers were trying to get it done.

He grew to become so famous as a physician that the Emir of the Samanids (Nur ibn-Mansur), when sick found him. When he healed the emir, he gave him employment as his personal physician, Ibn Sina was still being only 18 years of age. Because of his position as the Emir's personal physician, Ibn Sina reached read many rare books within the Emir's library.

Ibn Sina's chief work, "Canon's of drugs" was translated to Latin in 1187 and shortly grew to become the reference text book for medical education in Europe. Within the last three decades from the 15.th century this book passed through 16 countries and languages of which 15 were in Latin and one in Hebrew.

Ibn Sina was the first one to uncover that water may be the vehicle for harmful bacteria transportation and thus it may be accountable for multiplication of numerous illnesses. Ibn Sina might have been the very first person to understand you could catch illnesses like measles or smallpox from other people (though he did not learn about bacteria, since there were not any microscopes yet).

Ibn Sina authored more than a hundred treatises covering a number of subjects for example religion, philosophy, mathematics and astronomy.

Like a chemist, Ibn Sina was among the first scientists to disagree on the transmutation of metals (i.e. turning iron into gold). He devised the total process of distillation to create the acrylic and therefore he's regarded as like a pioneer of aromatherapy.

Four of his many writings, for instance on the refutation of alchemy, were translated in Latin, this had a great impact on the medieval chemists. He was the very first researcher to make use of air thermometer to appraise the temperature. He provided a classy reason behind the development of rainbow. The rainbow, he stated, is created through the dispersion of sunlight through the fine contaminants of rain water, the dark cloud he thought is simply a screen for that rainbow to look, which now that we know holds true.

Ibn Sina also led to mathematics, physics, music along with other fields. He described the "casting from nines" and it is application towards the verification of squares and cubes.

He earned several astronomical findings, and devised a contrivance like the vernier, to improve the truth of instrumental blood pressure measurements.

Ibn Sina also authored medical books in Arabic. Doctors like Maimonides used them all around the Abbasid Empire. Once they have been converted into Latin the work spread throughout Europe and during the Dark Ages.

About the philosophical side, Ibn Sina combined the thoughts of Aristotle and the neo-Platonism. He attempted to reconcile philosophy using the religion of Islam.

Ibn Sina refused the presence of the person soul. He also doubted that God had any curiosity about anyone person. Ibn Sina also thought that there is no creation around the globe and thought that there is a dualism of mind and matter. Matter was passive, and creation have been an action of instilling existence in to the passive substance. Only God didn't have this dualism.

When it comes to metaphysics, Ibn Sina constitutes a distinction between two concepts: essence and existence. Essence views just the character of things, and should be thought about aside from their physical and mental realization. This distinction is applicable to everything but God, that he identifies as the first cause and for that reason being both essence and existence.

He also contended the soul is incorporeal and can't be destroyed. The soul, in the view, is definitely an agent with choice nowadays between good and evil, which results in reward or punishment.

Despite glorious tributes to his work, Ibn Sina isn't appreciated within the Western world today and his fundamental contributions to medicine and also the European reawakening goes largely unacknowledged. However, within the museum at Bukhara, one may find shows showing a lot of his documents, surgical instruments in the period and works of art of patients going through treatment. A remarkable monument towards the existence and works from the scientist who grew to become referred to as "physician of doctors" still stands outdoors the Bukhara museum and the portrait dangles within the Hall from the Faculty of Medicine, College of Paris.

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Mehmet Okonsar is a pianist-composer-conductor and musicologist. Besides his international concert carrier he is a prolific writer. Founder of the first classical music-musicology dedicated blog-site: "inventor-musicae" as well as the first classical-music video portal: "classical videos".

Discography by Mehmet Okonsar

J.S. Bach "Die Kunst der Fuge"

All CD's available at amazon.com and (partly) at cdbaby.com

The Savant Farabi-Alpharabius: Abu Nasr Muhammad al-Farabi

Short introduction to the life and ideas of Farabi.

J.S. Bach "Musikalische Opfer"

F. Liszt: "modern" works

J.S. Bach "Well-tempered Clavier"

Recital: "Live at Salt Lake City"

J.S. Bach The Goldberg Variations

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Abu Nasr Muhammad al-Farabi (Farabi), widely known throughout the western arena as Alpharabius (c.872-951) was born of Persian parents inside the small village of Wasij near Farab (Turkestan).

Hardly anything is in fact famous about al-Farabi's living. He was basically of Turkic origins, as well as he is thought to have been introduced to Baghdad by his father, who had been most probably inside the Turkish bodyguard on the Caliph.

Farabi analyzed school of thought and even natural science at Aleppo (Halab) and even Baghdad. His attitude combined Aristotelianism as well as Neoplatonic emanationism.

That is without a doubt, in a nutshell: God ("what basically is undoubtedly available from itself"), who begets the planet ("basically existing for the reason that produced by another"), achieves this inside eternity via a succession of "emanations."

The very first such emanation includes cosmic "intellects," due to the fact that both versions corresponds to the specific celestial sphere, the final link within this chain of intellects is actually the "active intellect" that governs the creative as well as destructive processes from the physical universe. The best reason for the purpose of human knowledge would be then to achieve union along with this unique active intellect.

After finishing his early schooling years in Farab and Bukhara, Farabi showed up inside Baghdad in 901 to pursue greater studies. He analyzed inside Baghdad with regard to more than 40 years in addition to acquired mastery over several languages in addition to fields of understanding.

He earned notable contributions within to the fields of mathematics, medicine, music and also ideological background. Like a philosopher and even Neo-Platonist he authored wealthy commentary on Aristotle's work. He's besides that credited with regard to categorizing the domain of logic into two distinct groups: the concept and in addition the proof.

Farabi authored books on sociology along together with a notable one on music: "The Book of Music" ("Kitab (book) al (of) - Musiqa (music)"). He performed and also invented numerous music instruments and the pure Arabian tone system continues to be utilized within Arabic music.

His illustration showing the presence of void in physics can also be famous.

Farabi worked within the then newly acquired religion of Turks: Islam. He found Islam a religion itself possibly not sufficient for the requirements of a philosopher. He saw human reason as better.

With regard to Farabi, religion is undoubtedly a symbolic playing of truth, just like Plato, it's the duty from the philosopher to supply guidance towards the condition. Affected via the work of Aristotle, notably "The Minds from the Many people from the Virtuous City" along with other books, he advanced the vista, really heretical for the purpose of any Muslim, that reason is simply better than imagined.

Religion offered truth inside a symbolic form to non-philosophers, who were actually certainly not in a position to to apprehend it in additional pure forms. The bigger a part of Farabi's works is simply directed for the correct ordering from the condition organization. He contended that simply as God rules the domain, so if the philosopher, as the perfect type of guy, rule the condition he thus relates the political upheavals of his time for you to the distantness from the philosopher inside the government.

He involved within rational questioning of the Koran's authority and also declined "predestination". These are unorthodox, really heretical ideas, also it might be contended they belonged to Islam in the same manner that Voltaire goes to Christianity : he is without a doubt at Muslim culture although definitely not from it, indeed displaying opposition to its specific orthodox core.

Farabi had great relations with science as well as understanding for the purpose of many historical realities. Regrettably the "Theology of Aristotle", he depended over, eventually switched to be the master work of the philosopher: Plotinus. Nonetheless, he appeared to be regarded, for hundreds of years, as the "Second Teacher" inside the field. His works, targeted at synthesis an approach o Sufism, paved the way to the work of Ibn Sina.

Farabi traveled to a lot of distant lands as well as settled for a while in Damascus and Egypt. Having said that, he frequently returned to Baghdad, up to the time he visited Saif al-Daula's court throughout Aleppo (Halab). He grew to become one of the faithful followers of the Sovereign and it was from here that his fame spread.

Throughout his early years he would be a judge (Qadi), and yet afterwards the took up teaching as his primary activity. Throughout the path of his career, he'd experienced great struggles as well as previously appeared to be the caretaker associated with the garden. He died a bachelor in Damascus around roughly 950 C.E. at age (circa) eighty years.

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Discography by Mehmet Okonsar

J.S. Bach "Die Kunst der Fuge"

All CD's available at amazon.com and (partly) at cdbaby.com

The Beginnings Of Islamic Fundamentalism Or Not: Al Ghazali

A short introduction to the life of the Imam Al-Ghazali and its divergences with other famous Islamic thinkers of the medieval era.

J.S. Bach "Musikalische Opfer"

F. Liszt: "modern" works

J.S. Bach "Well-tempered Clavier"

Recital: "Live at Salt Lake City"

J.S. Bach The Goldberg Variations

Piano Solo Improvisations: "Shadowy Arcade"

All CD's can be auditioned entirely and freely at their respective pages. Click on the images.

Al-Ghazali was born in Tus, eastern Persia, close to the current town of Meshed, in 1058. He died in 1111.

His father seems be a modest but pious merchant. Al-Ghazali had been orphaned while very young, but funds put together to pursue the extended training program which brought to him recognition like a physician from the sacred law, and also to work as a scholar and lawyer within the well-endowed theological schools (madrasa) that have been being established within the Seljuk domains throughout al-Ghazali's lifetime.

Al-Ghazali is generally regarded as one of probably the most influential thinkers of medieval Islam. A mystic, theologian, jurist and logician, he is renowned for revealing the compatibility from the outward types of religion using the inner encounters from the Sufi and mystical traditions.

Al-Ghazali condemned the sooner attempts of Al-Farabi and Avicenna to attain a synthesis between Koran and also the techniques and breakthroughs from the Greek philosophy.

He asserted that philosophy had no role within the discovery of truth. One significant result of that was Islam did not created a philosophy of science. Another consequence was that Islamic culture was steered in direction of fundamentalism.

Al-Ghazali made major contributions in religion, philosophy and Sufism. Numerous Muslim philosophers have been following and developing several viewpoints from the Greek philosophy, such as the neo-Platonic philosophy, which was resulting in conflict with several Islamic teachings. However, the movement of Sufism was presuming such excessive proportions regarding the avoidance of the observance of obligatory rules and responsibilities of Islam. Depending on his undeniable scholarship and private mystical experience, Ghazali searched to rectify these trends, in philosophy and Sufism.

Al-Ghazali is within agreement with the Jurist-consults and also the theologists of his time for the unicity and also the eternity of God, a God without substance nor form, who not resemble anything known and which nothing resembles, an all-powerful, omniscient and all pervading.

However the Al-Ghazali God differs for the reason that the world and its components, and all sorts of functions of the mankind, are exposed to Its strong influence and Its direct and constant intervention. The concepts appropriate for justice from the humanity could not be relevant to Him.

Al-Ghazali had been educated with a very thorough philosophical formation he will write an evaluation attempting to summarize the idea of the big Muslim philosophers (Al-Kindi, Rhazes, Al-Farabi, Avicenna).

Disappointed in his search for a final philosophical truth, he is directed towards a significant mysticism, declining any truth by using the philosophers methods and showing them for inaccuracy.

In "Inconsistency From The Philosophers", "Tahafut", which he calls "Al-Falasifa" he shows, through the own approach of the philosophers, that he is able to control fully because of his studies, that the philosophers ways finish simply with errors, a condemnable bus contradicting the Thought.

His critique is mainly aimed at the specific Aristotelism of Avicenna. "The Incoherence (Inconsistency) from the Philosophers" marked a level in Islamic philosophy in the vehement denials of Aristotle and Plato. It led to what is named "falasifa", the denial of a school of thought, represented with many notable names as Avicenna and Al-Farabi, a loosely defined number of Islamic philosophers from the eighth with the eleventh centuries.

This group came intellectually from the Ancient Greeks. Ghazali bitterly denounced Aristotle, Socrates along with other Greek authors as non-followers (non-believers) and labeled these individuals who employed their techniques and concepts as corrupters from the Islamic belief.

Al-Ghazali attempted to keep the interior and exterior facets of religion harmoniously, teaching that exterior deeds must flow from inner spiritual strength.

He wasn't dogmatic, and the teachings positively influenced on treating non-Muslim subjects of Muslim rulers.

It's been recommended that recently raised curiosity about the works from the more exclusive thinker Ibn Taymiyyah has assisted to fuel hostility for the non-Muslim world, while Al-Ghazali's influence were built with a better impact. People from all other beliefs can appreciate al-Ghazali's spiritual insight.

Al-Ghazali, within the late many years of his existence as well as among his letters to Sultan Sanjar, had pointed out the amount of his works to "a lot more than 70". However, you will find a lot more than 400 books credited to him today.

Creating a judgment on the amount of his works as well as their attribution to Ghazali is really a difficult step.

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