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Ibn Sina's Canon of Medicine
completed 1025· Book, artwork, monument or document· Medicine & surgery
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
A five-book medical encyclopedia completed in 1025 by the Persian scholar Ibn Sina (Avicenna), a standard textbook for some 600 years.
See it on the Technology & Medicine map →How it works
Ibn Sina, born near Bukhara (now Uzbekistan) in 980, was a philosopher and court physician. His Canon of Medicine organized Greek medicine from Hippocrates and Galen, Aristotle's logic and earlier Arabic-writing doctors into five books: principles, simple drugs, diseases organ by organ, conditions affecting the whole body, and compound remedies. It set rules for testing drugs and discussed contagious disease. Gerard of Cremona translated it into Latin in the 1100s.
Why it mattered
It was taught in European universities into the 1600s and is still a reference in traditional Unani medicine; it set the model of the systematic medical textbook.
How we know
Hundreds of surviving Arabic manuscripts, the Latin text printed in many editions from 1473, and university curricula at Montpellier, Padua and elsewhere that required it.
Still unknown or debated
How much is original versus compiled is debated; his debts to al-Razi and al-Majusi are still being traced.
Connections (4)
▸Galen was synthesised in Ibn Sina's Canon of MedicineWell documented
The connection
Galen's works, translated into Arabic in Baghdad, were the backbone of Islamic medicine. Ibn Sina arranged Galen's physiology, humours, pulse lore and drugs into one orderly framework, squared where possible with Aristotle's philosophy, and added later knowledge. Through the Canon, Galen's medicine reached Europe in a tidier, more teachable form.
When and how
Persia: begun in Gorgan about 1012 and completed in Hamadan around 1025, using the Arabic translations of Hunayn ibn Ishaq's circle.
How we know
The Canon follows Galen's doctrines throughout and names him often; it openly tries to reconcile him with Aristotle, for example on the heart's role.
Debates and open questions
How far Ibn Sina reshaped Galen versus simply condensing him is still discussed by historians.
▸Ibn Sina's Canon of Medicine was challenged as Europe's textbook by Vesalius's De humani corporis fabricaWell documented
The connection
Ibn Sina's Canon, a vast summary of Greek and Galenic medicine, was a core textbook in European universities for centuries and was still taught at Padua when Vesalius lectured there. The Fabrica's anatomy, built on human dissection, undercut the Galenic anatomy the Canon passed on and helped shift teaching from texts to bodies.
When and how
The Canon was finished in Persia in 1025 and translated into Latin in Toledo in the 1100s; Vesalius taught at Padua, where it was a set text, from 1537.
How we know
University statutes list the Canon as required reading into the 1600s; Vesalius's work and students' notes show anatomy teaching changing after 1543.
Debates and open questions
The Canon stayed in some curricula until about 1650, so whether Vesalius displaced it or merely supplemented it for a century is debated.
▸Ibn Sina's Canon of Medicine may have anticipated the 40 days of QuarantineDebated
The connection
Ibn Sina wrote that some diseases spread through contact and corrupted air, and he is often credited with recommending 40 days of isolation. If so, the Canon, widely taught in Italian medical schools, could have influenced the 40-day wait later adopted by Venice. The link is plausible but unproven.
When and how
The Canon was completed in Persia in 1025; Ragusa's 30-day rule came in 1377, and Venice and other Italian ports moved to 40 days in the 1400s.
How sure are we?
Uncertain: a passage clearly prescribing 40-day isolation is hard to find in the Canon, and the Italian decrees do not cite Ibn Sina.
Debates and open questions
The number 40 also had biblical meaning and appears in ancient Greek writing on acute disease, so the Canon may be one of several sources, or none.
▸Al-Razi (Rhazes) was a key source for Ibn Sina's Canon of MedicineMostly agreed
The connection
Al-Razi's al-Hawi was a huge, loosely organized notebook of cases and quotations from Greek, Indian and Arabic authors. A century later Ibn Sina drew on material like it, including al-Razi's clinical descriptions, but arranged everything into the tight, systematic Canon. Later doctors often contrasted them: al-Razi the bedside clinician, Ibn Sina the systematizer.
When and how
Rayy and Baghdad, about 900–925; the Canon was completed in Hamadan, Persia, around 1025.
How sure are we?
The Canon's content overlaps al-Razi's works on many diseases, including smallpox, but Ibn Sina rarely names his sources, so the debt is inferred.
Debates and open questions
Ibn Sina scorned al-Razi's philosophy; how directly he used al-Hawi, versus al-Majusi's Royal Book, is debated.