Avicenna's legacy is global – so why has the Arab world forgotten him?

The National

04-05-2025

His work shaped our understanding of medicine and philosophy, while his books were studied from Spain to India. So why do so many Arab students today have little understanding of who Avicenna was? The question was at the heart of Saturday's panel at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, where the 11th-century polymath, known in Arabic as Ibn Sina, is designated as the Focus Personality of the event. Born in 980 CE and raised in what is now Uzbekistan, Avicenna is heralded as a totemic figure in Islamic philosophy and medicine. He authored the seminal Canon of Medicine – used as a foundational medical text until the 18th century – alongside influential works on astronomy, music and theology. His philosophical treatises – particularly The Book of Healing (Kitab al-Shifa') and The Book of Salvation (Kitab al-Najat), with their focus on logic, metaphysics and the natural sciences – went on to shape the thinking of major medieval western thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas, Maimonides and Descartes. Yet despite these achievements – commemorated through tributes such as the Avicenna Hospital in Paris and Unesco's official recognition – his legacy in the region remains distorted or, at best, a faint echo. 'Avicenna didn't write for Muslims alone. He wrote for all of humanity,' said Muheeb Al Mubaidin, historian and former Jordanian government official. 'And perhaps that's one reason why he continues to be viewed with unease in some parts of the Arab world. He's often seen not as a figure of knowledge and healing, but as someone who strayed from the faith. 'So when I reference The Canon of Medicine or cite his views on music and mental well-being, the reaction isn't always about the content. Often, it's about the fact that I dared to invoke his name at all.' Al Mubaidin pointed to the public backlash that followed a previous government effort to reintroduce philosophy and the arts into Jordanian school curricula – a controversy sparked, in part, by a proposal featuring a passage from Avicenna on the healing power of music. 'I included a quote by Ibn Sina on the therapeutic effects of music in the school curriculum,' he said. 'The response was immediate – someone said, 'So now you're bringing us the one who strayed from the faith?'' For Al Mubaidin, the episode was revealing. 'It made it clear to me that the reaction wasn't really about the music – it was about the man, and the fact that I dared to treat him as a source of insight. It was disappointing, but it showed me the disconnect between his historical stature and how he's viewed today.' It wasn't always this way, according to professor Mustafa Al-Nashar – a distinguished Egyptian philosopher – who noted how Avicenna's work as both physician and philosopher was once widely studied in hospitals and universities from Baghdad to Cordoba. His medical innovations, including his theories of contagion and the importance of quarantine – helped shape both practice and ethics, training generations of doctors and scholars. The rupture, Al-Nashar said, occurred gradually in the centuries that followed, driven by what he described as theological and ideological misunderstandings of Avicenna's work. 'The problem began when some people started saying that philosophy contradicts religion. This is not true. Avicenna believed that reason and revelation complete each other. But when certain ideologies took over education, they removed philosophy – they said it was foreign, even sinful," he said. "In Europe, they taught Avicenna. They studied him for centuries – in Paris, in Italy and in Spain. He shaped how they understood medicine, how they thought about the soul. They built on his work while we forgot his name.' It is partly for this reason that French-Egyptian author Gilbert Sinoue has dedicated parts of his career to bringing Ibn Sina's impact back into view. His most recent book, The Golden Age of Arab Civilisation, highlights Avicenna's contributions alongside other towering figures. It follows 1989's Avicenna: The Road to Isfahan – a fictionalised biography that traces the philosopher's life and legacy. "I've always tried to be a sort of bridge between Avicenna's thought – the Muslim world in general – and the West,' Sinoue said. 'Especially now, when anything that represents 'Muslim' carries a rather dark image in the West. For me, it was both a need and a duty to transmit the humanist and cultural dimension of Avicenna.' Al-Nashar described reclaiming Avicenna's legacy, through the study of philosophy and the arts, as central to the region's cultural and educational advancement. He called it a 'disgrace' that some educational institutions in the Arab world had removed these disciplines entirely. At the same time, he commended the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair for spotlighting Avicenna and praised Fujairah's House of Philosophy for sparking renewed interest. 'It is a disgrace that philosophy was removed from our schools,' Al-Nashar said. 'We are in dire need of it. How can philosophy disappear from our Arab world, especially when we are in such desperate need of clear thinking and vision?" The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair is running at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre until Monday