The Canon of Medicine (Arabic: القانون في الطب al-Qānūn fī al-Ṭibb) is an encyclopedia of medicine in 5 books compiled by Persian physician-philosopher Avicenna (Ibn Sina) & completed in 1025. It presents an overview of the contemporary medical knowledge of the medieval Islamic world, which had been influenced by earlier traditions including Greco-Roman medicine (particularly Galen), Persian medicine, & Indian medicine.
Avicenna was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, thinkers & writers of the Islamic Golden Age. He has been described as the father of early modern medicine.
The Canon of Medicine remained a medical authority for centuries. It set the standards for medicine in Medieval Europe & the Islamic world & was used as a standard medical textbook through the 18C in Europe.
The medical traditions of Galen & thereby Hippocrates, had dominated Islamic medicine from its beginnings. Avicenna sought to fit these traditions into Aristotle's natural philosophy. He began writing the Canon in Gorganj, continued in Rey & completed it in Hamadan in 1025. The result was a "clear & ordered "summa" of all the medical knowledge of Ibn Sīnā's time". It served as a more concise reference in contrast to Galen's 20 volumes of medical corpus.
The Canon of Medicine is divided into 5 books:
1 Essays on basic medical & physiological principles, anatomy, regimen & general therapeutic procedures.
2 List of medical substances, arranged alphabetically, following an essay on their general properties.
Book 2 (the Materia Medica) of the Canon alphabetically lists about 800 "simple" medical substances used at the time. The substances are simple in that they are not compounded with other substances. The first part gives general rules about drugs & a treatise on what was called "the science of powers of medicines". The second part is a list of 800 simple floral, mineral, & animal substances. Each entry contains the substance's name, its criteria of goodness (which sometimes describes how the substance is found in nature), & its nature or primary qualities.
3 Diagnosis & treatment of diseases specific to one part of the body
4 Diagnosis & treatment of conditions of multiple body parts or the entire body.
5 Formulary of compound remedies.
