ABSTRACT
Ibn Sīnā was born in year 370 of the Hegira (year 980 of the Christian era) in Khurasan, which along with Baghdad was the most important centre of intellectual activity in the Islamic world during the fourth century (tenth century). By the time he had opened his eyes to this world, such philosophers as al-Kindī, al-Fārābī, Abu’l-Ḥasan al-‘Āmirī, and Abū Sulaymān al-Sijistānī had already established the foundations of Peripatetic (mashshā’ī) philosophy in Islam. The Mu‘tazilite school had already produced its most illustrious representatives such as al-Naẓẓām and Abu’l-Hudhayl al-‘Allāf. The Ash‘arites, through Abu’l-Ḥasan al-Ash‘arī and Abu Bakr al-Baqillānī, had capûtured the centre of the intellectual arena in Baghdad as far as Kalām was concerned, and were pressing their attacks against the falsafah. Other schools of Islamic philosophy such as the Hermetico-Pythagorean and the Ismā’ilī had produced important figures such as Jābir ibn Ḥayyān and Abū Ya‘qūb al-Sijistānī. Sufism of both the Baghdadi and Khurasani schools had been witness to the lives and teachings of such outstanding masters as Junayd, Ḥallāj and Bāyazīd. Likewise, Islamic science had already produced some of its outstanding luminaries such as Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārazmī in mathematics and Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā’ Rāzī (Rhazes) in medicine.
