[3] The figure of speech in the Arabic is «loopholes»; compare Surah
2:257, and 31:21, and Beydâwi’s Commentary.
[4] The «waly» performs miracles only, whereas the «naby» performs
miracles, and also foretells future events.
[5] Who was this prince; and why did the author stand in such need
of his countenance as to dedicate to him this booklet in the humble
and lengthy terms of apology which run through the greater part of
the Introduction? It is Doctor S. Landauer’s opinion that, with this
Essay, Ibn Sînâ began his career as a writer. After he had completed
the sixteenth year of his age, he was summoned to the bedside of the
suffering Sâmânid prince, Nûh ibn Mançûr, who resided at Bukhâra (See
Ibn Khallikân’s Biographies), and succeeded in curing him. Then,
followed a long period during which Ibn Sînâ removed from the Court
of one Ruler to that of another, and was successively engaged in the
service of various Petty Dynasties in Khurasân. If then this Essay
was his maiden production--as Doctor Landauer assumes--the author was
still quite young, and stood in need of the patronage he so earnestly
implores. Furthermore there is a manuscript in Leyden, marked Codex
958, and numbered 1968 in the Catalogue, which is a small treatise on
the soul by Ibn Sînâ, closing as follows:
«I had produced a short essay on the exposition of the knowledge of
the soul, and what is connected therewith, at the beginning of my
career forty years ago, after the purely philosophical method of
investigation. Whoso wishes to know that method, let him peruse it, for
it is adapted to the seekers of research.»
The «40 years ago» fit exactly, if students one assumes that the
literary production referred to is the one he dedicated to «the
Prince.» Now, the first prince he came in contact with was Nûh ibn
Mançûr (ruled from 366-387 H. = 976-997 A.D., the Eighth of the
Sâmânid Dynasty). Ibn Khallikân relates that Ibn Sînâ, at the age of 16
years, had begun to have a great reputation as a physician. Moreover
the Latin translation in Florence of this essay bears in express words
the dedication to Nûh. Result:
Ibn Sînâ born in 370 H. = 980 A.D.
Earliest Age as
Treating Physician 386 H. = 996
Death of Nûh in
Month of Ragab 387 H. = 997 Jule