Avicenna: autobiografie/biografie

Avicenna nám zanechal nejen velké literární dílo, ale i krátkou autobiografii. Ta byla po jeho smrti dopsána jakožto biografie jeho učedníkem Abu Ubaydem. Text je pozoruhodný, zde je anglický překlad W. Gohlmana její první, autobiografické části (vlastní členění a titulky):


Původ a rané dětství - studium Koránu, literatury, matematiky

My father was a man of Balkh; he moved from there to Bukhara in the days of Amir Nuh ibn Mansur, during whose reign he worked in the administration, being entrusted with the governing of a village in one of the royal estates of Bukhara. [The village,] called Kharmaythan, was one of the most important villages I in this territory. Near it is a village called Afshanah, where my father married my mother and where he took up residence and lived. I was born there, as was my brother, and then we moved to Bukhara. A teacher of the Quran and a teacher of literature were provided for me, and when I reached the age of ten I had finished the Quran and many works of literature, so that people were greatly amazed at me.

My father was one of those who responded to the propagandist of the Egyptians and was reckoned among the Ismailiyya. I From them, he, as well as my brother, heard the account of the soul and the intellect in the special manner in which they speak about it and know it. Sometimes they used to discuss this among themselves while I was listening to them and understanding what they were saying, but my soul would not accept it, and so they began appealing to me to do it [to accept the their doctrines.] And there was also talk of philosophy, geometry, and Indian calculation. Then he [my father] sent me to a vegetable seller who used Indian calculation and so I studied with him. 

Studium práva, logiky, Eukleida, Ptolemaia

At that time Abu Abd Allah al-Natili, who claimed to know philosophy, arrived in Bukhara; so my father had him stay in our house and he devoted himself to educating me. Before his arrival I had devoted myself to jurisprudence, with frequent visits to Ismail the Ascetic about it. I was a skillful questioner, having become acquainted with the methods of prosecution and the procedures of rebuttal in the manner which the practitiollers of it [jurisprudence] follow. Then I began to read the Isagoge under al-Natili, and when he mentioned to me the definition of genus, as being that which is predicated of a number of things of different species in answer to the question "What is it?", I evoked his admiration by verifying this definition in a manner unlike any he had heard of. He was extremely amazed at me; whatever problem he posed I conceptualized better than he, so he advised my father against my taking up any occupation other than learning. 

I continued until I had read the simple parts of logic under him; but as for its deeper intricacies, he had no knowledge of them. So I began to read the texts and study the commentaries by myself until I had mastered logic. As for Euclid, I read the first five or six figures under him; then I undertook the solution of the rest of the book in its entirety by myself.

Then I moved on to the Almagest, and when I had finished its introductory sections and got to the geometrical figures, al-Natili said to me, "Take over reading and solving them by yourself, then show them to me, so that I can explain to you what is right with it and what is wrong." But the man did not attempt to deal with the text, so I deciphered it myself. And many a figure he did not grasp until I put it before him and made him understand it. Then al-Natili left me, going on to Gurganj. 

Další studium - lékařství

I devoted myself to studying the texts-the original and commentaries--in the natural sciences and metaphysics, and the gates of knowledge began opening for me. Next I sought to know medicine, and so I read the books written on it. Medicine is not one of the difficult sciences, and therefore I excelled in it in a very short time, to the point that distinguished physicians began to read the science of medicine under me. I cared for the sick and there opened to me some of the doors of medical treatment that are indescribable and can be learned only from practice. In addition I devoted myself to jurisprudence and used to engage in legal disputations, at that time being sixteen years old. 


Then, for the next year and a half, I dedicated myself to learning and reading; I returned to reading logic and all the parts of philosophy. During this time I did not sleep completely through a single night nor devote myself to anything else by day. I compiled a set of files for myself, and for each proof that I examined, I entered into the files its syllogistic premises, their classification, and what might follow from them. I pondered over the conditions of its premises, until this problem was verified for me, And because of those problems which used to baffle me, not being able to solve the middle term of the syllogism, I used to visit the mosque frequently and worship, praying humbly to the All-Creating" until He opened the mystery of it to me and made the difficult seem easy. At night I would return home, set out a lamp before me, and devote myself to reading and writing. Whenever sleep overcame me or I became conscious of weakening, I would turn aside to drink a cup of wine, so that my strength would return to me.

Then I would return to reading. And whenever sleep seized me I would see those very problems in my dream; and many questions became clear to me in my sleep. I continued in this until all of the sciences were deeply rooted within me and I understood them as far as is I humanly possible. Everything which I knew at that time is just as I know it now; I have not added anything to it to this day.

Potíže s metafyzikou

Thus I mastered the logical, natural, and mathematical sciences, and I had now reached the science of metaphysics. I read the Metaphysics [of Aristotle], but I could not comprehend its contents, and its author's object remained obscure to me, even when I had gone back and read it forty times and had got to the point where I had memorized it. In spite of this I could not understand it nor its object, and I despaired of myself and said, "This is a book which there is no way of understanding." But one day in the after-noon when I was at the booksellers' quarter I a salesman approached with a book in his hand which he was calling out for sale. He offered it to me, but I refused it with disgust, believing that there was no merit in this science. But he said to me, "Buy it, because its owner needs the money and so it is cheap. I will sell it to you for three dirhams." So I bought it and, lo and behold, it was Abu Nasr al-Farabi's book on the objects of the Metaphysics. I returned home and was quick to read it, and in no time the objects of that book became clear to me because I had got to the point of having memorized it by heart. I rejoiced at this and the next day gave much in alms to the poor in gratitude to God, who is exalted.

It happened that the Sultan of that time in Bukhara, Nuh ibn Mansur, had an illness which baffled the doctors. Since my name had become well known among them as a result of my zeal for learning and reading, they brought me to his attention and asked him to summon me. Thus I presented myself and joined with them in treating him, and so became enrolled in his service. One day I asked him to permit me to go into their library, to get to know it and to read its books. He gave me permission and I was admitted to a building which had many rooms; in each room there were chests of books piled one on top of the other. In one of the rooms were books on the Arabic language and poetry, in another, on jurisprudence, and likewise in each room were books on a single science. So I looked through the catalogue of books by the ancients and asked for whichever one I needed. I I saw books whose names had not reached very many people and which I had not seen before that time, nor have I seen since. I read these books and mastered what was useful in them and discovered the status of each man in his science. 

So when I had reached the age of eighteen I was finished with all of these sciences; at that time I had a better memory for learning, but today my knowledge is more mature; otherwise it is the same; nothing new has come to me since.

Počátek literární činnosti (18 let)

In my neighborhood there was a man named Abu al Hasan the Prosodist, who asked me to compose for him a comprehensive work on this learning [which I had attained.] So I wrote The Compilation for him, and gave his name to it, including in it all of the sciences except mathematical science. At that time I was twenty-one years old. Also in my neighborhood there was a man named Abu Bakr al-Baraqi, a Khwarazmian by birth, and a lawyer by inclination; he was distinguished in jurisprudence, Quran commentary, and asceticism, having a liking for these sciences. He asked me to comment on the books [in these sciences], and so I wrote The Sum and Substance for him in about twenty volumes. I also wrote for him a book on ethics which I called Good Works and Evil.

These two works exist only in his possession, and he has not loaned out either one of them to be copied. Then my father died and I was free to govern my own affairs and so I took over one of the administrative posts of the Sultan. Necessity then led me to forsake Bukhara and move to Gurganj.

I where Abu al-Husayn al-Suhayli, an amateur of the sciences, was a minister. I was presented to the Amir there, Ali ibn Mamun; at that time I was in lawyer's dress, with a fold of the mantle under my chin. They gave me a monthly salary which provided enough for someone like me. Then necessity led me to move to Nasa [= Nisa, viz 13.11.2010], and from there to Baward, and then to Tus, then to Samanqan, then to Jajarm, at the extreme limit of Khurasan, and then to Jurjan. My destination was the Amir Qabus, but at that time there occurred the seizure of Qabus, his imprisonment in one of his castles, and his death there. Then I departed for Dihistan, where I became very ill, and from where I returned to Jurjan. Abu Ubayd al-Juzjani joined me there and recited to me an ode on my state of affairs which contains the poet's verse:

   When I became great, no country could hold me;
     When my price went up, I lacked a buyer.

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• GOHLMAN, William E. The life of Ibn Sina, Arabic text and English translation of the author's autobiography, Albany, NY: SUNY, 1974. ISBN 0-87395-226-X.