Why the Canon of Medicine was taught for six centuries
Ibn Sina’s Canon was clear, complete and well ordered. Universities kept teaching it long after his death.
Ibn Sina finished al-Qanun fi al-Tibb, the Canon of Medicine, early in the eleventh century. It gathered Greek, Persian and Arabic medicine into five books.1
The first book covers general principles, the second simple remedies, and the fifth compound drugs.
A book built for teaching
Its strength was order: general principles first, then remedies, then diseases from head to foot. In Latin it became a standard text in European medical schools into the seventeenth century.
Notes
- The first book covers general principles, the second simple remedies, and the fifth compound drugs. ↩