HAMADAN: CITY OF AVICENNA

Hamadan province is one of the 32 provinces of Iran. Hamadan, as the capital of Hamadan's Province is believed to be among the oldest Iranian cities and one of the oldest in the world. The province of Hamadan consists of the following cities:

Hamadan, Toyserkan, Asadabad, Bahar, Razan, Famenin, Kabudarahang, Malayer and Nahavand

Essentially the spoken language of Hamadan's province is Persian, while in the north part of the capital city of Hamadan, they mostly speak in Azari Turkish and in the northwest, they speak in Kurdish and in some parts mainly in cities such as Malayer, Nahavand, and Samen most people speak Lori and Lak.

Hamadan province lies in a temperate mountainous region. Alvand Kuh in western Iran is located 10 km south of the Hamadan city, with an elevation of 3584 m. It has provided the city of Hamadan with winter sports opportunities such as mountain climbing, rock climbing and skiing; therefore, it has become one of the natural attractions of the province. With such facilities, Hamadan has been attracting tourists not only from different cities of Iran, but also from different parts of the world. With the arrival of spring, Alvand and other mountains witness the growth and flourishing of various native plants and vegetables including salsify, viola, urtica, chamomile artichoke, chicory, and etc. Hence, from the past to the present, Hamadan has been a rich source of different vegetables and herbs including medicinal herbs.

TOURIST ATTRACTION

Currently, the province is known as the fifth cultural and tourist province of the country, due to housing historical and cultural centers and monuments. The most famous historical and natural attractions can be listed as the following as an example:

» Tomb of Hakim Bu-Ali Sina (Avicenna)

» Shrine of Habakkuk (Prophet of Israelites)

» Stone writings of Ganjnameh (Treasure Letter)

» Ali Sadr Cave

» Sheirsangy (Stone Lion) Statue

» Excavated Ancient City of Ecbatana

» Tomb of Esther and Mordechai

» Castle of Yazdgerd III

» The ancient temples and castles of Youshijan

» Church of Hamadan

» Ecbatana Dam

» Tourist Complex of Telecabin

» Ski Resort of Tarykdarreh (Dark Valley)

» Natural History Museum

» Hegmataneh Museum

» Comprehensive Theoretical Museum

» Bu-Ali Museum

ACADEMIC STATUS

Owing to the fact that the tomb and museum of the great philosopher and physician, Avicenna, is located in Hamadan, it is known as the city of Avicenna. This tomb is the symbol of Hamadan and also is one of the symbols of the Iranians strong background in culture, science, and world knowledge. In his short life, he presented his society with 476 books and treatises in all common sciences of his era. Currently, only 246 books and treatise related to him are available in different libraries throughout the world. 

AVICENNA

LIFE AND EDUCATION

According to Avicenna's personal account of his life, as communicated in the records of his longtime pupil al-Juzjani, he read and memorized the entire Quran by age 10. The tutor Natili instructed the youth in elementary logic, and, having soon surpassed his teacher, Avicenna took to studying the Hellenistic authors on his own. By age 16, Avicenna turned to medicine, a discipline over which he claimed “easy” mastery. When the sultan of Bukhara fell ill with an ailment that baffled the court physicians, Avicenna was called to his bedside and cured him. In gratitude, the sultan opened the royal Samanid library to him, a fortuitous benevolence that introduced Avicenna to a veritable cornucopia of science and philosophy.

Avicenna began his prodigious writing career at age 21. Some 240 extant titles bear his name. They cross numerous fields, including mathematics, geometry, astronomy, physics, metaphysics, philology, music, and poetry. Often caught up in the tempestuous political and religious strife of the era, Avicenna's scholarship was unquestionably hampered by a need to remain on the move. At Esfahan, under Ala al-Dawla, he found the stability and security that had eluded him. If Avicenna could be said to have had any halcyon days, they occurred during his time at Esfahan, where he was insulated from political intrigues and could hold his own scholars' court every Friday, discussing topics at will. In this salubrious climate Avicenna completed Kutab al-shifa, wrote Danish nama-i alai (Book of Knowledge) and Kitab al-najat (Book of Salvation), and compiled new and more accurate astronomical tables.

INFLUENCE IN PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE

In 1919–20 British Orientalist and acclaimed authority on Persia Edward G. Browne opined that “Avicenna was a better philosopher than physician, but al-Razi [Rhazes] a better physician than philosopher,” a conclusion oft repeated ever since. But a judgment issued 800 years later begs the question: By what contemporary measure is an appraisal of “better” made? Several points are needed to make the philosophical and scientific views of these men comprehensible today. Theirs was the culture of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258), the final ruling dynasty built on the precepts of the first Muslim community (ummah) in the Islamic world. Thus, their cultural beliefs were remote from those of the 20th-century West and those of their Hellenistic predecessors. Their worldview was the centric (centered on God)-rather than anthropocentric (centered on humans), a perspective known to the Greco-Roman world. Their cosmology was a unity of natural, supernatural, and preternatural realms.

Avicenna's cosmology centralized God as the Creator-the First Cause-the necessary Being from whom emanated the 10 intelligences and whose immutable essence and existence reigned over these intelligences. The First Intelligence descended on down to the Active Intelligence, which communicated to humans through its divine light, a symbolic attribute deriving authority from the Quran. 

Avicenna's most important work of philosophy and science is Kitab al-shifa, which is a four-part encyclopedia covering logic, physics, mathematics, and metaphysics. Since science was equated with wisdom, Avicenna attempted a broad unified classification of knowledge. For example, in the physics section, nature is discussed in the context of eight principal sciences, including the sciences of general principles, of celestial and terrestrial bodies, and of primary elements, as well as meteorology, mineralogy, botany, zoology, and psychology (science of the soul). The subordinate sciences, in order of importance, as designated by Avicenna, are medicine; astrology; physiognomy, the study of the correspondence of psychological characteristics to physical structure; oneiromancy, the art of dream interpretation; talismans, objects with magical power to blend the celestial forces with the forces of particular worldly bodies, giving rise to extraordinary action on Earth; theurgy, the “secrets of prodigies," whereby the combining of terrestrial forces are made to produce remarkable actions and effects; and alchemy, an arcane art studied by Avicenna, although he ultimately rejected its transmutationism (the notion that base metals, such as copper and lead, could be transformed into precious metals, such as gold and silver). Mathematics is divided into four principal sciences: numbers and arithmetic, geometry and geography, astronomy, and music.

Logic was viewed by Avicenna as instrumental to philosophy, an art and a science to be concerned with second-order concepts. While he is generally within the tradition of al-Farabi and al-Kindi, he more clearly dissociated himself from the Peripatetic school of Baghdad and utilized concepts of the Platonic and Stoic doctrines more openly and with a more independent mind. More importantly, his theology—the First Cause and the 10 intelligences—allowed his philosophy, with his devotion to God as Creator and the celestial hierarchy, to be imported easily into medieval European Scholastic thought.

During his time in Hamadan, in order to establish an observation, Avicenna invented a device and carefully studied major concepts of physics including movement, force, vacuum, light and heat. He is the first Muslim scientist who has written comprehensive and exact books on philosophy and medicine. His master piece, The Book of Healing, is actually an encyclopedia of philosophy. In addition to The Book of Healing (Shafa), The Book of Salvation (Nejat), Epoch and Afterlife (Mabda-va-Maadd) and Remarks and Admonitions (Eshaarat va Tanbiehat) are all his work on philosophy.

Avicenna wrote The Book of Canon (ketab-e Qanun), which is better to be said that he best owed the world with his medical encyclopedia. Until 17th century, this book which is in five volumes was the most valid medical book in Europe, and was taught in any university and can still benefit from his justifications and manifestations. Avicenna, master of teaching and training, is also the first Muslim scientist who had unique and valuable opinion in this field. Home Management (Tazkerat-al Manazel) and four chapters of the third thesis of the first book of The Book of Canon and the first essay in the fifth chapter of The Book of Healing has been dedicated to children health and training. As to sports and its kind, about choosing a craft and profession, he takes the hand of the human being and shows him the beginning of bliss and felicity. Since thousand years ago he recommended children coaches to take the child's interest and desire into consideration and encourage her/him in that specific profession or craft which he is interested and talented. Moreover, he has some treaties and discussions about psychology and psychiatry in his The Book of Canon.

Having the tomb and mausoleum of such philosopher and physicist at the heart of the city, has added to the development of science and knowledge in Hamadan and rendered Hamadan University of Medical Sciences as an outstanding and prominent academic centers for students and scientists. Moreover, with having other universities including Technical University of Hamadan, Bu Ali Sina University, Hamadan Azad Islamic University, Payam-e Noor University of Hamadan and other colleges and institutes, Hamadan is recognized as one of  the university poles of the country.