TEHRAN-The Society for the Appreciation of Cultural Works and Dignitaries (SACWD) plans to translate more works from the Islamic scholar and polymath Ibn Sina (also known as Avicenna) into Persian, the head of the society said at the final ceremony of the national conference commemorating Ibn Sina in Tehran last week.

“Ibn Sina was a wise man and genius of not only his time but also of all eras. We will try to publish the works left by Ibn Sina in a simple way for the young generation,” Mehr quoted Mahmood Shalooei as saying.

Avicenna was born in 980, near Bukhara, Iran (now in Uzbekistan). He was the most famous and influential of the philosopher-scientists of the medieval Islamic world. He was particularly noted for his contributions in the fields of Aristotelian philosophy and medicine.

He is often described as the father of early modern medicine. His most famous works are “The Book of Healing”, a philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and “The Canon of Medicine”, a medical encyclopedia, which became a standard medical text at many medieval universities and remained in use as late as 1650, laying out a detailed guide for diagnosing and treating ailments.

Besides philosophy and medicine, Avicenna's corpus includes writings on astronomy, alchemy, geography and geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics, and works of poetry.

Avicenna wrote most of his philosophical and scientific works in Arabic, but also wrote several key works in Persian, while his poetic works were written in both languages. Of the 450 works he is believed to have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine.

He died in 1037 in Hamedan and was buried there. His tomb is visited by thousands of tourists from various cities and countries every year.

Holding an exhibition of some of Avicenna's works and honoring many of Avicenna's scholars were among the side programs of the national conference, which was co-organized by the SACWD and the cooperation of the Ibn Sina Scientific and Cultural Foundation.

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