Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina (Avicenna)

Born: 980 in Kharmaithen (near Bukhara), Central Asia (now Uzbekistan)Died: June 1037 in Hamadan, Persia (now Iran)

Ibn Sina is often known by his Latin name of Avicenna, although most references to him today have reverted to using the correct version of ibn Sina. We know many details of his life for he wrote an autobiography which has been supplemented with material from a biography written by one of his students. The autobiography is not simply an account of his life, but rather it is written to illustrate his ideas of reaching the ultimate truth, so it must be carefully interpreted. A useful critical edition of this autobiography appears in [7] while a new translation appears in [9].

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The Life & History of Saladin

Some history books speak of the crusades as “an invasion of Muslim territories by marauding Europeans whose primary motive is to plunder new lands.”(Closson) By definition in today’s society, the crusades were part of early European imperialism.(Lewis) Yet, a mere 400 years had passed since Islam had conquered North Africa and forcibly taken the large Christian populations into their fold. The crusaders actually emphasized the importance of Christ’s’ birthplace and the measures in which both Islam and Christianity needed to take in order to keep it sacred for themselves.

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