HISTORY OF BOTANY. 23 



where he obtained a very good situation under the Caliph 

 al-Hakim. He died 1015. His works do not seem to be 

 now in existence in the original Arabic, but there are Latin 

 translations of three of them on medicines. 



We next come to Ebn Sina, or Avicenna. Avicenna was 

 the most renowned of all the Arab physicians. He was 

 born in the province of Bochara, 980. Being naturally 

 precocious, and receiving early a good education, he soon 

 became a miracle of erudition, insomuch that in his tenth 

 year he knew the Koran, and several philological works, b}" 

 heart. He next studied politics and arithmetic, under 

 competent teachers. About this time a philosopher called 

 Abu Abdallah al-Nathili went to Bochara, and was employed 

 as Avicenna's tutor by his father ; but the pupil was soon in 

 advance of his teacher, and answered his questions better 

 than he himself knew how, and when they turned to logic 

 Avicenna found that his teacher knew nothing at all about 

 its niceties : Al-Nathali did not long continue his tutor. 

 Avicenna's studies proceeded in mathematics, physics, meta- 

 physics, and medicine, until he was sixteen years old, when 

 his ardour is represented to have become something 

 altogether extraordinary. He scarcely slept at all, working 

 day and night, and when he came across a difficulty that 

 baffled him he frequently betook himself to the Mosque, and 

 sought assistance in prayer. He had the good fortune to be 

 appointed physician to the Sultan Null Ben Mansur, and 

 obtained permission to make use of his si)lendid library, 

 where he found books of which most men had never heard 

 even the titles, which he had never before seen himself, and 

 which he never saw after. We may imagine the assiduous 

 study that he would give to this library. As unfortunately 

 it afterwards happened that this invaluable treasure of 

 learning was destroyed by fire, the enviers and enemies of 

 Avicenna asserted that he had himself burnt it, so that he 



