Customer Reviews

Avicenna (Heroes from the East)

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It is not common to find an english book about the eastern philosophers and scientists that is also written for children. This book has a nice story about Avicenna with easy to understand and explain segments. The quality of the print and minature paintings also help to share the book with others. I enjoyed it and so did my son.

The anonymous reviewer who chimed in with her (lack of) knowledge of Avicenna (Abu Ali Sina as he is known to us Iranians), has very little to do with the book itself! Further more, even if what she states were to be true it does not diminish Avicenna's stature as a Scientist , a Philosopher or a Physician. The book is a good start in learning about one of the brightest, most prolific and brilliant scientific brains of all times. I would recommend it very highly.
Now to clarify some confusion:
Avicenna, was never an Arab. He was born in the region of Bokhara, 980 ; died in Hamadan, in Northern Iran, 1037, where he is buried. Before he had completed his twenty-first year he wrote his famous "Canon" of medical science, which for several centuries, after his time, remained the principal authority in medical schools both in Europe and in Asia. He served successively several Persian Kings as physician and adviser, traveling with them from place to place, and despite the habits of conviviality for which he was well known, devoted much time to literary labors, as is testified by the hundred volumes which he wrote in Persian (aka Farsi). Knowledge of Arabic doesn't make him an Arab. As writing medical papers in English (the scientific language of our time) doesn't make European scientists American!

I think this book is a good start for a youngester to learn more about Persian historical figures. I recomend it, with an adult supervision for adding/correcting additional info. One comment I would like to add is that I don't understand why so many times when there is an attempt in the west to write about a scientist/poet etc. who was a Muslim, they are introduced as Arab. This laziness is so incredibly common. Abu Ali Sina, just as Rumi, Hafez, Omar Khayam, and many other Muslim figures, was Persian (Iranian). You don't have to be an Arab to be Muslim (no disrespect to my Arab brethrens intended).

If the idea was to encourage young children to know about Persian thinkers, then this book fails, in my view. Avicenna as a scientist and as a philosophe was too complicated a man. He was known to drink excessive amounts of alchohol and to have an abnormal sexual appetite, things which my two young girls should not know about at their age. The book, obviously avoids this but the choice of Avicenna was, as a scientist myself, rather too ambitious. It is much safer to have books based on well-rounded characters who children can love and identify with. I am sure there are many adults who find Avicenna, especially in the Arab World, a very enigmatic character. His philosophy is regarded as a mixed blessing by many. A more neutral figure, perhaps someone like Ghazali or Ibn Battuta would be likely to capture the hearts of young children. This book, however, is not really truthful. There are Arab heroes who led exemplary lives, some of whom were women. I was angry with the publishers for not making better use of the many examples in Arab history and for trying too hard to make something which is already obscure and troubled, into something might find remotely akin to the world of children. As a woman I am surprised that children should be made to read books about complicated characters rather than those who were truly lovable.