The Canon of Medicine

The Canon of Medicine (al-Qanun fi al-Tibb) is a medical encyclopedia written by Ibn Sina. In his introduction he divided it into five books. The first begins with the general principles of the science of medicine, in four sections, and the second begins with simple drugs ¹.

The first book has four sections: the definition of medicine and its subject matter; then general diseases, causes and symptoms; then the cause of health and sickness and the necessity of death; then the classification of the methods of treatment. These sections begin on pages 13, 103, 200 and 267 of the first volume ^{2 3 4 5 6}.

The second book, on simple drugs, begins on page 313 of the first volume and ends on page 728 ^{7 8}.

The third book, on diseases affecting the parts of the body one organ at a time, begins on page 3 of the second volume. The fourth book, on diseases not specific to one organ and on cosmetics, begins on page 3 of the third volume and ends on page 393. The fifth book, on the compounding of drugs, which is the Aqrabadhin, begins on page 395 of the third volume ^{9 10 11 12}.

The three volumes are from the Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya edition in Beirut, first edition 1420 AH / 1999 CE, with notes by Muhammad Amin al-Dannawi. The edition has not yet been checked against a library catalogue, so the date rests on the title page alone. The point where the third book ends is not identified in the second volume, and the text of the third volume breaks off before the end of the fifth book. The page numbers here are scan numbers, which match the printed numbers at the points we checked.