Abū Al-Faraj ʿAlī ibn al-Husayn ibn Hindū (d. 1032) was a

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

poet, a man of letters, and a practitioner of

Galenic medicine Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Roman and Greek physician, surgeon, and philosopher. Considered to be one of the most accomplished of all medical researcher ...

coming from Rey. Scholars have posited multiple explanations for his name, including that he was Persian and from Hindujān, his possible Indian heritage, and that he was an Arab descendant of the Islamic prophet,

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

Education

His philosophical and medical training was extensive and he studied under

Abu al-Hassan al-Amiri Abu al-Hassan Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Amiri () () (died 992) was a Muslim theologian and philosopher who attempted to reconcile philosophy with religion, and Sufism with conventional Islam. While al-'Amiri believed the revealed truths of Islam were s ...

, Abū Al-Khayr al-Hasan ibn Siwār, and Abū al-Khayr ibn al-Khammār. He traveled to

Arrajan Arrajan (Argan) was a medieval Persian city located between Fars and Khuzestan, which was settled since the civilisation of Elam in the second millennium BCE, and was important from the Sasanian Empire until the 11th century as the capital of a ...

in 965, where he continued his services for the

Buwayhids The Buyid dynasty or Buyid Empire was a Zaydi and later Twelver Shi'a dynasty of Daylamite origin. Founded by Imad al-Dawla, they mainly ruled over central and southern Iran and Iraq from 934 to 1062. Coupled with the rise of other Iranian dyna ...

. He wrote in Arabic. He was most famous for his works of poetry than as a physician. He was also held in high esteem by his students who would travel to study with him. He was employed at

'Adud al-Dawla Fannā (Panāh) Khusraw (), better known by his laqab of ʿAḍud al-Dawla (; 24 September 936 – 26 March 983) was an emir of the Buyid dynasty, ruling from 949 to 983. At the height of his power, he ruled an empire stretching from Makran ...

's ''dīwān.'' His approach to religion has been described as open-minded.

Publications

Ibn Hindū. Miftah al-tibb wa-minhaj al-tullab. he key to the science of medicine and the students' guide Mohaghegh M, Daneshpajuh MT, eds. Tehran: Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University Tehran Branch, in collaboration with Tehran University, 1989. Later translated by Aidi Tibi as ''The Key to Medicine and a Guide for Students.'' The book, espousing the virtues of medicine, has three primary arguments. The first is to demonstrate the noble qualities of being a physician, and to locate the role of physicians within a hierarchy of prestigious professions. The second is to reinforce a hierarchy between those who see reason and accept medicine and the erroneous logic of disbeliever. And finally, ibn Hindū seeks to show the superiority of Dogmatists over Methodists and Empiricists. The above work makes mention to the existence of ''A Treatise Encouraging the Study of Philosophy'', but only a few excerpts of it survive today. Abū al-Faraj ibn Hindū, ''al-Kalim al-rūḥānīyah fī al-ḥikam al-Yūnānīyah'' (Bayrūt, 2001).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hindu, Ibn 11th-century Iranian philosophers 11th-century Iranian writers Medieval Islamic philosophers 11th-century Iranian physicians Buyid-period poets 11th-century Arabic-language poets