Afghan Voice Agency (AVA): This copy, which includes the first volume of the Book of Healing, was donated to the National Library of the Zionist regime by Ibrahim Shalom Yehuda, a famous Jewish collector.

 

Scientists have used the radiocarbon dating method to determine the age of the manuscript attributed to Ibn Sina.

 

Each volume of the four-volume book of healing is dedicated to a subject. In the first volume, Ibn Sina deals with logic, and in the other volumes, he examines natural sciences, psychology, computational sciences (geometry, mathematics, music, and astronomy) and metaphysics.

 

Ibn Sina is considered one of the greatest scientists of the Middle Ages in the Islamic world, and his scientific-critical method, which is now known as "evidence-based medicine", formed the basis of modern medicine.

 

In the middle years of the 20th century, the cataloger of the National Library of the Zionist regime, who was in charge of recording the estimated date of copying the Book of Healing, wrote down the year "1050" along with a question mark for this copy. However, it was not clear on what basis he did this, and therefore different opinions were expressed about the date of writing of this version. Some argued that the manuscript was truly contemporary with Avicenna's lifetime, while others claimed that it was written after the author's death.

 

This issue became more acute when an expert on Islamic manuscripts from Italy claimed that this book was copied 200 years after Ibn Sina's death. Therefore, the library officials decided to scientifically examine the manuscript once and for all to solve the problem of the manuscript's age.

 

  Elisabetta Borto, one of the most famous scientists in the science of dating ancient objects, has done the radiocarbon dating of this book at the Weizmann Institute of Science in the city of Rakhut in occupied Palestine. This method is known as the most reliable way to date a paper for a dated paper.

 

Because carbon dating is an invasive type of testing, there was much discussion about how to do it, project officials said. Initially, it was decided to use the ink of the manuscript for the test, but in the end, in order to minimize the damage to the manuscript, the paper of the book was tested.

 

To perform this test, a thin strip of paper was removed from this copy and analyzed. The results of the tests showed that this manuscript dates back not to the 14th century, but to a date between 1040 and 1160 AD, that is, shortly after Ibn Sina's death in 1037.

 

Researchers say there are easier ways to date a manuscript, one of which is to look at the copy's "colophon," a special mark that's actually a note written by the copyist when the book was finished. However, there was no such thing in this version.

 

More tests are to be done to determine the type of paper fibers. Scientists say that with the help of these tests, the quality, texture, degree of transparency, surface gloss and color, as well as the strength or flexibility of the paper used in the manuscript will be determined and more information will be provided to the researchers.