Avicenna, also known as Ibn Sina, was born in 980 in Afshana, near Bukhara, which is now Uzbekistan. He was a Persian polymath, recognized as one of the most significant thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age. His most famous works are The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine, which was a standard medical text at many medieval universities and remained in use as late as 1650. Avicenna wrote about 450 works on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived.