praj-17/QA-MCQ-Open-ended huggingface dataset:
Title: Avicenna
Context: Ibn Sina created an extensive corpus of works during what is commonly known as the Islamic Golden Age, in which the translations of Greco-Roman, Persian, and Indian texts were studied extensively. Greco-Roman (Mid- and Neo-Platonic, and Aristotelian) texts translated by the Kindi school were commented, redacted and developed substantially by Islamic intellectuals, who also built upon Persian and Indian mathematical systems, astronomy, algebra, trigonometry and medicine. The Samanid dynasty in the eastern part of Persia, Greater Khorasan and Central Asia as well as the Buyid dynasty in the western part of Persia and Iraq provided a thriving atmosphere for scholarly and cultural development. Under the Samanids, Bukhara rivaled Baghdad as a cultural capital of the Islamic world.

question: What was the term used to describe the age in which Ibn Sina created a big body of work? 

answer: the Islamic Golden Age

question: What is one example of the type of translations done in the Islamic Golden Age? 

answer: Persian

question: What school translated Greco-Roman texts during the Islamic Golden Age? 

answer: the Kindi school

question: What was one dynasty that provided a great atmosphere for cultural development? 

answer: the Buyid dynasty

question: What city was known as a cultural capital of the Islamic world? 

answer: Baghdad
Title: Avicenna
Context: The study of the Quran and the Hadith thrived in such a scholarly atmosphere. Philosophy, Fiqh and theology (kalaam) were further developed, most noticeably by Avicenna and his opponents. Al-Razi and Al-Farabi had provided methodology and knowledge in medicine and philosophy. Avicenna had access to the great libraries of Balkh, Khwarezm, Gorgan, Rey, Isfahan and Hamadan. Various texts (such as the 'Ahd with Bahmanyar) show that he debated philosophical points with the greatest scholars of the time. Aruzi Samarqandi describes how before Avicenna left Khwarezm he had met Al-Biruni (a famous scientist and astronomer), Abu Nasr Iraqi (a renowned mathematician), Abu Sahl Masihi (a respected philosopher) and Abu al-Khayr Khammar (a great physician).

question: What was one subject that Avicenna further developed? 

answer: theology

question: Who is another philosopher during this Islamic Golden Age? 

answer: Al-Farabi

question: What is the name of one library that Avicenna had access to? 

answer: Hamadan

question: Who was the famous astronomer that Avicenna met before he left Khwarezm? 

answer: Al-Biruni

question: What text was proof that Avicenna debated philosophy with some of the greatest scholars of the time? 

answer: the 'Ahd with Bahmanyar
Title: Avicenna
Context: Avicenna was born c. 980 in Afšana, a village near Bukhara (in present-day Uzbekistan), the capital of the Samanids, a Persian dynasty in Central Asia and Greater Khorasan. His mother, named Setareh, was from Bukhara; his father, Abdullah, was a respected Ismaili scholar from Balkh, an important town of the Samanid Empire, in what is today Balkh Province, Afghanistan, although this is not universally agreed upon. His father worked in the government of Samanid in the village Kharmasain, a Sunni regional power. After five years, his younger brother, Mahmoud, was born. Avicenna first began to learn the Quran and literature in such a way that when he was ten years old he had essentially learned all of them.

question: What present-day country was Avicenna born in? 

answer: Uzbekistan

question: What Samanid dynasty capital was Avicenna born near? 

answer: Bukhara

question: What present-day country is Avicenna's father thought to have come from? 

answer: Afghanistan

question: What was Avicenna's mother's name? 

answer: Setareh

question: By what age had Avicenna learned the entire Quran? 

answer: ten
Title: Avicenna
Context: A number of theories have been proposed regarding Avicenna's madhab (school of thought within Islamic jurisprudence). Medieval historian Ẓahīr al-dīn al-Bayhaqī (d. 1169) considered Avicenna to be a follower of the Brethren of Purity. On the other hand, Dimitri Gutas along with Aisha Khan and Jules J. Janssens demonstrated that Avicenna was a Sunni Hanafi. However, the 14th cenutry Shia faqih Nurullah Shushtari according to Seyyed Hossein Nasr, maintained that he was most likely a Twelver Shia. Conversely, Sharaf Khorasani, citing a rejection of an invitation of the Sunni Governor Sultan Mahmoud Ghazanavi by Avicenna to his court, believes that Avicenna was an Ismaili. Similar disagreements exist on the background of Avicenna's family, whereas some writers considered them Sunni, some more recent writers contested that they were Shia.

question: What secret society was Avicenna considered to be a follower of? 

answer: the Brethren of Purity

question: Who thought that Avicenna was a Brethren of Purity follower? 

answer: Medieval historian Ẓahīr al-dīn al-Bayhaqī

question: What Islamic denomination was Avicenna thought to be a member of? 

answer: Sunni

question: Who thought Avicenna was a Shia? 

answer: Nurullah Shushtari

question: What was the name of one man who thought Avicenna was Sunni? 

answer: Jules J. Janssens
Title: Avicenna
Context: According to his autobiography, Avicenna had memorised the entire Quran by the age of 10. He learned Indian arithmetic from an Indian greengrocer,ءMahmoud Massahi and he began to learn more from a wandering scholar who gained a livelihood by curing the sick and teaching the young. He also studied Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) under the Sunni Hanafi scholar Ismail al-Zahid. Avicenna was taught some extent of philosophy books such as Introduction (Isagoge)'s Porphyry (philosopher), Euclid's Elements, Ptolemy's Almagest by an unpopular philosopher, Abu Abdullah Nateli, who claimed philosophizing.

question: What had Avicenna memorized by the age of 10? 

answer: Quran

question: Who did Avicenna learn Indian arithmetic from? 

answer: ءMahmoud Massahi

question: What did Avicenna learn from the Sunni scholar Ismail al-Zahid? 

answer: Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence)

question: What was one philosophy book that Avicenna was taught from? 

answer: Euclid's Elements

question: What unpopular philosopher's text did Avicenna learn from? 

answer: Abu Abdullah Nateli
Title: Avicenna
Context: As a teenager, he was greatly troubled by the Metaphysics of Aristotle, which he could not understand until he read al-Farabi's commentary on the work. For the next year and a half, he studied philosophy, in which he encountered greater obstacles. In such moments of baffled inquiry, he would leave his books, perform the requisite ablutions, then go to the mosque, and continue in prayer till light broke on his difficulties. Deep into the night, he would continue his studies, and even in his dreams problems would pursue him and work out their solution. Forty times, it is said, he read through the Metaphysics of Aristotle, till the words were imprinted on his memory; but their meaning was hopelessly obscure, until one day they found illumination, from the little commentary by Farabi, which he bought at a bookstall for the small sum of three dirhams. So great was his joy at the discovery, made with the help of a work from which he had expected only mystery, that he hastened to return thanks to God, and bestowed alms upon the poor.

question: What text could Avicenna not understand? 

answer: the Metaphysics of Aristotle

question: What helped Avicenna understand the Metaphysics of Aristotle? 

answer: al-Farabi's commentary

question: How long did Avicenna study philosophy? 

answer: year and a half

question: How many times did Avicenna read through the Metaphysics of Aristotle? 

answer: Forty times

question: How much did Avicenna pay for the book that helped him understand the Aristotle text? 

answer: three dirhams
Title: Avicenna
Context: He turned to medicine at 16, and not only learned medical theory, but also by gratuitous attendance of the sick had, according to his own account, discovered new methods of treatment. The teenager achieved full status as a qualified physician at age 18, and found that "Medicine is no hard and thorny science, like mathematics and metaphysics, so I soon made great progress; I became an excellent doctor and began to treat patients, using approved remedies." The youthful physician's fame spread quickly, and he treated many patients without asking for payment.

question: At what age did Avicenna turn to away from philosophy? 

answer: 16

question: What subject did Avicenna start studying at 16? 

answer: medicine

question: Avicenna became a qualified physician at what age? 

answer: 18

question: Avicenna found medicine to be much easier than what subject? 

answer: mathematics
Title: Avicenna
Context: Ibn Sina's first appointment was that of physician to the emir, Nuh II, who owed him his recovery from a dangerous illness (997). Ibn Sina's chief reward for this service was access to the royal library of the Samanids, well-known patrons of scholarship and scholars. When the library was destroyed by fire not long after, the enemies of Ibn Sina accused him of burning it, in order for ever to conceal the sources of his knowledge. Meanwhile, he assisted his father in his financial labors, but still found time to write some of his earliest works.

question: Who was Ibn Sina's first appontment? 

answer: the emir, Nuh II

question: What did Ibn Sina receive as payment for helping the emir? 

answer: access to the royal library of the Samanids

question: Why did some accuse Ibn Sina of burning down the royal library? 

answer: to conceal the sources of his knowledge

question: Who did Ibn Sina assist in his financial labors? 

answer: his father

question: What year did the emir Null II recover from his illness? 

answer: 997
Title: Avicenna
Context: When Ibn Sina was 22 years old, he lost his father. The Samanid dynasty came to its end in December 1004. Ibn Sina seems to have declined the offers of Mahmud of Ghazni, and proceeded westwards to Urgench in modern Turkmenistan, where the vizier, regarded as a friend of scholars, gave him a small monthly stipend. The pay was small, however, so Ibn Sina wandered from place to place through the districts of Nishapur and Merv to the borders of Khorasan, seeking an opening for his talents. Qabus, the generous ruler of Tabaristan, himself a poet and a scholar, with whom Ibn Sina had expected to find asylum, was on about that date (1012) starved to death by his troops who had revolted. Ibn Sina himself was at this time stricken by a severe illness. Finally, at Gorgan, near the Caspian Sea, Ibn Sina met with a friend, who bought a dwelling near his own house in which Ibn Sina lectured on logic and astronomy. Several of Ibn Sina's treatises were written for this patron; and the commencement of his Canon of Medicine also dates from his stay in Hyrcania.

question: At what age did Avicenna lose his father? 

answer: 22

question: What dynasty ended in December 1004? 

answer: The Samanid dynasty

question: What modern country did Ibn Sina travel to after the end of the Samanid dynasty? 

answer: Turkmenistan

question: What is one district that Ibn Sina traveled through in search of more work? 

answer: Nishapur

question: Who did Ibn Sina turn down in order to travel westwards after the Samanid dynasty ended? 

answer: Mahmud of Ghazni
Title: Avicenna
Context: Ibn Sina subsequently settled at Rey, in the vicinity of modern Tehran, the home town of Rhazes; where Majd Addaula, a son of the last Buwayhid emir, was nominal ruler under the regency of his mother (Seyyedeh Khatun). About thirty of Ibn Sina's shorter works are said to have been composed in Rey. Constant feuds which raged between the regent and her second son, Shams al-Daula, however, compelled the scholar to quit the place. After a brief sojourn at Qazvin he passed southwards to Hamadãn where Shams al-Daula, another Buwayhid emir, had established himself. At first, Ibn Sina entered into the service of a high-born lady; but the emir, hearing of his arrival, called him in as medical attendant, and sent him back with presents to his dwelling. Ibn Sina was even raised to the office of vizier. The emir decreed that he should be banished from the country. Ibn Sina, however, remained hidden for forty days in sheikh Ahmed Fadhel's house, until a fresh attack of illness induced the emir to restore him to his post. Even during this perturbed time, Ibn Sina persevered with his studies and teaching. Every evening, extracts from his great works, the Canon and the Sanatio, were dictated and explained to his pupils. On the death of the emir, Ibn Sina ceased to be vizier and hid himself in the house of an apothecary, where, with intense assiduity, he continued the composition of his works.

question: What city did Ibn Sina settle in? 

answer: Rey

question: What modern city of today was Rey in the vicinity of? 

answer: Tehran

question: How many of Ibn Sina's shorter works were said to have been created in Rey? 

answer: thirty

question: Ibn Sina left Rey and moved southwards to what city? 

answer: Hamadãn

question: What office did Ibn Sina receive in Hamadan? 

answer: office of vizier
Title: Avicenna
Context: Meanwhile, he had written to Abu Ya'far, the prefect of the dynamic city of Isfahan, offering his services. The new emir of Hamadan, hearing of this correspondence and discovering where Ibn Sina was hiding, incarcerated him in a fortress. War meanwhile continued between the rulers of Isfahan and Hamadãn; in 1024 the former captured Hamadan and its towns, expelling the Tajik mercenaries. When the storm had passed, Ibn Sina returned with the emir to Hamadan, and carried on his literary labors. Later, however, accompanied by his brother, a favorite pupil, and two slaves, Ibn Sina escaped from the city in the dress of a Sufi ascetic. After a perilous journey, they reached Isfahan, receiving an honorable welcome from the prince.

question: Where did Ibn Sina hope to flee to after Hamadan? 

answer: city of Isfahan

question: What two cities were at war during this time? 

answer: Isfahan and Hamadãn

question: What year did Isfahan gain victory over Hamadan? 

answer: 1024

question: What mercenaries were expelled after Isfahan's victory over Hamadan? 

answer: the Tajik

question: How did Ibn Sina escape from Hamadan? 

answer: in the dress of a Sufi ascetic
Title: Avicenna
Context: Ibn Sīnā wrote extensively on early Islamic philosophy, especially the subjects logic, ethics, and metaphysics, including treatises named Logic and Metaphysics. Most of his works were written in Arabic – then the language of science in the Middle East – and some in Persian. Of linguistic significance even to this day are a few books that he wrote in nearly pure Persian language (particularly the Danishnamah-yi 'Ala', Philosophy for Ala' ad-Dawla'). Ibn Sīnā's commentaries on Aristotle often criticized the philosopher,[citation needed] encouraging a lively debate in the spirit of ijtihad.

question: In what language was most of Ibn Sina's works written in? 

answer: Arabic

question: What is one subject that Ibn SIna specialized in? 

answer: ethics

question: Ibn Sina also wrote some of his works in what other language? 

answer: Persian

question: What famous philosopher did Ibn Sina criticize heavily? 

answer: Aristotle

question: What is one of the subjects of a treatise by Ibn Sina? 

answer: Metaphysics
Title: Avicenna
Context: His Book of Healing became available in Europe in partial Latin translation some fifty years after its composition, under the title Sufficientia, and some authors have identified a "Latin Avicennism" as flourishing for some time, paralleling the more influential Latin Averroism, but suppressed by the Parisian decrees of 1210 and 1215. Avicenna's psychology and theory of knowledge influenced William of Auvergne, Bishop of Paris and Albertus Magnus, while his metaphysics had an impact on the thought of Thomas Aquinas.

question: Ibn Sina's Book of Healing was partially available in what language? 

answer: Latin

question: How many years did it take for Ibn Sina's Book of Healing to be available in Latin? 

answer: fifty

question: On what continent was the Book of Healing finally available fifty years after its composition? 

answer: Europe

question: What was the title of Ibn Sina's Book of Healing? 

answer: Sufficientia

question: Who did Avicenna's metaphysics works have an influence on? 

answer: Thomas Aquinas
Title: Avicenna
Context: Early Islamic philosophy and Islamic metaphysics, imbued as it is with Islamic theology, distinguishes more clearly than Aristotelianism between essence and existence. Whereas existence is the domain of the contingent and the accidental, essence endures within a being beyond the accidental. The philosophy of Ibn Sīnā, particularly that part relating to metaphysics, owes much to al-Farabi. The search for a definitive Islamic philosophy separate from Occasionalism can be seen in what is left of his work.

question: What does Islamic philosophy more clearly explain than Aristotelianism? 

answer: essence and existence

question: Who does Ibn Sina's philosophy owe much to? 

answer: al-Farabi

question: What is early Islamic metaphysics imbued with? 

answer: Islamic theology
Title: Avicenna
Context: Following al-Farabi's lead, Avicenna initiated a full-fledged inquiry into the question of being, in which he distinguished between essence (Mahiat) and existence (Wujud). He argued that the fact of existence can not be inferred from or accounted for by the essence of existing things, and that form and matter by themselves cannot interact and originate the movement of the universe or the progressive actualization of existing things. Existence must, therefore, be due to an agent-cause that necessitates, imparts, gives, or adds existence to an essence. To do so, the cause must be an existing thing and coexist with its effect.

question: What did Avicenna start an inquiry into? 

answer: the question of being

question: What two points did he write about? 

answer: essence (Mahiat) and existence (Wujud)

question: Who also began an inquiry into the question of being? 

answer: al-Farabi

question: What is the Arabic term for existence? 

answer: Wujud

question: Mahiat is Arabic for what? 

answer: essence
Title: Avicenna
Context: Avicenna's consideration of the essence-attributes question may be elucidated in terms of his ontological analysis of the modalities of being; namely impossibility, contingency, and necessity. Avicenna argued that the impossible being is that which cannot exist, while the contingent in itself (mumkin bi-dhatihi) has the potentiality to be or not to be without entailing a contradiction. When actualized, the contingent becomes a 'necessary existent due to what is other than itself' (wajib al-wujud bi-ghayrihi). Thus, contingency-in-itself is potential beingness that could eventually be actualized by an external cause other than itself. The metaphysical structures of necessity and contingency are different. Necessary being due to itself (wajib al-wujud bi-dhatihi) is true in itself, while the contingent being is 'false in itself' and 'true due to something else other than itself'. The necessary is the source of its own being without borrowed existence. It is what always exists.

question: What is one modality of being that Avicenna analyzed? 

answer: necessity

question: According to Avicenna, what could eventually be actualized by an external cause? 

answer: contingency-in-itself

question: What is the necessary according to Avicenna? 

answer: the source of its own being without borrowed existence

question: According to Avicenna, what always exists? 

answer: The necessary

question: If necessary being is true in itself, what is contingent? 

answer: false in itself
Title: Avicenna
Context: The Necessary exists 'due-to-Its-Self', and has no quiddity/essence (mahiyya) other than existence (wujud). Furthermore, It is 'One' (wahid ahad) since there cannot be more than one 'Necessary-Existent-due-to-Itself' without differentia (fasl) to distinguish them from each other. Yet, to require differentia entails that they exist 'due-to-themselves' as well as 'due to what is other than themselves'; and this is contradictory. However, if no differentia distinguishes them from each other, then there is no sense in which these 'Existents' are not one and the same. Avicenna adds that the 'Necessary-Existent-due-to-Itself' has no genus (jins), nor a definition (hadd), nor a counterpart (nadd), nor an opposite (did), and is detached (bari) from matter (madda), quality (kayf), quantity (kam), place (ayn), situation (wad), and time (waqt).

question: The necessary exists due to what? 

answer: Its-Self

question: What is something that the necessary does not have? 

answer: a definition

question: What is the Arabic for situation? 

answer: wad

question: What is one thing that the Necessary is detached from? 

answer: time
Title: Avicenna
Context: Avicenna was a devout Muslim and sought to reconcile rational philosophy with Islamic theology. His aim was to prove the existence of God and His creation of the world scientifically and through reason and logic. Avicenna's views on Islamic theology (and philosophy) were enormously influential, forming part of the core of the curriculum at Islamic religious schools until the 19th century. Avicenna wrote a number of short treatises dealing with Islamic theology. These included treatises on the prophets (whom he viewed as "inspired philosophers"), and also on various scientific and philosophical interpretations of the Quran, such as how Quranic cosmology corresponds to his own philosophical system. In general these treatises linked his philosophical writings to Islamic religious ideas; for example, the body's afterlife.

question: What religion was Avicenna? 

answer: Muslim

question: What did Avicenna want to reconcile with Islamic theology? 

answer: rational philosophy

question: What did Avicenna hope to do through his work? 

answer: prove the existence of God

question: Up until what century was Avicenna's work highly influential? 

answer: 19th century

question: Who did Avicenna view as inspired philosophers? 

answer: the prophets
Title: Avicenna
Context: There are occasional brief hints and allusions in his longer works however that Avicenna considered philosophy as the only sensible way to distinguish real prophecy from illusion. He did not state this more clearly because of the political implications of such a theory, if prophecy could be questioned, and also because most of the time he was writing shorter works which concentrated on explaining his theories on philosophy and theology clearly, without digressing to consider epistemological matters which could only be properly considered by other philosophers.

question: What did Avicenna consider to be the only way to distinguish real philosophy from illusion? 

answer: philosophy

question: What did Avicenna fear about stating his theories on philosophy more clearly? 

answer: the political implications of such a theory

question: What did Avicenna not consider when explaining his theories on philosophy? 

answer: epistemological matters