sentence-transformers/squad huggingface dataset:
Passage: 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?

Question: Who did Avicenna learn Indian arithmetic from?

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

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

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

Question: What helped Avicenna understand the Metaphysics of Aristotle?

Question: How long did Avicenna study philosophy?

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

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

Question: What subject did Avicenna start studying at 16?

Question: Avicenna became a qualified physician at what age?

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

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

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

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

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

Question: What dynasty ended in December 1004?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Question: What office did Ibn Sina receive in Hamadan?
Passage: 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?

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

Question: What year did Isfahan gain victory over Hamadan?

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

Question: How did Ibn Sina escape from Hamadan?
Passage: 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?

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

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

Question: What famous philosopher did Ibn Sina criticize heavily?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Question: What is early Islamic metaphysics imbued with?
Passage: 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?

Question: What two points did he write about?

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

Question: What is the Arabic term for existence?

Question: Mahiat is Arabic for what?
Passage: 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?

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

Question: What is the necessary according to Avicenna?

Question: According to Avicenna, what always exists?

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

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

Question: What is the Arabic for situation?

Question: What is one thing that the Necessary is detached from?
Passage: 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?

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

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

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

Question: Who did Avicenna view as inspired philosophers?
Passage: 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?

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

Question: What did Avicenna not consider when explaining his theories on philosophy?
Passage: Later interpretations of Avicenna's philosophy split into three different schools; those (such as al-Tusi) who continued to apply his philosophy as a system to interpret later political events and scientific advances; those (such as al-Razi) who considered Avicenna's theological works in isolation from his wider philosophical concerns; and those (such as al-Ghazali) who selectively used parts of his philosophy to support their own attempts to gain greater spiritual insights through a variety of mystical means. It was the theological interpretation championed by those such as al-Razi which eventually came to predominate in the madrasahs.

Question: Which interpretation of Avicenna's work was more taught in Islamic schools?

Question: Interpretations of Avicenna's work split into how many different schools?

Question: Who used only parts of Avicenna's works to support their own great spiritual insights?

Question: Who used Avicenna's work to help understand future political events?

Question: What are Islamic schools also known as?
Passage: While he was imprisoned in the castle of Fardajan near Hamadhan, Avicenna wrote his famous "Floating Man" – literally falling man – thought experiment to demonstrate human self-awareness and the substantiality and immateriality of the soul. Avicenna believed his "Floating Man" thought experiment demonstrated that the soul is a substance, and claimed humans cannot doubt their own consciousness, even in a situation that prevents all sensory data input. The thought experiment told its readers to imagine themselves created all at once while suspended in the air, isolated from all sensations, which includes no sensory contact with even their own bodies. He argued that, in this scenario, one would still have self-consciousness. Because it is conceivable that a person, suspended in air while cut off from sense experience, would still be capable of determining his own existence, the thought experiment points to the conclusions that the soul is a perfection, independent of the body, and an immaterial substance. The conceivability of this "Floating Man" indicates that the soul is perceived intellectually, which entails the soul's separateness from the body. Avicenna referred to the living human intelligence, particularly the active intellect, which he believed to be the hypostasis by which God communicates truth to the human mind and imparts order and intelligibility to nature. Following is an English translation of the argument:

Question: Where was Avicenna once imprisoned?

Question: What did Avicenna write while he was imprisoned?

Question: What was the soul according to Avicenna?

Question: How is the soul perceived according to Avicenna's work "Floating Man"?

Question: How did Avicenna want man to think of themselves as?
Passage: However, Avicenna posited the brain as the place where reason interacts with sensation. Sensation prepares the soul to receive rational concepts from the universal Agent Intellect. The first knowledge of the flying person would be "I am," affirming his or her essence. That essence could not be the body, obviously, as the flying person has no sensation. Thus, the knowledge that "I am" is the core of a human being: the soul exists and is self-aware. Avicenna thus concluded that the idea of the self is not logically dependent on any physical thing, and that the soul should not be seen in relative terms, but as a primary given, a substance. The body is unnecessary; in relation to it, the soul is its perfection. In itself, the soul is an immaterial substance.

Question: Where did reason interact with sensation according to Avicenna?

Question: What is the universal agent?

Question: In Avicenna's work "Floating Man", what is the core of a human being?

Question: What is the body's perfection?

Question: In Avicenna's "Floating Man", what could the essence of a person not be?
Passage: In the Al-Burhan (On Demonstration) section of The Book of Healing, Avicenna discussed the philosophy of science and described an early scientific method of inquiry. He discusses Aristotle's Posterior Analytics and significantly diverged from it on several points. Avicenna discussed the issue of a proper methodology for scientific inquiry and the question of "How does one acquire the first principles of a science?" He asked how a scientist would arrive at "the initial axioms or hypotheses of a deductive science without inferring them from some more basic premises?" He explains that the ideal situation is when one grasps that a "relation holds between the terms, which would allow for absolute, universal certainty." Avicenna then adds two further methods for arriving at the first principles: the ancient Aristotelian method of induction (istiqra), and the method of examination and experimentation (tajriba). Avicenna criticized Aristotelian induction, arguing that "it does not lead to the absolute, universal, and certain premises that it purports to provide." In its place, he develops a "method of experimentation as a means for scientific inquiry."

Question: What philosopher did Avicenna discuss in his The Book of Healing text?

Question: What work of Aristotle's does Avicenna focus on?

Question: What method did Avicenna criticize as not leading to absolute certainty?
Passage: An early formal system of temporal logic was studied by Avicenna. Although he did not develop a real theory of temporal propositions, he did study the relationship between temporalis and the implication. Avicenna's work was further developed by Najm al-Dīn al-Qazwīnī al-Kātibī and became the dominant system of Islamic logic until modern times. Avicennian logic also influenced several early European logicians such as Albertus Magnus and William of Ockham. Avicenna endorsed the law of noncontradiction proposed by Aristotle, that a fact could not be both true and false at the same time and in the same sense of the terminology used. He stated, "Anyone who denies the law of noncontradiction should be beaten and burned until he admits that to be beaten is not the same as not to be beaten, and to be burned is not the same as not to be burned."

Question: What was a subject that Avicenna studied, but did not develop a theory on?

Question: Who expanded on Avicenna's work in temporal logic?

Question: What became the dominant system of Islamic logic?

Question: What European logician was greatly influenced by Avicenna?

Question: Whose law of noncontradiction did Avicenna endorse?
Passage: Avicenna's legacy in classical psychology is primarily embodied in the Kitab al-nafs parts of his Kitab al-shifa (The Book of Healing) and Kitab al-najat (The Book of Deliverance). These were known in Latin under the title De Anima (treatises "on the soul").[dubious – discuss] Notably, Avicenna develops what is called the "flying man" argument in the Psychology of The Cure I.1.7 as defense of the argument that the soul is without quantitative extension, which has an affinity with Descartes's cogito argument (or what phenomenology designates as a form of an "epoche").

Question: What is Avicenna's Book of Healing referred to in Arabic?

Question: What subject is seen throughout Avicenna's Book of Healing?

Question: In an argument by Avicenna, the soul is without what?

Question: Whose argument is similar to Avicenna's that the soul is without quantitative extension?

Question: What is the Latin for Avicenna's psychology parts in his Book of Healing?