Illustration from 'The Canon of Medicine' (1025) by the Persian physician Avicenna (980-1037). At centre a doctor is taking a woman's pulse. Avicenna is a Latinised form of his full Arabic name Abu-Ali Al-Husain Ibn Abdullah Ibn Sina. Avicenna, who based much of his work on earlier Greek and Roman writers, wrote medical treatises such as 'The Canon' and 'The Book of Healing'. His books were translated into Latin in the 12th century and were the basis of medicine in Europe until the 17th century.