Born in Afshana near Bukhara in the Samanid realm, he grew up amid a thriving Persianate culture of learning. His father, Abdullah, was an official whose household welcomed scholars and debated philosophy and religion.

As a child in Bukhara, he studied Qur'an recitation, Arabic grammar, and Persian literature with local teachers. He quickly moved into logic and mathematics, impressing tutors with unusually rapid mastery and memory.

By around age ten, he had memorized the Qur'an and was regarded as a prodigy in Bukhara. He began systematic study of philosophy and the sciences, reading widely beyond the standard curriculum for his age.

He turned to medicine in Bukhara, learning from physicians while comparing practice with the writings of Hippocrates and Galen. He soon treated patients himself, claiming medicine was easier than metaphysics because cases demanded clear decisions.

By his mid-teens, he was consulted for difficult cases in and around Bukhara. His growing fame brought him into elite circles where scholarship, court service, and practical medicine overlapped in Samanid society.

He reportedly helped cure the Samanid ruler Nuh II, an achievement that elevated his standing at court. In return he gained entry to the famed Samanid library in Bukhara, where rare manuscripts deepened his philosophical and scientific range.

As the Samanid state weakened under pressure from rivals, he left Bukhara seeking patronage and stability. The move began a life of travel in which scholarship depended on navigating volatile politics across Iran and Central Asia.

He spent time in Gurganj (Urgench) in Khwarazm, where the Ma'munid court supported scientists and physicians. The circle’s high standards pushed him to write, debate, and refine arguments in logic, medicine, and natural philosophy.

When Mahmud of Ghazni sought to recruit leading scholars, he avoided the summons, fearing loss of intellectual independence. He moved through northeastern Iran under cover of changing patrons, a period later colored by hardship and intense writing.

In Gorgan near the Caspian, he taught students and drafted substantial works that systematized logic and metaphysics. He developed the essence–existence distinction more sharply, shaping later Islamic philosophy and, indirectly, medieval Latin scholasticism.

He arrived in Rayy and became involved with the Buyid political world, offering medical and administrative expertise. The city’s competing factions made court life unstable, yet it provided him access to libraries and influential patrons.

In Hamadan he treated the Buyid ruler Shams al-Dawla, gaining influence at a court beset by military tensions. His medical authority opened doors to political responsibility, foreshadowing his later appointment as vizier.

He served as vizier to Shams al-Dawla, balancing fiscal administration with the demands of soldiers and bureaucrats. Political enemies repeatedly undermined him, demonstrating how precarious scholarly authority could be within eleventh-century court politics.

Amid factional struggles after Shams al-Dawla’s illness and death, he was imprisoned for a time in the Hamadan region. During confinement he continued composing and revising texts, turning adversity into sustained intellectual production.

Disguised and aided by allies, he left Hamadan and reached Isfahan to join the Kakuyid ruler Ala al-Dawla. The Isfahan court offered relative stability, enabling him to teach, write extensively, and consolidate earlier drafts into major encyclopedic works.

In Isfahan he developed 'The Book of Healing' (Kitab al-Shifa) into a vast program covering logic, natural science, mathematics, and metaphysics. The work framed knowledge in an Aristotelian structure while adding original arguments about being and causality.

He refined 'The Canon of Medicine' (al-Qanun fi al-Tibb), organizing pharmacology, diagnosis, and therapeutics into a teachable system. Its emphasis on observation, regimen, and tested remedies later made it a core medical text from Cairo to Bologna.

Traveling with Ala al-Dawla on military expeditions, he endured raids in which parts of his library and manuscripts were stolen. He reconstructed and dictated texts to students, showing resilience and a workshop-like approach to preserving knowledge.

During a journey toward Hamadan, he fell seriously ill, likely with chronic colic or a gastrointestinal disorder worsened by exhaustion. He died in Hamadan and was buried there, leaving a legacy that shaped Islamic and European medicine for centuries.