Averroes (1126 - 1198), known in Arabic as Ibn Rushd, was an Andalusian Muslim philosopher, jurist, physician and astronomer born in Córdoba. [1] He produced an extensive series of commentaries on Aristotle that were translated into Latin and Hebrew and became central to medieval European philosophy, where he was known simply as "the Commentator". [2] He also served as chief judge of Córdoba, wrote a major medical encyclopaedia, and defended philosophy against theological attack in The Incoherence of the Incoherence.
Background and education
Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd was born in Córdoba on 14 April 1126 into a distinguished family of Maliki jurists: both his father and his grandfather had served as chief judge of the city. He was educated in Islamic law, theology, medicine, mathematics and philosophy in Córdoba, then under Almohad rule. [1]
He was introduced at court through the philosopher and physician Ibn Tufayl, and the caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf, himself interested in philosophy, is said to have asked him to produce clear expositions of Aristotle's works. [3]
Commentaries on Aristotle
Over some three decades Averroes wrote commentaries on nearly the whole Aristotelian corpus, generally in three forms: short epitomes, middle paraphrases and long, line-by-line expositions. He also commented on Plato's Republic, using it in place of Aristotle's Politics, which was unavailable to him. [2]
His aim was to recover Aristotle's arguments from the Neoplatonic overlay they had acquired in earlier Arabic transmission. Translated into Latin from the early thirteenth century and into Hebrew, the commentaries became standard reading in the universities of Paris, Oxford and Padua. Thomas Aquinas engaged closely with them, while Averroes's account of the intellect - in which the material intellect is a single substance shared by all humanity - was condemned by church authorities and gave rise to Latin Averroism. [3]
Law, medicine and astronomy
Averroes pursued a parallel public career. He was appointed judge in Seville in 1169 and later chief judge of Córdoba, and in 1182 succeeded Ibn Tufayl as court physician in Marrakesh. His legal treatise Bidayat al-Mujtahid, a comparative survey of the rulings of the different schools of Islamic jurisprudence, remains in use. [1]
In medicine he compiled al-Kulliyyat fi al-Tibb, a general handbook known in Latin as the Colliget, which circulated widely in Europe. In astronomy he criticised the Ptolemaic system of epicycles and eccentrics as physically implausible, arguing that celestial motion should be explained by concentric spheres centred on the earth. [2]
The defence of philosophy
In Tahafut al-Tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence) Averroes replied point by point to al-Ghazali's attack on the philosophers, defending the compatibility of demonstrative reasoning with revelation. In the shorter Fasl al-Maqal (The Decisive Treatise) he argued that the study of philosophy is required by religious law for those capable of it, and that where scripture appears to contradict demonstration it should be read allegorically. [3]
Later years and legacy
Around 1195, during a period of political and religious pressure under the caliph Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur, Averroes fell from favour; his works were censured and he was banished to Lucena. He was restored to favour shortly before his death in Marrakesh on 10 December 1198, and his remains were later returned to Córdoba. [1]
His influence in the Islamic world waned after his death, but in Latin Europe and among Jewish philosophers it grew for centuries. Modern scholarship treats him as a key link in the transmission of Greek thought and as an important voice in the long argument over the relationship between reason and religious authority. [2]
