Averroes
Encyclopedia
better known just as Ibn Rushd , and in European literature as Averroes (icon; 1126 – December 10, 1198), was a Muslim
polymath
; a master of Aristotelian philosophy, Islamic philosophy
, Islamic theology
, Maliki
law
and jurisprudence
, logic
, psychology
, politics
, Arabic music theory, and the sciences of medicine
, astronomy
, geography
, mathematics
, physics
and celestial mechanics
. He was born in Córdoba
, Al Andalus, modern-day Spain
, and died in Marrakesh, Morocco
. His school of philosophy is known as Averroism
.
Ibn Rushd was a defender of Aristotelian
philosophy against claims from Islamic theologians such as Ghazali who feared that such teachings would become an affront to the teachings of Islam.
of a Hebrew transcription of the Arab name Ibn Rushd.
According to Ernest Renan
, he was also known as Ibin-Ros-din, Filius Rosadis, Ibn-Rusid, Ben-Raxid, Ibn-Ruschod, Den-Resched, Aben-Rassad, Aben-Rois, Aben-Rasd, Aben- Rust, Avenrosdy Avenryz, Adveroys, Benroist, Avenroyth, Averroysta, etc.
Averroes was born in Córdoba
to a family with a long and well-respected tradition of legal and public service. His grandfather Abu Al-Walid Muhammad (d. 1126) was chief judge
of Córdoba
under the Almoravids. His father, Abu Al-Qasim Ahmad, held the same position until the Almoravids were replaced by the Almohad
s in 1146.
Averroes’s education followed a traditional path, beginning with studies in Hadith
, linguistics
, jurisprudence
and scholastic theology
. Throughout his life he wrote extensively on Philosophy
and Religion
, attributes of God, origin of the universe, Metaphysics
and Psychology
. It is generally believed that he was perhaps once tutored by Ibn Bajjah
(Avempace). His medical education was directed under Abu Jafar ibn Harun of Trujillo
in Seville
.
Averroes began his career with the help of Ibn Tufail
("Aben Tofail" to the West), the author of Hayy ibn Yaqdhan
and philosophic vizier
of Almohad king Abu Yaqub Yusuf
who was an amateur of philosophy and science. It was Ibn Tufail who introduced him to the court and to Ibn Zuhr
("Avenzoar" to the West), the great Muslim physician, who became Averroes's teacher and friend. Averroes's aptitude for medicine
was noted by his contemporaries and can be seen in his major enduring work Kitab al-Kulyat fi al-Tibb (Generalities) the work was influenced by the Kitab al-Taisir fi al-Mudawat wa al-Tadbir (Particularities) of Ibn Zuhr
. Averroes later reported how it was also Ibn Tufail that inspired him to write his famous commentaries on Aristotle
:
Averroes was also a student of Ibn Bajjah
("Avempace" to the West), another famous Islamic philosopher
who greatly influenced his own Averroist
thought. However, while the thought of his mentors Ibn Tufail and Ibn Bajjah were mystic
to an extent, the thought of Averroes was purely rationalist
. Together, the three men are considered the greatest Andalusian philosophers.
In 1160, Averroes was made Qadi
(judge) of Seville
and he served in many court appointments in Seville, Cordoba, and Morocco
during his career. Sometimes during the reign of Yaqub al-Mansur, Averroes' political career was abruptly ended and he faced severe criticism from the Fuqaha
(Islamic jurists) of the time.
A contemporary of Averroes, Abdelwahid al-Marrakushi writing in 1224, reported that there were secret and public reasons for his falling out of favor with Yaqub al-Mansour:
Averroes's strictly rationalist views collided with the more orthodox views of Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur, who therefore eventually banished Averroes, though he had previously appointed him as his personal physician. Averroes was not reinstated until shortly before his death in the year 1198 AD. He devoted the rest of his life (more than 30 years) to his philosophical writings.
Averroes's works were spread over 20,000 pages covering a variety of different subjects, including early Islamic philosophy
, logic in Islamic philosophy
, Arabic medicine, Arabic mathematics, Arabic astronomy, Arabic grammar
, Islamic theology
, Sharia
(Islamic law), and Fiqh
(Islamic jurisprudence). In particular, his most important works dealt with Islamic philosophy
, medicine and Fiqh. He wrote at least 67 original works, which included 28 works on philosophy, 20 on medicine, 8 on law, 5 on theology, and 4 on grammar, in addition to his commentaries on most of Aristotle's works and his commentary on Plato
's The Republic.
He wrote commentaries on most of the surviving works of Aristotle. These were not based on primary sources (it is not known whether he knew Greek
), but rather on Arabic
translations. There were three levels of commentary: the Jami, the Talkhis and the Tafsir
which are, respectively, a simplified overview, an intermediate commentary with more critical material, and an advanced study of Aristotelian thought in a Muslim
context. The terms are taken from the names of different types of commentary on the Qur'an
. It is not known whether he wrote commentaries of all three types on all the works: in most cases only one or two commentaries survive.
He did not have access to any text of Aristotle's Politics
. As a substitute for this, he commented on Plato's The Republic, arguing that the ideal state there described was the same as the original constitution of the Arab Caliphate
, as well as the Almohad
state of Ibn Tumart
.
His most important original philosophical work was The Incoherence of the Incoherence
(Tahafut al-tahafut), in which he defended Aristotelian philosophy against al-Ghazali
's claims in The Incoherence of the Philosophers
(Tahafut al-falasifa). Al-Ghazali argued that Aristotelianism, especially as presented in the writings of Avicenna
, was self-contradictory and an affront to the teachings of Islam
. Averroes' rebuttal was two-pronged: he contended both that al-Ghazali's arguments were mistaken and that, in any case, the system of Avicenna was a distortion of genuine Aristotelianism so that al-Ghazali was aiming at the wrong target. Other works were the Fasl al-Maqal, which argued for the legality of philosophical investigation under Islamic law, and the Kitab al-Kashf, which argued against the proofs of Islam advanced by the Ash'ari
te school and discussed what proofs, on the popular level, should be used instead.
Averroes is also a highly regarded legal scholar of the Maliki
school. Perhaps his best-known work in this field is Bidāyat al-Mujtahid wa Nihāyat al-Muqtaṣid ( بداية المجتهد و نهاية المقتصد), a textbook of Maliki doctrine in a comparative framework.
Jacob Anatoli
translated several of the works of Averroes from Arabic into Hebrew
in the 13th century. Many of them were later translated from Hebrew into Latin
by Jacob Mantino and Abraham de Balmes
. Other works were translated directly from Arabic into Latin by Michael Scot
. Many of his works in logic
and metaphysics
have been permanently lost, while others, including some of the longer Aristotelian commentaries, have only survived in Latin or Hebrew translation, not in the original Arabic. The fullest version of his works is in Latin, and forms part of the multi-volume Juntine edition of Aristotle published in Venice 1562-1574.
, and wrote a commentary on the Canon of Medicine (Qanun fi 't-tibb) of Avicenna
(Ibn Sina) (980-1037).
He wrote commentaries on most of the surviving works of Aristotle
. These were not based on primary sources (it is not known whether he knew Greek), but rather on Arabic
translations. On each work, he wrote the Jami, the Talkhis and the Tafsir which are, respectively, a simplified overview, an intermediate commentary with more critical material, and an advanced study of Aristotelian thought in a Muslim
context. The terms are taken from the names of different types of commentary on the Qur'an
.
He did not have access to any text of Aristotle's Politics
. As a substitute for this, he commented on Plato's Republic
, arguing that the state there described was the same as the original constitution of the Arabs.
's claims in The Incoherence of the Philosophers
(Tahafut al-falasifa). Al-Ghazali argued that Aristotelianism, especially as presented in the writings of Avicenna
, was self-contradictory and an affront to the teachings of Islam
. Averroes' rebuttal was two-pronged: he contended both that al-Ghazali's arguments were mistaken and that, in any case, the system of Avicenna was a distortion of genuine Aristotelianism so that al-Ghazali was aiming at the wrong target.
Other works were the Fasl al-Maqal, which argued for the legality of philosophical investigation under Islamic law, and the Kitab al-Kashf.
Jacob Anatoli
translated his works from Arabic to Hebrew
in the 13th century. Many of them were later translated from Hebrew to Latin by Jacob Mantino and others. Other works were translated directly from Arabic to Latin by Michael Scot
. Many of his works in logic
and metaphysics
have been permanently lost, while others, including some of the longer Aristotelian commentaries, have only survived in Latin or Hebrew translation, not in the original Arabic. The fullest version of his works is in Latin, and forms part of the multi-volume Juntine edition of Aristotle published in Venice 1562-1574.
. According to him, there is no conflict between religion
and philosophy
, rather that they are different ways of reaching the same truth. He believed in the eternity
of the universe
. He also held that the soul
is divided into two parts, one individual and one divine; while the individual soul is not eternal, all humans at the basic level share one and the same divine soul. Averroes has two kinds of Knowledge of Truth. The first being his knowledge of truth of religion being based in faith and thus could not be tested, nor did it require training to understand. The second knowledge of truth is philosophy, which was reserved for an elite few who had the intellectual capacity to undertake its study.
Averroes is most famous for his translations and commentaries of Aristotle's works, which had been mostly forgotten in the West
. Before 1150 only a few translated works of Aristotle existed in Latin Europe (i.e. excluding Greek Byzantium), and they were not studied much or given as much credence by monastic scholars. It was in part through the Latin translations of Averroes's work beginning in the 12th century that the legacy of Aristotle was recovered in the West.
Averroes's work on Aristotle spans almost three decades, and he wrote commentaries on almost all of Aristotle's work except for Aristotle's Politics, to which he did not have access. Hebrew translations of his work also had a lasting impact on Jewish philosophy
. His ideas were assimilated by Siger of Brabant
and Thomas Aquinas
and others (especially in the University of Paris
) within the Christian
scholastic
tradition which valued Aristotelian logic. Famous scholastics such as Aquinas believed him to be so important they did not refer to him by name, simply calling him "The Commentator" and calling Aristotle "The Philosopher." Averroes also greatly influenced philosophy in the Islamic world. His death coincides with a change in the culture of Al-Andalus. In his work Fasl al-Maqāl (translated a. o. as The Decisive Treatise), he stresses the importance of analytical thinking as a prerequisite to interpret the Qur'an
.
Averroes's treatise on Plato's Republic
has played a major role in both the transmission and the adaptation of the Plato
nic tradition in the West. It has been a primary source in medieval political philosophy
.
Averroes was one of those who predicted the existence of a new world
beyond the Atlantic Ocean
.
school. Perhaps his best-known work in this field is "Bidāyat al-Mujtahid wa Nihāyat al-Muqtaṣid," a textbook of Maliki doctrine in a comparative framework. He is also the author of "al-Bayān wa’l-Taḥṣīl, wa’l-Sharḥ wa’l-Tawjīh wa’l-Ta`līl fi Masā’il al-Mustakhraja," a long and detailed commentary based on the "Mustakhraja" of Muḥammad al-`Utbī al-Qurtubī.
an scholars paid to him, Averroes is named by Dante
in The Divine Comedy
with the great pagan philosophers whose spirits dwell in "the place that favor owes to fame" in Limbo
.
Averroes appears in a short story by Jorge Luis Borges
, entitled "Averroes's Search
", in which he is portrayed trying to find the meanings of the words tragedy
and comedy
. He is briefly mentioned in the novel Ulysses
by James Joyce
alongside Maimonides
. He appears to be waiting outside the walls of the ancient city of Cordoba in Alamgir Hashmi
's poem In Cordoba. He is also the main character in Destiny, a Youssef Chahine
film. The asteroid
8318 Averroes
was named in his honor.
Talḫīṣ kitāb ʾArisṭū fī l-manṭiq
=ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Rušd (son of Averroes)
Anonymous
Commentaries
Practical Philosophy
Information about Averroes (PDF version)
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
polymath
Polymath
A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...
; a master of Aristotelian philosophy, Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy is a branch of Islamic studies. It is the continuous search for Hekma in the light of Islamic view of life, universe, ethics, society, and so on...
, Islamic theology
Islamic theology
Islamic theology is a branch of Islamic studies regarding the beliefs associated with the Islamic faith. Any religious belief system, or creed, can be considered an example of aqidah. However, this term has taken a significant technical usage in Islamic history and theology, denoting those...
, Maliki
Maliki
The ' madhhab is one of the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. It is the second-largest of the four schools, followed by approximately 25% of Muslims, mostly in North Africa, West Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and in some parts of Saudi Arabia...
law
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
and jurisprudence
Fiqh
Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is an expansion of the code of conduct expounded in the Quran, often supplemented by tradition and implemented by the rulings and interpretations of Islamic jurists....
, logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
, psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, Arabic music theory, and the sciences of medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
, geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
and celestial mechanics
Celestial mechanics
Celestial mechanics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the motions of celestial objects. The field applies principles of physics, historically classical mechanics, to astronomical objects such as stars and planets to produce ephemeris data. Orbital mechanics is a subfield which focuses on...
. He was born in Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...
, Al Andalus, modern-day Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and died in Marrakesh, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
. His school of philosophy is known as Averroism
Averroism
Averroism is the term applied to either of two philosophical trends among scholastics in the late 13th century: the Arab philosopher Averroës or Ibn Rushd's interpretations of Aristotle and his reconciliation of Aristotelianism with Islamic faith; and the application of these ideas in the Latin...
.
Ibn Rushd was a defender of Aristotelian
Aristotelianism
Aristotelianism is a tradition of philosophy that takes its defining inspiration from the work of Aristotle. The works of Aristotle were initially defended by the members of the Peripatetic school, and, later on, by the Neoplatonists, who produced many commentaries on Aristotle's writings...
philosophy against claims from Islamic theologians such as Ghazali who feared that such teachings would become an affront to the teachings of Islam.
Name
Averroes' name is also seen as Averroës, Averroès or Averrhoës, indicating that the "o" and the "e" form separate syllables. Averroes is a LatinisationLatinisation (literature)
Latinisation is the practice of rendering a non-Latin name in a Latin style. It is commonly met with for historical personal names, with toponyms, or for the standard binomial nomenclature of the life sciences. It goes further than Romanisation, which is the writing of a word in the Latin alphabet...
of a Hebrew transcription of the Arab name Ibn Rushd.
According to Ernest Renan
Ernest Renan
Ernest Renan was a French expert of Middle East ancient languages and civilizations, philosopher and writer, devoted to his native province of Brittany...
, he was also known as Ibin-Ros-din, Filius Rosadis, Ibn-Rusid, Ben-Raxid, Ibn-Ruschod, Den-Resched, Aben-Rassad, Aben-Rois, Aben-Rasd, Aben- Rust, Avenrosdy Avenryz, Adveroys, Benroist, Avenroyth, Averroysta, etc.
Biography
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...
to a family with a long and well-respected tradition of legal and public service. His grandfather Abu Al-Walid Muhammad (d. 1126) was chief judge
Qadi
Qadi is a judge ruling in accordance with Islamic religious law appointed by the ruler of a Muslim country. Because Islam makes no distinction between religious and secular domains, qadis traditionally have jurisdiction over all legal matters involving Muslims...
of Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...
under the Almoravids. His father, Abu Al-Qasim Ahmad, held the same position until the Almoravids were replaced by the Almohad
Almohad
The Almohad Dynasty , was a Moroccan Berber-Muslim dynasty founded in the 12th century that established a Berber state in Tinmel in the Atlas Mountains in roughly 1120.The movement was started by Ibn Tumart in the Masmuda tribe, followed by Abd al-Mu'min al-Gumi between 1130 and his...
s in 1146.
Averroes’s education followed a traditional path, beginning with studies in Hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
, linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, jurisprudence
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...
and scholastic theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
. Throughout his life he wrote extensively on Philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and Religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
, attributes of God, origin of the universe, Metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
and Psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
. It is generally believed that he was perhaps once tutored by Ibn Bajjah
Ibn Bajjah
Abū-Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn al-Sāyigh , known as Ibn Bājjah , was an Andalusian polymath: an astronomer, logician, musician, philosopher, physician, physicist, psychologist, botanist, poet and scientist. He was known in the West by his Latinized name, Avempace...
(Avempace). His medical education was directed under Abu Jafar ibn Harun of Trujillo
Abu Jafar ibn Harun of Trujillo
Abu Jafar ibn Harun al-Turjali was born and raised in Trujillo to a noted Muladi Muslim family. He received his education in Cordoba and later entered Almoravid service as a physician in Seville in Al-Andalus, he was a talented reader regarding the works of philosophy, he was thoroughly familiar...
in Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
.
Averroes began his career with the help of Ibn Tufail
Ibn Tufail
Ibn Tufail was an Andalusian Muslim polymath: an Arabic writer, novelist, Islamic philosopher, Islamic theologian, physician, vizier,...
("Aben Tofail" to the West), the author of Hayy ibn Yaqdhan
Hayy ibn Yaqdhan
Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān is an Arabic philosophical novel and allegorical tale written by Ibn Tufail in the early 12th century.- Translations :* from Wikisource* English translations of Hayy bin Yaqzan...
and philosophic vizier
Vizier
A vizier or in Arabic script ; ; sometimes spelled vazir, vizir, vasir, wazir, vesir, or vezir) is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in a Muslim government....
of Almohad king Abu Yaqub Yusuf
Abu Yaqub Yusuf
Abu Ya`qub Yusuf or Yusuf I was the second Almohad Amir or caliph. He reigned from 1163 until 1184. He had the Giralda in Seville built....
who was an amateur of philosophy and science. It was Ibn Tufail who introduced him to the court and to Ibn Zuhr
Ibn Zuhr
Abū Merwān ’Abdal-Malik ibn Zuhr was a Muslim physician, surgeon and teacher in Al-Andalus.He was born at Seville...
("Avenzoar" to the West), the great Muslim physician, who became Averroes's teacher and friend. Averroes's aptitude for medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
was noted by his contemporaries and can be seen in his major enduring work Kitab al-Kulyat fi al-Tibb (Generalities) the work was influenced by the Kitab al-Taisir fi al-Mudawat wa al-Tadbir (Particularities) of Ibn Zuhr
Ibn Zuhr
Abū Merwān ’Abdal-Malik ibn Zuhr was a Muslim physician, surgeon and teacher in Al-Andalus.He was born at Seville...
. Averroes later reported how it was also Ibn Tufail that inspired him to write his famous commentaries on Aristotle
Commentaries on Aristotle
Commentaries on Aristotle refers to the great mass of literature produced, especially in the ancient and medieval world, to explain and clarify the works of Aristotle. The pupils of Aristotle were the first to comment on his writings, a tradition which was continued by the Peripatetic school...
:
Averroes was also a student of Ibn Bajjah
Ibn Bajjah
Abū-Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn al-Sāyigh , known as Ibn Bājjah , was an Andalusian polymath: an astronomer, logician, musician, philosopher, physician, physicist, psychologist, botanist, poet and scientist. He was known in the West by his Latinized name, Avempace...
("Avempace" to the West), another famous Islamic philosopher
Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy is a branch of Islamic studies. It is the continuous search for Hekma in the light of Islamic view of life, universe, ethics, society, and so on...
who greatly influenced his own Averroist
Averroism
Averroism is the term applied to either of two philosophical trends among scholastics in the late 13th century: the Arab philosopher Averroës or Ibn Rushd's interpretations of Aristotle and his reconciliation of Aristotelianism with Islamic faith; and the application of these ideas in the Latin...
thought. However, while the thought of his mentors Ibn Tufail and Ibn Bajjah were mystic
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
to an extent, the thought of Averroes was purely rationalist
Rationalism
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
. Together, the three men are considered the greatest Andalusian philosophers.
In 1160, Averroes was made Qadi
Qadi
Qadi is a judge ruling in accordance with Islamic religious law appointed by the ruler of a Muslim country. Because Islam makes no distinction between religious and secular domains, qadis traditionally have jurisdiction over all legal matters involving Muslims...
(judge) of Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
and he served in many court appointments in Seville, Cordoba, and Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
during his career. Sometimes during the reign of Yaqub al-Mansur, Averroes' political career was abruptly ended and he faced severe criticism from the Fuqaha
Faqih
A Faqīh is an expert in fiqh, or, Islamic jurisprudence.A faqih is an expert in Islamic Law, and, as such, the word Faqih can literally be generally translated as Jurist.- The definition of Fiqh and its relation to the Faqih:...
(Islamic jurists) of the time.
A contemporary of Averroes, Abdelwahid al-Marrakushi writing in 1224, reported that there were secret and public reasons for his falling out of favor with Yaqub al-Mansour:
Averroes's strictly rationalist views collided with the more orthodox views of Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur, who therefore eventually banished Averroes, though he had previously appointed him as his personal physician. Averroes was not reinstated until shortly before his death in the year 1198 AD. He devoted the rest of his life (more than 30 years) to his philosophical writings.
Works
Early Islamic philosophy
Early Islamic philosophy or classical Islamic philosophy is a period of intense philosophical development beginning in the 2nd century AH of the Islamic calendar and lasting until the 6th century AH...
, logic in Islamic philosophy
Logic in Islamic philosophy
Logic played an important role in Islamic philosophy .Islamic Logic or mantiq is similar science to what is called Traditional Logic in Western Sciences.- External links :*Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy: , Routledge, 1998...
, Arabic medicine, Arabic mathematics, Arabic astronomy, Arabic grammar
Arabic grammar
Arabic grammar is the grammar of the Arabic language. Arabic is a Semitic language and its grammar has many similarities with the grammar of other Semitic languages....
, Islamic theology
Islamic theology
Islamic theology is a branch of Islamic studies regarding the beliefs associated with the Islamic faith. Any religious belief system, or creed, can be considered an example of aqidah. However, this term has taken a significant technical usage in Islamic history and theology, denoting those...
, Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
(Islamic law), and Fiqh
Fiqh
Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is an expansion of the code of conduct expounded in the Quran, often supplemented by tradition and implemented by the rulings and interpretations of Islamic jurists....
(Islamic jurisprudence). In particular, his most important works dealt with Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy is a branch of Islamic studies. It is the continuous search for Hekma in the light of Islamic view of life, universe, ethics, society, and so on...
, medicine and Fiqh. He wrote at least 67 original works, which included 28 works on philosophy, 20 on medicine, 8 on law, 5 on theology, and 4 on grammar, in addition to his commentaries on most of Aristotle's works and his commentary on Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
's The Republic.
He wrote commentaries on most of the surviving works of Aristotle. These were not based on primary sources (it is not known whether he knew Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
), but rather on Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
translations. There were three levels of commentary: the Jami, the Talkhis and the Tafsir
Tafsir
Tafseer is the Arabic word for exegesis or commentary, usually of the Qur'an. Ta'wīl is a subset of tafsir and refers to esoteric or mystical interpretation. An author of tafsir is a mufassir .- Etymology :...
which are, respectively, a simplified overview, an intermediate commentary with more critical material, and an advanced study of Aristotelian thought in a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
context. The terms are taken from the names of different types of commentary on the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
. It is not known whether he wrote commentaries of all three types on all the works: in most cases only one or two commentaries survive.
He did not have access to any text of Aristotle's Politics
Politics (Aristotle)
Aristotle's Politics is a work of political philosophy. The end of the Nicomachean Ethics declared that the inquiry into ethics necessarily follows into politics, and the two works are frequently considered to be parts of a larger treatise, or perhaps connected lectures, dealing with the...
. As a substitute for this, he commented on Plato's The Republic, arguing that the ideal state there described was the same as the original constitution of the Arab Caliphate
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...
, as well as the Almohad
Almohad
The Almohad Dynasty , was a Moroccan Berber-Muslim dynasty founded in the 12th century that established a Berber state in Tinmel in the Atlas Mountains in roughly 1120.The movement was started by Ibn Tumart in the Masmuda tribe, followed by Abd al-Mu'min al-Gumi between 1130 and his...
state of Ibn Tumart
Ibn Tumart
Abu Abd Allah Muhammad Ibn Tumart was a Berber religious Muslim scholar, teacher and later a political leader from the Masmuda tribe federation. He founded the Berber Almohad dynasty. He is also known as El-Mahdi in reference to his prophesied redeeming...
.
His most important original philosophical work was The Incoherence of the Incoherence
The Incoherence of the Incoherence
The Incoherence of the Incoherence by Andalusian Muslim polymath and philosopher Ibn Rushd is an important Islamic philosophical treatise, in which the author defends the use of Aristotelian philosophy within Islamic thought.It was written in the style of a dialogue against Al-Ghazali's claims...
(Tahafut al-tahafut), in which he defended Aristotelian philosophy against al-Ghazali
Al-Ghazali
Abu Hāmed Mohammad ibn Mohammad al-Ghazzālī , known as Algazel to the western medieval world, born and died in Tus, in the Khorasan province of Persia was a Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic....
's claims in The Incoherence of the Philosophers
The Incoherence of the Philosophers
The Incoherence of the Philosophers is the title of a landmark 11th century polemic by the Sufi sympathetic Imam Al-Ghazali of the Asharite school of Islamic theology criticizing the Avicennian school of early Islamic philosophy...
(Tahafut al-falasifa). Al-Ghazali argued that Aristotelianism, especially as presented in the writings of Avicenna
Avicenna
Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā , commonly known as Ibn Sīnā or by his Latinized name Avicenna, was a Persian polymath, who wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived...
, was self-contradictory and an affront to the teachings of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. Averroes' rebuttal was two-pronged: he contended both that al-Ghazali's arguments were mistaken and that, in any case, the system of Avicenna was a distortion of genuine Aristotelianism so that al-Ghazali was aiming at the wrong target. Other works were the Fasl al-Maqal, which argued for the legality of philosophical investigation under Islamic law, and the Kitab al-Kashf, which argued against the proofs of Islam advanced by the Ash'ari
Ash'ari
The Ashʿari theology is a school of early Muslim speculative theology founded by the theologian Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari...
te school and discussed what proofs, on the popular level, should be used instead.
Averroes is also a highly regarded legal scholar of the Maliki
Maliki
The ' madhhab is one of the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. It is the second-largest of the four schools, followed by approximately 25% of Muslims, mostly in North Africa, West Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and in some parts of Saudi Arabia...
school. Perhaps his best-known work in this field is Bidāyat al-Mujtahid wa Nihāyat al-Muqtaṣid ( بداية المجتهد و نهاية المقتصد), a textbook of Maliki doctrine in a comparative framework.
Jacob Anatoli
Jacob Anatoli
Jacob ben Abba Mari ben Simson Anatoli was a translator of Arabic texts to Hebrew. He was invited to Naples by Frederick II. Under this royal patronage, and in association with Michael Scot, Anatoli made Arabic learning accessible to Western readers...
translated several of the works of Averroes from Arabic into Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
in the 13th century. Many of them were later translated from Hebrew into Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
by Jacob Mantino and Abraham de Balmes
Abraham de Balmes
Abraham de Balmes ben Meir Abraham de Balmes ben Meir Abraham de Balmes ben Meir (born at Lecce, in the kingdom of Naples; died at Venice, 1523 was Italian Jewish physician and translator of the early 16th century....
. Other works were translated directly from Arabic into Latin by Michael Scot
Michael Scot
Michael Scot was a medieval mathematician and scholar.- Early life and education :He was born in Scotland, and studied first at the cathedral school of Durham and then at Oxford and Paris, devoting himself to philosophy, mathematics, and astrology...
. Many of his works in logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
and metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
have been permanently lost, while others, including some of the longer Aristotelian commentaries, have only survived in Latin or Hebrew translation, not in the original Arabic. The fullest version of his works is in Latin, and forms part of the multi-volume Juntine edition of Aristotle published in Venice 1562-1574.
Medicine
Averroes wrote a medical encyclopedia called Kulliyat ("Generalities", i.e. general medicine), known in its Latin translation as Colliget. He also made a compilation of the works of GalenGalen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamon , was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher...
, and wrote a commentary on the Canon of Medicine (Qanun fi 't-tibb) of Avicenna
Avicenna
Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā , commonly known as Ibn Sīnā or by his Latinized name Avicenna, was a Persian polymath, who wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived...
(Ibn Sina) (980-1037).
Commentaries on Aristotle and Plato
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
. These were not based on primary sources (it is not known whether he knew Greek), but rather on Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
translations. On each work, he wrote the Jami, the Talkhis and the Tafsir which are, respectively, a simplified overview, an intermediate commentary with more critical material, and an advanced study of Aristotelian thought in a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
context. The terms are taken from the names of different types of commentary on the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
.
He did not have access to any text of Aristotle's Politics
Politics (Aristotle)
Aristotle's Politics is a work of political philosophy. The end of the Nicomachean Ethics declared that the inquiry into ethics necessarily follows into politics, and the two works are frequently considered to be parts of a larger treatise, or perhaps connected lectures, dealing with the...
. As a substitute for this, he commented on Plato's Republic
Republic (Plato)
The Republic is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato around 380 BC concerning the definition of justice and the order and character of the just city-state and the just man...
, arguing that the state there described was the same as the original constitution of the Arabs.
Independent philosophical works
His most important original philosophical work was The Incoherence of the Incoherence (Tahafut al-tahafut), in which he defended Aristotelian philosophy against al-GhazaliAl-Ghazali
Abu Hāmed Mohammad ibn Mohammad al-Ghazzālī , known as Algazel to the western medieval world, born and died in Tus, in the Khorasan province of Persia was a Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic....
's claims in The Incoherence of the Philosophers
The Incoherence of the Philosophers
The Incoherence of the Philosophers is the title of a landmark 11th century polemic by the Sufi sympathetic Imam Al-Ghazali of the Asharite school of Islamic theology criticizing the Avicennian school of early Islamic philosophy...
(Tahafut al-falasifa). Al-Ghazali argued that Aristotelianism, especially as presented in the writings of Avicenna
Avicenna
Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā , commonly known as Ibn Sīnā or by his Latinized name Avicenna, was a Persian polymath, who wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived...
, was self-contradictory and an affront to the teachings of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. Averroes' rebuttal was two-pronged: he contended both that al-Ghazali's arguments were mistaken and that, in any case, the system of Avicenna was a distortion of genuine Aristotelianism so that al-Ghazali was aiming at the wrong target.
Other works were the Fasl al-Maqal, which argued for the legality of philosophical investigation under Islamic law, and the Kitab al-Kashf.
Jacob Anatoli
Jacob Anatoli
Jacob ben Abba Mari ben Simson Anatoli was a translator of Arabic texts to Hebrew. He was invited to Naples by Frederick II. Under this royal patronage, and in association with Michael Scot, Anatoli made Arabic learning accessible to Western readers...
translated his works from Arabic to Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
in the 13th century. Many of them were later translated from Hebrew to Latin by Jacob Mantino and others. Other works were translated directly from Arabic to Latin by Michael Scot
Michael Scot
Michael Scot was a medieval mathematician and scholar.- Early life and education :He was born in Scotland, and studied first at the cathedral school of Durham and then at Oxford and Paris, devoting himself to philosophy, mathematics, and astrology...
. Many of his works in logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
and metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
have been permanently lost, while others, including some of the longer Aristotelian commentaries, have only survived in Latin or Hebrew translation, not in the original Arabic. The fullest version of his works is in Latin, and forms part of the multi-volume Juntine edition of Aristotle published in Venice 1562-1574.
System of philosophy
Averroes tried to reconcile Aristotle's system of thought with IslamIslam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. According to him, there is no conflict between religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, rather that they are different ways of reaching the same truth. He believed in the eternity
Eternity
While in the popular mind, eternity often simply means existence for a limitless amount of time, many have used it to refer to a timeless existence altogether outside time. By contrast, infinite temporal existence is then called sempiternity. Something eternal exists outside time; by contrast,...
of the universe
Universe
The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
. He also held that the soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
is divided into two parts, one individual and one divine; while the individual soul is not eternal, all humans at the basic level share one and the same divine soul. Averroes has two kinds of Knowledge of Truth. The first being his knowledge of truth of religion being based in faith and thus could not be tested, nor did it require training to understand. The second knowledge of truth is philosophy, which was reserved for an elite few who had the intellectual capacity to undertake its study.
Significance
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
. Before 1150 only a few translated works of Aristotle existed in Latin Europe (i.e. excluding Greek Byzantium), and they were not studied much or given as much credence by monastic scholars. It was in part through the Latin translations of Averroes's work beginning in the 12th century that the legacy of Aristotle was recovered in the West.
Averroes's work on Aristotle spans almost three decades, and he wrote commentaries on almost all of Aristotle's work except for Aristotle's Politics, to which he did not have access. Hebrew translations of his work also had a lasting impact on Jewish philosophy
Jewish philosophy
Jewish philosophy , includes all philosophy carried out by Jews, or, in relation to the religion of Judaism. Jewish philosophy, until modern Enlightenment and Emancipation, was pre-occupied with attempts to reconcile coherent new ideas into the tradition of Rabbinic Judaism; thus organizing...
. His ideas were assimilated by Siger of Brabant
Siger of Brabant
Siger of Brabant was a 13th century philosopher from the southern Low Countries who was an important proponent of Averroism...
and Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...
and others (especially in the University of Paris
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
) within the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
scholastic
Scholasticism
Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context...
tradition which valued Aristotelian logic. Famous scholastics such as Aquinas believed him to be so important they did not refer to him by name, simply calling him "The Commentator" and calling Aristotle "The Philosopher." Averroes also greatly influenced philosophy in the Islamic world. His death coincides with a change in the culture of Al-Andalus. In his work Fasl al-Maqāl (translated a. o. as The Decisive Treatise), he stresses the importance of analytical thinking as a prerequisite to interpret the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
.
Averroes's treatise on Plato's Republic
Republic (Plato)
The Republic is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato around 380 BC concerning the definition of justice and the order and character of the just city-state and the just man...
has played a major role in both the transmission and the adaptation of the Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
nic tradition in the West. It has been a primary source in medieval political philosophy
Medieval philosophy
Medieval philosophy is the philosophy in the era now known as medieval or the Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century AD to the Renaissance in the sixteenth century...
.
Averroes was one of those who predicted the existence of a new world
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
beyond the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
.
Jurisprudence and law
Averroes is also a highly-regarded legal scholar of the MalikiMaliki
The ' madhhab is one of the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. It is the second-largest of the four schools, followed by approximately 25% of Muslims, mostly in North Africa, West Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and in some parts of Saudi Arabia...
school. Perhaps his best-known work in this field is "Bidāyat al-Mujtahid wa Nihāyat al-Muqtaṣid," a textbook of Maliki doctrine in a comparative framework. He is also the author of "al-Bayān wa’l-Taḥṣīl, wa’l-Sharḥ wa’l-Tawjīh wa’l-Ta`līl fi Masā’il al-Mustakhraja," a long and detailed commentary based on the "Mustakhraja" of Muḥammad al-`Utbī al-Qurtubī.
Cultural influences
Reflecting the respect which medieval EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an scholars paid to him, Averroes is named by Dante
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
in The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy is an epic poem written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature...
with the great pagan philosophers whose spirits dwell in "the place that favor owes to fame" in Limbo
Limbo
In the theology of the Catholic Church, Limbo is a speculative idea about the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the damned. Limbo is not an official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church or any other...
.
Averroes appears in a short story by Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
, entitled "Averroes's Search
Averroes's Search
"Averroës's Search" is a 1947 short story by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. Originally published in the magazine Sur, it was later included in his second anthology of short stories, El Aleph.-Plot summary:The story imagines the difficulty of Averroës, the famed Arabic commentator and...
", in which he is portrayed trying to find the meanings of the words tragedy
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
and comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
. He is briefly mentioned in the novel Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
by James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
alongside Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
. He appears to be waiting outside the walls of the ancient city of Cordoba in Alamgir Hashmi
Alamgir Hashmi
Alamgir Hashmi is a major English poet of Pakistani origin in the latter half of the 20th century. Considered avant-garde, both his early and later works were published to universal critical acclaim and widespread influence...
's poem In Cordoba. He is also the main character in Destiny, a Youssef Chahine
Youssef Chahine
Youssef Chahine was an Egyptian film director active in the Egyptian film industry since 1950. He was credited with launching the career of actor Omar Sharif...
film. The asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
8318 Averroes
8318 Averroes
8318 Averroes is a main-belt asteroid discovered on September 29, 1973 by Cornelis Johannes van Houten, Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld and Tom Gehrels at Palomar Observatory.- External links :*...
was named in his honor.
Short Commentary
- [1] Short Commentary on Aristotle's Organon / Epitome in Libros Logicæ Aristotelis / Tajrīd al-ʾaqāwīl al-ḍarūrīya min ṣināʿat al-manṭiq (Aka: Al-ḍarūrī; Al-ḍarūrī fī l-manṭiq; Kitāb fī l-manṭiq; Muḫtaṣar fī l-manṭiq) ca. 552/1157
Middle Commentaries
- [2] Middle Commentary on the IsagogeIsagogeThe Isagoge or "Introduction" to Aristotle's "Categories", written by Porphyry in Greek and translated into Latin by Boethius, was the standard textbook on logic for at least a millennium after his death. It was composed by Porphyry in Sicily during the years 268-270, and sent to Chrysaorium,...
/ Talḫīṣ madḫal fī Fūrfūrīyūš (Aka: Talḥīṣ kitāb ʾĪsāġūjī)
Talḫīṣ kitāb ʾArisṭū fī l-manṭiq
- [3] Middle Commentary on the CategoriesCategories (Aristotle)The Categories is a text from Aristotle's Organon that enumerates all the possible kinds of thing that can be the subject or the predicate of a proposition...
/ Talḫīṣ kitāb al-maqūlāt - [4] Middle Commentary on Peri hermeneias / Talḫīṣ kitāb al-ʿibāra
- [5] Middle Commentary on the Prior AnalyticsPrior AnalyticsThe Prior Analytics is Aristotle's work on deductive reasoning, specifically the syllogism. It is also part of his Organon, which is the instrument or manual of logical and scientific methods....
/ Media Expositio in Libros Priorum Resolutoriorum / Talḫīṣ kitāb al-qiyās - [6] Middle Commentary on the Posterior AnalyticsPosterior AnalyticsThe Posterior Analytics is a text from Aristotle's Organon that deals with demonstration, definition, and scientific knowledge. The demonstration is distinguished as a syllogism productive of scientific knowledge, while the definition marked as the statement of a thing's nature, .....
/ Media Expositio in Libros Posteriorum Resolutoriorum / Talḫīṣ kitāb al-burhān (Aka: Talḫīṣ kitāb al-burhān li-ʾArisṭūṭālīs; Talḫīṣ kitāb al-burhān lahū) - [7] Middle Commentary on the TopicsTopics (Aristotle)The Topics is the name given to one of Aristotle's six works on logic collectively known as the Organon. The other five are:*Categories*De Interpretatione*Prior Analytics*Posterior Analytics*On Sophistical Refutations...
/ Talḫīṣ kitāb al-jadal - [8] Middle Commentary on the Sophistici Elenchi / Talḫīṣ kitāb al-safsaṭa
- [9] Middle Commentary on the RhetoricRhetoric (Aristotle)Aristotle's Rhetoric is an ancient Greek treatise on the art of persuasion, dating from the 4th century BC. In Greek, it is titled ΤΕΧΝΗ ΡΗΤΟΡΙΚΗ, in Latin Ars Rhetorica. In English, its title varies: typically it is titled Rhetoric, the Art of Rhetoric, or a Treatise on...
/ Talḫīṣ al-ḫiṭāba [570/1175 or 571/1176] - [10] Middle Commentary on the Poetics / Talḫīṣ kitāb al-šiʿr
Long Commentaries
- [11] Long Commentary on the Prior Analytics (?) / Šarḥ kitāb al-qiyās li-ʾArisṭūṭālīs (Aka: Kitāb šarḥ kitāb al-qiyās li-ʾArisṭū)
- [12] Long Commentary on the Posterior Analytics / Šarḥ kitāb al-burhān
Questions
- [13] Questions on Logic / Quæsita in libros logicæ Aristotelis / (Part of: Masāʿil fī l-ḥikma, aka: Muqaddimāt fī l-ḥikma)
Questions on the Isagoge
- [13.1] On Alfarabi on the Isagoge about genus and differentia / Kalām ʿalā qawl ʾAbī Naṣr fī l-madḫal wa-l-jins wa-l-faṣl yuštarikān
Questions on the Categories
- [13.2] On substantial and accidental universals / Al-qawl fī kullīyāt al-jawhar wa-kullīyāt al-ʾaʿraḍ (Aka: Bāb ʿalā maqūla ʾawwal kitāb ʾAbī Naṣr (?), Maqāla ʿalā ʾawwal maqūla ʾAbī Naṣr (?))
Questions on Peri hermeneias
- [13.3] On the copula and on derived nouns / Maqāla fī l-kalima wa-l-ism al-muštaqq (Aka: Kalām lahū ʿalā l-kalima wa-l-ism al-muštaqq, Min kitāb al-ʿibāra li-ʾAbī Naṣr)
- [13.4] On compound and simple predicates / Min kitāb al-ʿibāra (Aka: De prædicatis compositis et divisis)
Questions on the Prior Analytics
- [13.5] On the definition: Critique of the positions of AlexanderAlexander of AphrodisiasAlexander of Aphrodisias was a Peripatetic philosopher and the most celebrated of the Ancient Greek commentators on the writings of Aristotle. He was a native of Aphrodisias in Caria, and lived and taught in Athens at the beginning of the 3rd century, where he held a position as head of the...
and Alfarabi / Al-qawl fī l-ḥadd wa-naqd mā ḏahaba ʾilayhī al-ʾIskandar wa-ʾAbū Naṣr (Aka: Maqāla fī l-ḥadd (juzʾ al-qiyās) wa-naqd maḏahabay al-ʾIskandar wa-ʾAbī Naṣr; De definitione termini) - [13.6] Critique of Avicenna's position on the conversion of premises / Naqd maḏhab Ibn Sīnā fī inʿikās al-qaḍāyā (Aka: Maqāla fī naqd maḏhab Ibn Sīnā fī ʿaks al-qaḍāyā; De conversionibus)
- [13.7] Critique of Themistius's position on the contingent syllogisms in the first and second figure / Naqd maḏhab Tāmisṭiyūs fī l-maqāyīs al-mumkina fī l-šaklayn al-ʾawwal wa-l-ṯānī (Aka: De conditione syllogismorum contingentium circa duo eorum attributa, videlicet de numerositate illationis, et de figura in qua non concludunt)
- [13.8] Chapter on absolute premises / Maqāla fī l-muqaddima al-muṭlaqa (Aka: Quid sit propositio absoluta id est de inesse)
- [13.9] On the types of conclusions in compound syllogisms / Al-qawl fī jihāt al-natāʾij fī l-maqāyīs al-murakkaba wa-fī maʿnā al-maqūl ʿalā l-kull
- [13.10] Chapter on the dependency of the types of conclusions from the types of premises / Maqāla [...] fī luzūm jihāt al-natāʾij li-jihāt al-muqaddimāt
- [13.11] On the mixing of contingent and necessary premises / De mistione contingentis et necessarii
- [13.12] Chapter on the dependency of the conclusions from mixed syllogisms
- [13.13] Chapter on the meaning of "predicated on everything" / Maqāla [...] fī maʿnā al- maqūl ʿalā l-kull wa-ġayr ḏālika
- [13.14] Chapter on conditional syllogisms / Maqāla fī l-maqāʾis al-šarṭīya (Aka: Maqāla fī l-qiyās; De conditionali, an per ipsum ostendatur quæsitum primum ignotum)
- [13.15] Exposition of Alfarabi's commentary on the first book of the Prior Analytics / Talḫīṣ šarḥ ʾAbī Naṣr [li-]l-maqāla al-ʾūlā min al-qiyās li-l-ḥakīm...
Questions on the Posterior Analytics
- [13.16] On the predicates in demonstrations / Al-qawl fī l-maḥmūlāt al-barāhīn (Aka: Epistola de primitate prædicatorum in demonstrationibus)
- [13.17] On Alfarabi's Book on Demonstration / Min kitāb al-burhān li-ʾAbī Naṣr
- [13.18] On the definition of individuals / Al-qawl fī ḥadd al-šaḫṣ (Aka: An definitio sit particularis aut universalis tantum)
- [13.19] On the three types of definition in relation to demonstrations / De triplici genere diffinitionum in ordine ad demonstrationem
- [13.20] On whether the middle term is the cause of the major term / De medio demonstrationis an sit causa maioris extremi
- [13.21] Treatise on the disagreement of Alfarabi and Aristotle on the order of the Posterior Analytics and the rules of demonstrations and definitions / Kitāb fī mā ḫālafa ʾAbū Naṣr li-ʾArisṭū fī kitāb al-burhān min tartībihī wa-qawānīn al-barāhīn wa-l-ḥudūd (Aka: De conditionibus præmissarum demonstrationis)
- [13.22] On the conditions for the necessity of the premises of demonstrations / De conditionibus quæ requiruntur ad necessitatem præmissarum demonstrationum
- [13.23] On how a demonstration can be transferred from one science to another / Quomodo fiat translatio ab una arte in aliam
- [13.24] On demonstrations quia / De demonstrationibus quia
- [13.25] On the sense in which the definition is better known than the thing defined / Quomodo definitio sit notior ipso definito
- [13.26] On the definitions which are said to differ from demonstrations in their order / De definitionibus quæ dicuntur positione differentes a demonstratione
Physics
- [14] Short Commentary on the Physics / Jawāmiʿ al-samāʾ al-ṭabīʿī (Part of: Al-jawāmiʿ fī l-falsafa; Jawāmiʿ kutub ʾArisṭūṭālīs fī l-ṭabīʿīyāt wa-l-ʾilāhīyāt)
- [15] Middle Commentary on the Physics / Talḫīṣ kitāb al-samāʾ al- al-ṭabīʿī (Aka: [...] li-ʾArisṭūṭālīs; Talḫīṣ al- ṭabīʿī; Wa-laḫaṣa kitāb al-samāʿ al-ṭabīʿī li-ʾArisṭūṭālīs)
- [16] Long Commentary on the Physics / Šarḥ [kitāb] al-samāʾ al-ṭabīʿī
On the Heavens
- [17] Short Commentary on De cæloOn the HeavensOn the Heavens is Aristotle's chief cosmological treatise: it contains his astronomical theory and his ideas on the concrete workings of the terrestrial world...
/ Jawāmiʿ al-samāʾ wa-l-ʿālam (Part of: Al-jawāmiʿ fī l-falsafa; Jawāmiʿ kutub ʾArisṭūṭālīs fī l-ṭabīʿīyāt wa-l-ʾilāhīyāt) - [18] Middle Commentary on De cælo / Talḫīṣ [kitāb] al-samāʾ wa-l-ʿālam
- [19] Long Commentary on De cælo / Šarḥ kitāb al-samāʾ wa-l-ʿālam (Aka: Šarḥ kitāb al-samāʾ wa-l-ʿālam li-ʾArisṭūṭālīs; Šarḥ al-samāʾ wa-l-ʿālam)
- [20] De substantia orbis
On Generation and Corruption
- [21] Short Commentary on De generatione et corruptione / Jawāmiʿ kitāb al-kaun wa-l-fasād (Part of: Al-jawāmiʿ fī l-falsafa; Jawāmiʿ kutub ʾArisṭūṭālīs fī l-ṭabīʿīyāt wa-l-ʾilāhīyāt)
- [22] Middle Commentary on De generatione et corruptione / Talḫīṣ [kitāb] al-kaun wa-l-fasād 567/1172
Meteorology
- [23] Short Commentary on the MeteorologyMeteorology (Aristotle)Meteorology is a treatise by Aristotle which contains his theories about the earth sciences. These include early accounts of water evaporation, weather phenomena, and earthquakes....
/ Jawāmiʿ kitāb al-ʾaṯār al-ʿulwīya (Part of: Al-jawāmiʿ fī l-falsafa; Jawāmiʿ kutub ʾArisṭūṭālīs fī l-ṭabīʿīyāt wa-l-ʾilāhīyāt) - [24] Middle Commentary on the Meteorology / Talḫīṣ [kitāb] al-ʾāṯār al-ʿulwīya
Biology
- [25] Middle(?) Commentary on De animalibus / Talḫīṣ tisʿ maqālāt min kitāb al-ḥayawān (Aka: Talḫīṣ tisʿ maqālāt min kitāb al-ḥayawān wa-ḏālika min al-ḥādīya ʿašr ʾilā ʾāḫar al-diwān; Talḫīṣ fī l-maqāla al-ḥādīya ʿašara min kitāb al-ḥayawān li-ʾArisṭūṭālīs wa-ḏālika tisʿ maqālāt; Kitāb al-ḥayawān) 565/1169
- [26] Chapter on animals / Maqāla fī l-ḥayawān (Aka: Kalām lahū ʿalā l-ḥayawān)
- [27] Short Commentary on De plantis
Commentaries
- [29] "Book on the Soul" or Short Commentary on De anima / Kitāb al-nafs
- [30] Middle Commentary on De anima / Talḫīṣ kitāb al-nafs 577/1181
- [31] Long Commentary on De anima / Šarḥ kitāb al-nafs (Aka: Šarḥ kitāb al-nafs li-ʾArisṭūṭālīs)
- [32] Commentary on the Parva naturaliaParva NaturaliaThe Parva Naturalia are a collection of seven works by Aristotle, which discuss natural phenomena involving the body and the soul:* Sense and Sensibilia * On Memory...
/ Talḫīṣ al-ḥiss wa-l-maḥsūs. Sevilla, 13. Rabīʿ al-ʾāḫar 565 [ca. 01/04/1170]
Treatises on the Intellect
- [33] Enquiry whether the intellect in us, named the material intellect, is able to know in the end the separate forms or not =Epistle on the possibility of conjunction / Kitāb fī l-faḥṣ hal yumkin al-ʿaql ʾallaḏī fīnā wa-huwa al-musammā bi-l-hayūlānī ʾan yaʿqila al-ṣuwar al-mufāriqa bi-ʾāḫirihī ʾau lā yumkin ḏālika wa-huwa al-maṭlūb ʾallaḏī kāna ʾArisṭūṭālīs waʿadanā bi-l-faḥṣ ʿanhū fī kitāb al-nafs (Aka: ʾIggeret ʾefšarut ha-debequt)
- [34] Chapter on the conjunction of the separate intellect with man / Maqāla fī ttiṣāl al-ʿaql al-mufāriq bi-l-ʾinsān (Aka: Masʾala fī ʿilm al-nafs suʾila ʿanhā fa-ʾajāba fīha; Epistola de connexione intellectus abstracti cum homine)
- [35] Chapter on the conjunction of intellect with man / Maqāla fī ttiṣāl al-ʿaql bi-l-ʾinsān (Aka: Maqāla ʾaiḍan fī ttiṣāl al-ʿaql bi-l-ʾinsān; Maqāla fī ḏālika ʾaiḍan)
- [36] Chapter on the intellect / Maqāla fī l-ʿaql (Aka: Maqāla ʾuḫrā fī ʿilm al-nafs ʾaiḍan)
- [37] Commentary on Alexander's treatise on the intellect / Šarḥ maqālat al-ʾIskandar fī l-ʿaql
- [38] Commentary on Avempace's epistle on the conjunction of the intellect with man / Šarḥ risālat ittiṣāl al-ʿaql bi-l-ʾinsān li-bn al-Ṣāʾiġ
=ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Rušd (son of Averroes)
- [39] On whether the active intellect unites with the material intellect whilst it is clothed with the body / Hal yattaṣilu bi-l-ʿaql al-hayūlānī al-ʿaql al-faʿʿāl wa-huwa multabis bi-l-jism
Anonymous
- [40] De animæ beatudine / Tractatus Aueroys de perfectione naturali intellectus secundum mentem philosophi
Commentaries
- [41] Short Commentary on the MetaphysicsMetaphysics (Aristotle)Metaphysics is one of the principal works of Aristotle and the first major work of the branch of philosophy with the same name. The principal subject is "being qua being", or being understood as being. It examines what can be asserted about anything that exists just because of its existence and...
/ Jawāmiʿ kitāb mā baʿd al-ṭabīʿa (Part of: Jawāmiʿ kutub ʾArisṭūṭālīs fī l-ṭabīʿīyāt wa-l-ʾilāhīyāt; Al-gawāmiʿ fī l-falsafa) - [42] Middle Commentary on the Metaphysics / Talḫīṣ mā baʿd al-ṭabīʿa (Aka: Talḫīṣ kitāb mā baʿd al-ṭabīʿa li-ʾArisṭūṭālīs; Kitāb talḫīṣ mā baʿd al-ṭabīʿa li-ʾArisṭūṭālīs; Averrois in septem libros media expositio ab Hælia Cretensi in latinum conversa, Ante hac nunquam excusa, summis vigiliis elaborata) Cordova, 25. Rabīʿ al-ʾāḫar 570 [11/23/1174].
- [43] Long Commentary on the Metaphysics / Šarḥ mā baʿd al-ṭabīʿa.
Practical Philosophy
- [44] Middle Commentary on the Nicomachean EthicsNicomachean EthicsThe Nicomachean Ethics is the name normally given to Aristotle's best known work on ethics. The English version of the title derives from Greek Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια, transliterated Ethika Nikomacheia, which is sometimes also given in the genitive form as Ἠθικῶν Νικομαχείων, Ethikōn Nikomacheiōn...
- [45] Epitome of Plato's Republic
See also
- List of Arab scientists and scholars
- List of Islamic studies scholars
- Arthur HymanArthur Hyman-Academic career:Arthur Hyman was Dean of the Bernard Revel Graduate School until 2008, succeeded by David Berger. He has taught philosophy at Yeshiva University for 40 years...
Further reading
- Glasner, Ruth. Averroes' Physics: A Turning Point in Medieval Natural Philosophy (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009).
- Sorabji, Richard Matter, Space and Motion Duckworth 1988
- Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann, Sketch of a Cosmic Theory of the Soul from Aristotle to Averroes, in: Variantology 4. On Deep Time Relations of Arts, Sciences and Technologies In the Arabic-Islamic World and Beyond, ed. by Siegfried Zielinski and Eckhard Fürlus in cooperation with Daniel Irrgang and Franziska Latell (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2010), pp. 19–42.
External links
Works of Averroes- Averroes, Islamic Philosophy Online (links to works by and about Averroes in several languages)
- The Philosophy and Theology of Averroes: Tractata translated from the Arabic, trans. Mohammad Jamil-ur-Rehman, 1921
- The Incoherence of the Incoherence translation by Simon van den Bergh. [N.B.: This also contains a translation of most of the tahafut as the refutations are mostly commentary of al-GhazaliAl-GhazaliAbu Hāmed Mohammad ibn Mohammad al-Ghazzālī , known as Algazel to the western medieval world, born and died in Tus, in the Khorasan province of Persia was a Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic....
statements that were quoted verbatim.] - SIEPM Virtual Library, including scanned copies (PDF) of the Editio Juntina of Averroes' works in Latin (Venice 1550-1562)
Information about Averroes (PDF version)
- Averroes Database, including full bibliography of his works
- "Averroes", BBC Radio 4 discussion, 5 October 2006, "In Our TimeIn Our Time (BBC Radio 4)In Our Time is a live BBC radio discussion series exploring the history of ideas, presented by Melvyn Bragg since 15 October 1998.. It is one of BBC radio's most successful discussion programmes, acknowledged to have "transformed the landscape for serious ideas at peak listening time"...
" programme.