1.8.2 - Ibn Rushd (520/1126-595/1198)

Born in 520/1126, Ibn Rushd, or: Averroes, is Abu al-Walid Muhammad Ibn Ahmad al-Andalusi al-Qordubi, a scholar and philosopher who had a profound impact on Islamic history. He was famous in philosophical and medical sciences. He was a brilliant linguist, modest, pleasant, having a warm tongue, and he has a gimmick of literature, with strong argument, and firm dogma.

Ibn Rushd spent his life researching and writing. He studied medicine with Abu Jaafar Harun and Abu Marwan Ibn Jarboul of Andalusia. He was a close friend of Abu Marwan Ibn Zuhr, the senior physician of his time, and he had a high status among doctors.

Ibn Rushd studied the texts of Aristotle and explained them and summarized them. He tried to reconcile the philosophy and the Islamic law and correct the doctrine of the contradictions introduced by the Speakers (kalam theologians), as he claimed, especially Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali. He wrote an important book called Tahafut al-Tahafut, in response to what al-Ghazali wrote in contradicting the philosophers: Tahafut al-Falasifa. Ibn Rushd also tried to purge the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, which he thinks that they were merged with some strange elements such as the views of Ibn Sina and al-Farabi, that he opposed.

He studied the Science of Speech according to the doctrine of Asharism and graduated in jurisprudence according to the doctrine of Imam Malik. Hw studied philosophy on Ibn Bashkwal and some other scientists of his time, and medicine on Abu Jaafar Harun and Ibn Tufail, and when the latter resigned from the Caliph's service he proposed that Ibn Rushd succeed in his post, and so it was. He then devoted himself to the interpretation of the works of Aristotle, in response to the wishes of Sultan Abu Yaqoub Yusuf, and then returned to Cordoba where he took the post of Chief Justice, and about ten years later he went to the palace in Marrakesh as the private doctor of the Caliph. However, when Abu Yusuf Yaqoub al-Mansour became the Caliph, Ibn Rushd did not have as much status as with his father Yusuf. The new Caliph was not interested in philosophy, and then some of the intrigues of the enemies of Ibn Rushd influenced him. This led al-Mansour to accuse Ibn Rushd of infidelity and misguidance, and he was exiled to a small town near Cordoba, whose inhabitants were mostly Jews. He also ordered all his philosophical writings to be set on fire, and prohibited him from the practice of philosophy and science, except medicine, astronomy, and arithmetic. Then the Sultan pardoned him and brought him back to Marrakesh near him, but the philosopher did not congratulate this pardon and he suffered a disease for one year before he died Marrakesh in the same year 595/1198 in which the Caliph also died.

Ibn Rushd left many important philosophical treatises and works, more than one hundred, such as: The Methods of Evidence, and a book the intersection between philosophy and Shariah, both of which are deal with fundamental jurisprudence and theological issues. He also wrote the famous response on al-Ghazali's Tahafut. In addition, Ibn Rushd wrote many explanations on Aristotle's books such as: summarizing and explaining the book of Metaphysics, summarizing and explaining the book of Proof, summarizing the book of Essays, summarizing the book of Ethics, summarizing the book of Natural Hearing, and explaining the book of Soul.

In section [ref:ibnrushd of the following chapter, we will mention the story of the notable meeting between Ibn Rushd and Ibn al-Arabi and what had occurred between them, and in the third chapter (section [ref:ibnrushddeath) we will also mention what Shaykh Muhyiddin said regarding the funeral of Ibn Rushd in Cordoba in 595/1199.