Averroes

Averroes
Abū al-Walīd Muhammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Rušd
Statue of Averroes in Córdoba
Born	(1126-04-14)April 14, 1126 Córdoba, Al-Andalus, Almoravid Empire
Died	December 11, 1198(1198-12-11) (aged 72) Marrakesh, Almohad Empire
Alma mater	Madrasa of Córdoba
Occupations	Philosopher, physician, polymath
Known for	Philosophy, Islamic law, Mathematics, Astronomy, Medicine

Averroes (Latinization of the Arabic name أبو الوليد محمد بن أحمد بن محمد بن رشد ʾAbū al-WalīdʾMuhammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Rušd; Córdoba, Al-Andalus, Almoravid Empire, April 14, 1126 – Marrakesh, Almohad Empire, December 11, 1198) was an Andalusi Muslim philosopher, physician and polymath, a master of philosophy and Islamic law, mathematics, astronomy and medicine.

Averroes came from a family of legal scholars. His grandfather was chief qadi of Córdoba under the rule of the Almoravids, and his father held the same office until the arrival of the Almohad dynasty in 1146. Averroes himself was appointed qadi of Seville and served at the Courts of Seville, Córdoba and Morocco during his career.

In addition to compiling a medical encyclopedia, he wrote commentaries on the work of Aristotle; hence he was known as "the Commentator". In his work Refutation of the Refutation (Tahafut al-tahafut) he defends Aristotelian philosophy against the claims of Al-Ghazali that philosophy would be in contradiction with religion and would therefore be an affront to the teachings of Islam. Jacob Anatoli translated his works from Arabic into Hebrew during the 13th century.

In the middle of the 12th century a wave of Islamic fundamentalist fanaticism swept over Al-Andalus following the conquest by the Almohads, and Averroes was banished and isolated in Lucena and Cabra, near Córdoba, and his works were banned. Months before his death, however, he was vindicated and summoned to the court in Morocco. Many of his works on logic and metaphysics have been definitively lost as a consequence of the censorship. Much of his work has only been able to survive through translations into Hebrew and Latin, and not in its original Arabic. His principal disciple was Ibn Tumlus, who had succeeded him as chamber physician to the fifth Almohad caliph, Al-Nasir.

In the West, he was known for his extensive commentaries on Aristotle. His thought generated controversies in Latin Christendom and gave rise to a philosophical movement called Averroism, based on his writings. Averroes's theory of the unity of the intellect became one of the best-known and most controversial Averroist doctrines. His works were condemned by the Catholic Church in 1270 and 1277. Although weakened by the refutations of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Latin Averroism continued to attract followers until the 16th century.

Biography

Childhood and education

Muhamad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Rushd grew up in a family known for its public service, above all in law and religion. His grandfather Abu al-Walid Muhammad was chief qadi of Córdoba and imam of the great mosque under the rule of the Almoravids. His father, Abu al-Qasim Ahmad, was not as well known as his grandfather, but he too was qadi until the Almohad takeover of the city in 1146.

According to his traditional biographers, Averroes's education was "excellent", beginning with studies in hadith (traditions of the prophet Muhammad), jurisprudence, medicine and theology. He learned Maliki jurisprudence from al-Hafiz Abu Muhammad ibn Rizq and hadith from Ibn Bashkuwal, a pupil of his grandfather. His father also gave him knowledge of jurisprudence. He was instructed in the field of medicine by Abu Jafar Jarim al-Tajail, who probably also taught him philosophy at the Madrasa of Córdoba. Likewise, he knew the writings of the philosopher Ibn Bajjah, better known as Avempace, and perhaps even knew him and was tutored by him personally.

He attended regular gatherings of philosophers, physicians and poets in Seville, frequented by philosophers such as Ibn Tufayl, Ibn Zuhr and the future caliph Abu Yusuf Yaqub. He also studied the kalam theology of the Ashariyyah school, which he himself would later criticize. His 13th-century biographer, Ibn al-Abbar, wrote that he was more interested in the study of law and its principles than in hadith, especially khilaf, the disputes and controversies of Islamic jurisprudence. Ibn al-Abbar also mentions his dedication to the "sciences of the ancients", in reference to the philosophy and science of ancient Greece.

Career

Averroes, in a detail of the Triumph of Saint Thomas by Andrea Bonaiuto, 14th century

In 1153 Averroes was in Marrakesh, the capital of the Almohad caliphate, to carry out astronomical observations and to support the Almohad project of building new educational institutions. He hoped to discover some kind of physical laws governing astronomical motions instead of the mathematical laws that were the only ones known at the time, although his research did not bear fruit. During his stay in Marrakesh, he met Ibn Tufayl, a renowned philosopher and author of Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, who was also a physician at the caliphal court. Averroes and Ibn Tufayl began a friendship despite their philosophical differences.

In 1169, Ibn Tufayl introduced Averroes to the Almohad caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf. According to the chronicles of the historian Abdelwahid al-Marrakushi, the caliph asked Averroes whether the heavens had existed forever or had been created. Worried about the answer he might give, since it could give rise to a controversy and put him in danger, he decided not to answer. The caliph then expounded the ideas of Plato, Aristotle and Muslim philosophers on the subject and discussed them with Ibn Tufayl. This display of knowledge put Averroes at ease, and he explained his ideas on the matter, which impressed the caliph. Averroes was likewise impressed by him, recounting that the caliph had a "great desire to learn, something I did not imagine".

After this first meeting, Averroes remained under the caliph's protection until the latter's death in 1184. When the caliph complained to Ibn Tufayl about the difficulty of understanding the works of Aristotle, Ibn Tufayl recommended that he urge Averroes to write about them; this was the beginning of the philosopher's voluminous commentaries on Aristotle, the first of which were written in 1169, which led to his being known as the Commentator.

That same year, Averroes was appointed qadi of Seville, and in 1171 qadi of his native city, Córdoba. As qadi he would decide cases and issue fatwas (legal opinions) based on Islamic law, the sharia. His output of writings grew exponentially during this period, despite his many obligations and his travels within the Almohad Empire, journeys that he used to pursue research on astronomy once again. In 1179 he was again appointed qadi of Seville. In 1182 he succeeded his friend Ibn Tufayl as court physician, and that same year he would be appointed chief qadi of Córdoba, a prestigious post previously held by his grandfather.

In 1182 the caliph Abu Yaqub died and was succeeded by Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur. At first Averroes enjoyed royal favor, although in 1195 his fortunes finally changed. Various offenses were attributed to him and he was accused before a tribunal in Córdoba. That tribunal condemned his works, ordered them burned and exiled Averroes from the city to nearby Lucena and Cabra. Some biographers attribute this change to a possible insult to the caliph in his writings, although more recent research links it to political motives. The Encyclopaedia of Islam explains that the caliph distanced himself from Averroes and drew closer to the more orthodox positions of the ulama, who opposed Averroes and whose support the caliph needed in order to fight the Christian kingdoms.

After a few years, Averroes returned to the court in Marrakesh and once again enjoyed caliphal favor. He died shortly afterward, on December 11, 1198.

Philosophy of knowledge

The noetics of Averroes, formulated in his work known as the Great Commentary, starts from the Aristotelian distinction between two intellects, the nous pathetikós (receptive intellect) and the nous poietikós (agent intellect), which made it possible to detach philosophical reflection from mythical and political speculation.

Averroes strove to clarify how human beings think and how it is possible for perishable beings to formulate universal and eternal truths.

The Cordoban philosopher departs from Aristotle by emphasizing the sensory function of the nerves and by recognizing the brain as the location of certain intellective faculties (imagination, memory...).

Averroes places the origin of intellection in the sensible perception of individual objects and sets its end in universalization, which does not exist outside the soul (the principle of animals): the process consists of sensing, imagining and, finally, grasping the universal.

That universal, moreover, has existence insofar as it is so by virtue of that which is particular. In any case, it is the intellect or understanding that provides universality to what starts from sensible things.

This being so, in his work Tahâfut he sets out the need for science to conform to concrete and particular reality, since there can be no direct knowledge of universals.

Averroes's conception of the intellect changes over time, but in its broadest formulation he distinguishes four types of intellect, that is, the four phases through which the understanding passes in the genesis of knowledge: material (receptive), habitual (which makes it possible to conceive everything), agent (the efficient and formal cause of our knowledge, intrinsic to man and existing in the soul) and acquired (the union of man with the intellect).

Averroes further distinguishes between two subjects of knowledge (more properly: the subjects of the intelligibles in act): the subject through which those intelligibles are true (the forms that are true images) and the subject through which the intelligibles are a being in the world (the material intellect). Consequently, the subject of sensation (through which it is true) exists outside the soul, and the subject of the intellect (through which the intellect is true) exists within it.

Legacy

Averroes in the fresco The School of Athens by the painter Raphael.

Despite the condemnation of 219 Averroist theses by the Bishop of Paris Étienne Tempier in 1277 because of their incompatibility with Catholic doctrine, many of them survived in later literature at the hands of authors such as Giordano Bruno and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Thus we find in these authors a defense of the superiority of the contemplative-theoretical life over the practical life (in line with what Aristotle defended in his Nicomachean Ethics, X or in and a vindication of the instrumental-political character of religion as a doctrine intended for the government of the masses who are incapable of giving themselves a law by means of reason.

Religious law, Averroes had said in his Tahafut al-tahafut (تهافت التهافت), provides the same truth that the philosopher attains by inquiring into the cause and nature of things; however, this does not imply that philosophy acts in any way as a substitute for religion among educated men: "philosophers believe that religions are necessary constructions for civilization (...)". The existence of religion is also necessary for the integration of the philosopher into civil society.

Other theses we find in Averroes are:

• That the world is eternal.
• That the soul is divided into two parts, one individual and perishable (passive intellect) and the other divine and eternal (active intellect).
• The active intellect is common to all men.
• The active intellect becomes passive intellect when it is united to the human soul. When man's imaginative faculty receives the images provided to it by the activity of the senses, it transmits them to the passive intellect. The forms, which exist in potency in such images, are actualized by the active intellect, becoming concepts and judgments. For this reason he was opposed by Christian theologians.

In order to overcome the incompatibility of the Averroist theses with Christian doctrine, Siger of Brabant proposed the doctrine of double truth, according to which there is a religious truth and a philosophical and scientific truth. This doctrine would be adopted by most European defenders of Averroism.

Principal works

Commentary on De Anima of Aristotle.

• Tahafut al-tahafut (تهافت التهافت, Refutation of the Refutation or The Destruction of the Destruction, Destructio destructionis in Latin)
• Kitab fasl al-maqal (On the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy)
• Bidayat al-Mujtahid (Distinguished Jurist)
• The commentaries on the "Corpus aristotelicum", which comprise:
  • The minor commentaries (Yawami) on Porphyry's Isagoge and on Aristotle's Organon, Rhetoric, Poetics, Physics, De Coelo et Mundo, De generatione et corruptione, Meteorology, De Anima, Metaphysics, De partibus animalium, De generatione animalium and Parva Naturalia.
  • Middle commentaries (Taljisat) on Porphyry's Isagoge and on Aristotle's Organon, Rhetoric, Poetics, Physics, De Coelo et Mundo, De generatione et corruptione, Meteorology, De Anima, Metaphysics and Nicomachean Ethics.
  • Major and minor commentaries (Tafasir) on Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, Physics, De Coelo et Mundo, De Anima and Metaphysics.

• Exposition of Plato's Republic
• The Commentaries on Ptolemy, Alexander of Aphrodisias, Nicolaus of Damascus, Galen, al-Farabi, Avicenna and Avempace
• The treatise De Substantia Orbis
• Three important theological writings: Fasl al-Maqal, Kasf´al-Manahiy and Damima

Medicine

Averroes, who served as physician at the Almohad court, wrote several treatises on medicine. The most celebrated is Kitab al-kulliyyat al-Tibb (Book of the Generalities of Medicine), Latinized in the West as the Colliget, written around 1162, before his appointment at court. The title of this book is the counterpart of al-Juz'iyyat fi al-Tibb (The Particularities of Medicine), written by his friend Ibn Zuhr, since the two deliberately collaborated so that their works would complement each other. The Latin translation of the Colliget became a reference book on medicine in Europe for centuries. Other titles that have survived are On Sentimentalism, The Differences of Temperament and Medicinal Herbs. In addition, he wrote summaries of the works of the Greek physician Galen (d. 210) and a commentary on the Poem of Medicine by Avicenna.

Summary of the Kitab fasl al-maqal

Decisive treatise determining the nature of the relationship between religion and philosophy

• The law makes the study of philosophy obligatory
  • If theological studies of the world are philosophical, and the law makes such studies obligatory, then the law makes philosophy obligatory.
  • The law makes these studies obligatory.
  • These studies must be carried out in the best way, through demonstrative reasoning.
  • To master this instrument, the religious thinker must carry out a preliminary study of logic, in the same way that a lawyer has to study legal reasoning. This is no more heretical in the one case than in the other. And logic has to be learned from the masters of antiquity, regardless of the fact that they are not Muslims.
  • After logic we must proceed to philosophize correctly. Here too we must learn from our predecessors, just as in mathematics and in law. It is therefore wrong to forbid the study of ancient philosophy. The danger it may present is accidental, like the danger of taking medicine, drinking water or studying law.
  • For every man the law has provided a path to truth according to his nature, through demonstrative, dialectical or rhetorical methods.

• Philosophy contains nothing opposed to Islam
  • Demonstrative truth and the truth of the scriptures cannot be in conflict.
  • If the apparent meaning of Scripture is in conflict with the conclusions of demonstration, then it must be interpreted allegorically, that is, metaphorically.
  • With respect to such difficult questions, an error committed by a judge qualified in the matter is forgiven by God, whereas an error by a person not versed in the matter is not forgiven.

• Philosophical interpretations of Scripture should not be taught to the majority. The law provides other methods for teaching them.
  • The purpose of Scripture is to teach the theoretical and practical sciences and correct practice and attitudes.
  • When symbols are used, each type of person, demonstrative, dialectical or rhetorical, must try to understand the inner meaning symbolized or to content himself with the apparent meaning, according to his capacities.
  • To explain the inner meaning to people who are not capable of understanding it is to destroy their faith in the apparent meaning without replacing it with anything else. The result is unbelief in pupils and teachers. It is better for the scholar to profess ignorance, citing the Quran on the limits of human understanding.
  • The appropriate methods for teaching people are indicated in the Quran, as the first Muslims knew. The popular parts of the Book are wonderful in answering the needs of every kind of mind.

Averroes in literature

Averroes is the protagonist of the story Averroes's Search in The Aleph, by Jorge Luis Borges. Averroes, as Ibn Rushd, is one of the characters in the novel Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie. He is also mentioned in the fourth canto of Dante's The Divine Comedy. Finally, Averroes is part of a novel by the author Ikram Antaki in her book El espíritu de Córdoba, in which, together with another Cordoban philosopher, they discuss topics of mathematics, religion and humanism.

Eponymy

• The lunar crater Ibn-Rushd is named in his memory.

See also

• Averroism
• Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe
• (8318) Averroes

Bibliography

• Averroes (2009). El libro del Yihad (in español). Translated by Carlos Quirós. Biblioteca Filosofía en español. Oviedo: Fundación Gustavo Bueno. ISBN 978-84-934341-4-4.
• – (2004). Sobre el intelecto (in español). Collection: Al-Andalus. Textos y Estudios. Madrid: Editorial Trotta. ISBN 978-84-8164-707-5. {{cite book}}: |author= has numeric name (help)
• – (2003). El libro de las generalidades de la medicina (in español). Edited by María de la Concepción Vázquez de Benito, Camilo Álvarez Morales. Collection: Al-Andalus. Textos y Estudios. First prize of the 2nd Edition of the Pan-Hispanic Prize for Specialized Translation, awarded by the Latin Union and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology. Madrid: Editorial Trotta. ISBN 978-84-8164-602-3. {{cite book}}: |author= has numeric name (help)
• – (2015). El Tratado decisivo y otros textos sobre filosofía y religión (in español). Translation, introduction and notes by Rafael Ramón Guerrero. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Winograd. ISBN 978-987-27200-6-3. {{cite book}}: |author= has numeric name (help)

On Averroes

• Alonso, Manuel (1998). La teología de Averroes (in español). Madrid-Granada, CSIC; reprint: Seville, Fundación El Monte.
• Averroes. Introduction and selection of texts by R. Ramón Guerrero (1998). Sobre filosofía y religión (in español). Cuadernos de Anuario Filosófico, Serie Filosofía Española, Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona.
• Borges, J.L. La busca de Averroes (in español).
• Castillejo Gorráiz, Miguel (2000). Averroes el aquinatense islámico (in español). Córdoba: Publicaciones Obra Social y Cultural Cajasur.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
• Coccia, Emanuele (2007). Filosofía de la imaginación. Averroes y el averroísmo (in español). Buenos Aires, Adriana Hidalgo editora.
• Cruz Hernández, Miguel (1997). Abû-l-Walîd Muhammad ibn Rushd (Averroes). Vida, obra, pensamiento, influencia (in español). Córdoba, CajaSur Publicaciones, 2nd ed.
• — (1957). Filosofía Hispano-Musulmana, 2 (in español). Madrid, 1-245. {{cite book}}: |author= has numeric name (help)
• Gómez Nogales, Salvador. Bibliografía sobre las obras de Averroes, en Múltiple Averroès (in español). Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1978, pp. 351-387.
• Maiza Ozcoidi, Idoia (2001). La concepción de la filosofía en Averroes. Análisis crítico del Tahafut al-Tahafut (in español). Madrid: Editorial Trotta. ISBN 84-8164-426-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
• Martínez Lorca, Andrés (editor) (1993). Al encuentro de Averroes (in español). Madrid: Editorial Trotta. ISBN 978-84-87699-63-4. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
• Puig, Josep (1997). Averroes (1126-1198) (in español). Ediciones del Orto, Madrid.
• Quirós, C. (1919). Averroes, Compendio de Metafísica (in español).
• Ramón Guerrero, R. (1996). Averroes: el «Proemio» de su comentario al libro Lambda de la «Metafísica» (in español). Anales del Seminario de Historia de la Filosofía, pp. 275-295. Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
• Urvoy, Dominique; translated from the French by Delfina Serrano Ruano (1998). Averroes: las ambiciones de un intelectual musulmán (in español). Madrid: Alianza.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: publisher location (link)

External links

• "Averroes" in the Encyclopædia Britannica.

• Judería.net Multilingual website dedicated to the Jewish Quarter of Córdoba and to Averroes, with nearly a thousand images and texts translated into English, Hebrew, Spanish and Arabic.
• Abu’L Walid Muhammad Ibn Rushd Al-Qurtubi (Averroes), in English.
• Entry Averroes in Philosophica: online philosophical encyclopedia (in Spanish)
• Al Jazeera documentary on Averroes with Spanish subtitles
• Averroes in the Virtual Library of Polygraphs of the Ignacio Larramendi Foundation
• Averroes: On the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy (the title is Critical Examination and Solution of the Problem of Concord between Religious Law and Philosophy), in French, with annotations in the same language, on the website of Philippe Remacle (1944 - 2011).
• Works of Averroes in the National Library of Portugal