Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Islamic Philosophy

# Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Islamic Philosophy

Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd (520-595 AH / 1126-1198 CE), known in the Latin West as Averroes, was the most influential philosopher and commentator on Aristotle in the medieval world. His comprehensive commentaries on Aristotle's works shaped European scholastic philosophy for three centuries and played a pivotal role in the transmission of ancient Greek thought to medieval Europe. Within the Islamic world, his career marks both the high point and the twilight of the Aristotelian philosophical tradition.

Life

Ibn Rushd was born in Cordoba, al-Andalus, in 520 AH (1126 CE) into a family of distinguished jurists. His grandfather had been the chief judge (qadi) of Cordoba under the Almoravid dynasty. Ibn Rushd received thorough training in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), medicine, and the philosophical sciences.

He came to the attention of the Almohad Sultan Abu Yaqub Yusuf I around 565 AH (1169 CE) through the mediation of the philosopher Ibn Tufayl. According to later accounts, the Sultan asked Ibn Rushd to produce clear, systematic commentaries on Aristotle's works, which he proceeded to do over the following decades. He served at various points as a physician to the Almohad court and as chief judge of Seville and Cordoba.

The Commentaries on Aristotle

Ibn Rushd wrote three levels of commentary on almost every work of Aristotle: short epitomes, medium paraphrases, and long literal commentaries. Together, these comprise one of the most systematic engagements with a philosopher's work in the history of ideas.

His approach was to recover what Aristotle actually said, stripped of the Neoplatonist accretions that had accumulated through centuries of transmission. He argued that Aristotle represented the pinnacle of human reasoning achievable by natural intellect, the standard against which all philosophy should be measured.

The major subjects of his commentaries included: logic, natural philosophy (Physics, De Caelo, Meteorology), biology (De Anima, Historia Animalium), metaphysics, ethics, poetics, and rhetoric.

Tahafut al-Tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence)

Ibn Rushd's most famous work in Islamic intellectual history is a direct response to al-Ghazali's Tahafut al-Falasifa (Incoherence of the Philosophers, 487 AH / 1095 CE). Al-Ghazali had attacked Aristotelian philosophy on twenty counts, declaring three positions — the eternity of the world, God's lack of knowledge of particulars, and the denial of bodily resurrection — to be heretical.

Ibn Rushd responded to each of al-Ghazali's twenty arguments systematically, defending the Aristotelian philosophical tradition and arguing that al-Ghazali had misunderstood the philosophers. He also argued that apparent conflicts between philosophy and religious law should be resolved through allegorical interpretation (ta'wil) by those qualified to undertake it.

Fasl al-Maqal (The Decisive Treatise)

In Fasl al-Maqal, Ibn Rushd addressed the fundamental question of whether the study of philosophy is permitted, forbidden, or obligatory under Islamic law. His answer was that philosophical study is obligatory for those capable of it, since the Quran itself commands humanity to reflect on creation. Apparent contradictions between philosophical conclusions and scriptural texts should be resolved by allegorical interpretation of the scripture, but only by qualified scholars — the masses should accept the literal text.

This created a sophisticated (and controversial) theory of different levels of discourse appropriate to different audiences: demonstrative reasoning for philosophers, dialectical reasoning for theologians, and rhetorical persuasion for the general public.

Condemnation and Exile

Toward the end of his life, Ibn Rushd fell out of favor with the Almohad authorities. In approximately 593 AH (1197 CE), he was publicly condemned and his philosophical works were banned. He was exiled to Lucena, a town near Cordoba. Some accounts attribute his fall to the political pressures of the Almohad period, during which conservative religious scholars gained influence at court.

He was rehabilitated toward the end of his life and died in Marrakesh in 595 AH (December 1198 CE).

Legacy in Europe

Ibn Rushd's most consequential impact was on European Christian philosophy. His Latin commentaries on Aristotle, available from the early thirteenth century CE, became the standard Aristotelian texts in European universities. Scholars who followed his interpretations were called "Averroists" — a school that flourished particularly in Paris and Padua.

Thomas Aquinas wrote extensively against what he considered the errors of Averroism (particularly the doctrine of the unity of the intellect) while drawing heavily on Ibn Rushd's commentaries. Dante placed Ibn Rushd in his Inferno in the place reserved for great non-Christian thinkers — neither damned to punishment nor admitted to paradise, but confined to Limbo with Aristotle himself.

Legacy in the Islamic World

Within the Islamic intellectual tradition, Ibn Rushd's philosophical works had less influence than in Europe, partly because the Almohad condemnation set the tone for later reception. The philosophical tradition he represented did not find significant institutional support in the eastern Islamic world after his death. However, he remains a towering figure in the history of Islamic thought and a source of engagement for modern Muslim philosophers.

Sources

• Ibn Rushd, Tahafut al-Tahafut (trans. Simon van den Bergh)
• Ibn Rushd, Fasl al-Maqal (trans. George Hourani, Averroes on the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy)
• Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, Uyun al-Anba fi Tabaqat al-Atibba
• al-Maqqari, Nafh al-Tib min Ghusn al-Andalus al-Ratib