Death of Ibn Rushd (Averroes)

# Ibn Rushd (Averroes): The Commentator and the Limits of Philosophy

The Jurist-Philosopher of Córdoba

Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Rushd was born in Córdoba in 520 AH (1126 CE) into one of the most distinguished legal families in al-Andalus. His grandfather, also named Ibn Rushd, had served as the chief Maliki qadi of Córdoba — a position of enormous prestige and legal authority. His father was also a qadi. The family name carried the weight of generations of Islamic legal scholarship.

This heritage shaped the man in fundamental ways. Ibn Rushd was never simply a philosopher in the Greek or later European sense — he was above all a Maliki jurist, and his most enduring contribution to Islamic civilization may well be his legal work rather than his philosophical commentaries. He died in Marrakesh in 595 AH (December 10, 1198 CE) at approximately 72 years of age, outliving his patron and eventually his reputation in the Islamic world, though his influence on Christian Europe would prove immense and lasting.

The Almohad Context

Ibn Rushd lived and worked under the Almohad (al-Muwahhidun) dynasty, a Berber reform movement that had swept across North Africa and taken al-Andalus from the Almoravids. The Almohads were founded on strict theological principles — a purification of Islamic practice from what their founder Ibn Tumart considered corruptions. They patronized philosophy initially as a tool for rational theological argument, and the Almohad Caliph Abu Ya'qub Yusuf I invited Ibn Rushd to court specifically to produce clear and accessible commentaries on Aristotle.

The Caliph, according to Ibn Abi Usaybi'ah's Uyun al-Anba, asked Ibn Rushd whether the heavens were eternal or created in time — a standard philosophical question. Ibn Rushd hesitated, fearing to commit himself in front of a stranger on a topic of religious sensitivity. When he realized the Caliph was genuinely interested in philosophical discussion, the conversation opened up. The Caliph commissioned the commentaries on Aristotle that would make Ibn Rushd famous across continents.

The Great Commentaries on Aristotle

Ibn Rushd produced three levels of commentary on Aristotle's works: short paraphrases (jami), middle commentaries (talkhis), and large commentaries (tafsir). The large commentaries — on the Metaphysics, Physics, De Anima, and other works — are the ones that most influenced European scholasticism when translated into Latin by Michael Scot, Herman the German, and others in the 13th century CE.

Thomas Aquinas, the most important Christian scholastic theologian, engaged with Ibn Rushd so extensively that he typically referred to him simply as "the Commentator" — just as Aristotle was called "the Philosopher." The influence was so deep that a school called "Latin Averroism" emerged at the University of Paris, accepting Ibn Rushd's interpretation of Aristotle even where it conflicted with Christian theology. This created crises that led to the Condemnation of 1277 CE by Bishop Tempier of Paris, who prohibited teaching a list of philosophical propositions largely derived from Latin Averroist readings.

The irony is significant: in the Islamic world, philosophical rationalism never achieved the kind of institutional dominance it achieved in Latin Europe. Al-Ghazali's critique had been broadly accepted. Ibn Rushd's European legacy was thus greater than his Islamic one.

The Tahafut al-Tahafut: Defending Philosophy

Al-Ghazali's Tahafut al-Falasifa (The Incoherence of the Philosophers, 488 AH / 1095 CE) was a devastating critique of Islamic philosophy, targeting specifically the positions of al-Farabi and Ibn Sina on three issues where al-Ghazali claimed they contradicted Islamic belief: the eternity of the world, the denial that God knows particulars (individual events, not just universals), and the denial of bodily resurrection (substituting a purely spiritual afterlife).

Ibn Rushd responded with Tahafut al-Tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence) — a detailed, argument-by-argument refutation of al-Ghazali's criticisms, defending the philosophical tradition against what he saw as a misunderstanding of its methods and conclusions.

The debate between al-Ghazali and Ibn Rushd is one of the great intellectual disputes of medieval civilization. From the Ahl us-Sunnah perspective, al-Ghazali correctly identified genuine theological problems with the Aristotelian philosophical tradition as received by Islamic thinkers. The eternity of the world (that the universe always existed without a temporal beginning) contradicts the Quranic teaching of Allah's creation of the heavens and earth, as well as the theological principle established in usul al-din. The denial of God's knowledge of particulars undermines the Quranic emphasis on Allah's complete and comprehensive knowledge: "And He is with you wherever you are, and Allah sees what you do" (Surah al-Hadid, 57:4). These are not minor philosophical quibbles — they touch the foundations of Islamic theology.

Ibn Rushd's philosophical positions on these matters remain problematic from an Ahl us-Sunnah standpoint, whatever the sophistication of his argumentation.

Bidayat al-Mujtahid: The Crown of His Legal Achievement

If Ibn Rushd's philosophical work creates theological difficulties, his legal work is an unqualified treasure of Islamic scholarship. Bidayat al-Mujtahid wa Nihayat al-Muqtasid (The Beginning for the Qualified Scholar and the Limit for the Moderate) is a comparative fiqh manual of extraordinary intelligence and utility.

Rather than simply presenting one madhab's rulings, Ibn Rushd examines major legal questions across all four madhabs — and often beyond them — tracing the reasons for scholarly disagreement back to their roots: different readings of the same hadith, different methodological principles, different assessments of what constitutes a valid analogy (qiyas). His analysis reveals why scholars disagreed, not merely that they disagreed.

This approach was pedagogically revolutionary. A student who read Bidayat al-Mujtahid understood not just what the Hanbalis or Shafi'is said about a given issue, but why — what evidential and methodological considerations led to different conclusions. Ibn Rushd explicitly states in his introduction that he aims to equip the student to exercise ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) rather than simply follow a single authority blindly.

The work has never lost its value. Modern Islamic legal scholars continue to use Bidayat al-Mujtahid as an essential reference precisely because it provides the comparative foundations that later jurisprudential manuals do not.

The Exile: Philosophy Condemned

The latter part of Ibn Rushd's life was marked by dramatic reversal. Around 593 AH (1197 CE), the Almohad Caliph Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur — who had initially patronized Ibn Rushd — issued a decree condemning philosophy and exiling Ibn Rushd to Lucena (a town near Córdoba associated with Jewish scholarship). The philosophers' books were ordered burned.

The reasons for this reversal are debated. Political pressures from conservative religious scholars certainly played a role — the Caliph faced pressure to demonstrate religious legitimacy against Crusader-allied Christian kingdoms. There may also have been specific passages in Ibn Rushd's works that caused offense, including alleged disparaging remarks about Berbers. The Almohad state, founded on religious reform, could not openly patronize philosophers whose conclusions conflicted with Islamic theology.

Ibn Rushd was recalled from exile shortly before his death — apparently rehabilitated at least partially in his final months. He died in Marrakesh in 595 AH and was buried there before his body was later transferred to Córdoba. Ibn Abi Usaybi'ah's Uyun al-Anba fi Tabaqat al-Atibba is the primary Arabic source for biographical details of his life.

The Ahl us-Sunnah Assessment

The Islamic scholarly tradition's evaluation of Ibn Rushd is appropriately nuanced. His legal scholarship in Bidayat al-Mujtahid is highly valued and widely used. His medical work al-Kulliyyat fi al-Tibb (the Colliget in its Latin translation) contributed to Islamic medical knowledge. His service as qadi and his personal piety are not in question.

His philosophical positions, however, raise genuine theological concerns. The denial of God's knowledge of particulars, if held sincerely, contradicts the Quran explicitly. The doctrine of the world's eternity contradicts the Quranic account of creation and contradicts the theological consensus of Ahl us-Sunnah. These are not merely speculative questions for academic debate — they touch on fundamental articles of faith.

Ibn Rushd attempted to argue, in his Fasl al-Maqal (The Decisive Treatise), that philosophy and Islamic law are complementary and that apparent conflicts must be resolved through allegorical interpretation of religious texts. This methodology itself — the subjugation of scriptural meaning to philosophical necessity — was precisely what Islamic scholars criticized. The established principle of Islamic theology is that authentic reason properly understood never genuinely conflicts with authentic revelation; apparent conflicts arise from flawed reasoning or misunderstanding of the texts.

The broader lesson: Ibn Rushd demonstrates both the heights and the limits of human intellectual capacity. His commentaries showed the Islamic world's ability to engage the greatest secular philosophical tradition with intelligence and rigor. His theological errors show the limits of philosophy when it attempts to substitute for revelation rather than serve it.

Legacy in Two Worlds

Ibn Rushd's legacy divides sharply along civilizational lines. In the Islamic world, he is recognized as a great jurist, an important medical thinker, and a philosopher whose positions require careful critical engagement. His legal work is in active use; his philosophical commentaries are studied with appropriate scholarly caution.

In the Latin West, "Averroes" became a mythological figure — the great interpreter of Aristotle, the source of a philosophical tradition that shaped medieval universities. Dante placed him among the virtuous pagans in Limbo in the Divine Comedy. His commentaries, translated into Latin, shaped Scholastic philosophy for centuries and indirectly contributed to the development of European universities and the Renaissance.

This divergence of reception reflects a deeper difference: Islamic civilization had al-Ghazali's critique, the consensus of the ulama, and the corrective mechanisms of the scholarly tradition to keep philosophy in its proper subordinate place. The Latin West had no equivalent check — it received Aristotle primarily through Ibn Rushd's interpretation and built an educational system around it.

Ibn Rushd died in Marrakesh on 9 Safar 595 AH. He left behind one of the most complex legacies in Islamic intellectual history: a jurist of genius, a philosopher of extraordinary range, and a figure whose theological positions require careful and honest critical evaluation.

Sources:

• Ibn Rushd, Bidayat al-Mujtahid wa Nihayat al-Muqtasid
• Ibn Rushd, Tahafut al-Tahafut (tr. Simon van den Bergh)
• Ibn Rushd, Fasl al-Maqal (The Decisive Treatise)
• Ibn Abi Usaybi'ah, Uyun al-Anba fi Tabaqat al-Atibba
• al-Ghazali, Tahafut al-Falasifa (The Incoherence of the Philosophers)
• Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-A'yan wa Anba Abna al-Zaman
• Majid Fakhry, Averroes: His Life, Works and Influence
• Oliver Leaman, Averroes and His Philosophy
• Quran 57:4