Ibn Rushd (Averroes) — The Cordoban Philosopher-Jurist Whose Aristotle Commentaries Transformed Medieval European Scholasticism, Whose Bidayat al-Mujtahid Is Still the Greatest Comparative Fiqh Manual, and Whose Tahafut al-Tahafut Answered al-Ghazali's Attack on Philosophy

Ibn Rushd (ابنُ رُشد; known in Latin Europe as Averroes; full name: Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Rushd; born 520 AH / 1126 CE in Cordoba, Almoravid/Almohad al-Andalus; died 595 AH / 1198 CE in Marrakesh; the background: born into a distinguished family of Maliki judges — his grandfather Abu al-Walid ibn Rushd the Elder was Chief Qadi of Cordoba and a leading Maliki scholar; his own father was a Maliki jurist; Ibn Rushd became Chief Qadi of Seville and later Cordoba; his introduction to philosophy: Ibn Rushd's introduction to philosophy came through the philosopher Ibn Tufayl [author of Hayy ibn Yaqzan], who introduced him to the Almohad court of Abu Yaqub Yusuf; the Almohad caliph reportedly said 'What does the philosopher say about the heavens — are they eternal or created in time?'; the Aristotle project: Ibn Rushd wrote three types of commentary on Aristotle: [1] Short commentaries [jawami'] — summaries; [2] Middle commentaries [talkhisat] — paraphrases; [3] Long commentaries [tafsir] — detailed word-by-word analysis; these were the most comprehensive Aristotle commentaries in any medieval tradition; translation: Latin translations (Corpus Averroicum) were completed by 1220s-1230s; they became the central vehicle through which Aristotle re-entered Western Europe; 'The Commentator' is how Thomas Aquinas and Albert the Great referred to Ibn Rushd — he was simply THE authority on Aristotle; Averroism: a philosophical movement in 13th-14th century European universities (especially Paris) based on Ibn Rushd's interpretations, particularly the 'unity of the intellect' thesis (all humans share one agent intellect); the Paris condemnations of 1277 targeted Averroist theses; major Islamic works: [1] Bidayat al-Mujtahid wa-Nihayat al-Muqtasid [The Beginning for the Independent Scholar and the End for the Economizing Scholar]: a systematic comparative fiqh work that examines every major legal issue, presents the positions of the four schools with their reasoning, and explains WHY scholars disagreed; still considered the greatest manual of comparative fiqh; [2] Tahafut al-Tahafut [The Incoherence of the Incoherence]: point-by-point response to al-Ghazali's Tahafut al-Falasifa [Incoherence of the Philosophers]; Ibn Rushd defended philosophy while conceding that al-Ghazali correctly identified three claims as problematic (eternal world, God's particular knowledge, bodily resurrection) but argued al-Ghazali misrepresented what philosophers actually said; [3] Fasl al-Maqal [Decisive Treatise]: argued that philosophy is obligatory for those capable of it; the apparent conflict between reason and revelation must be resolved through ta'wil (allegorical interpretation) of revelation; [4] Al-Kulliyat [Generalities in Medicine]: medical compendium; the exile: in 1195 CE, under Almohad Caliph al-Mansur facing political pressure from conservative religious scholars, Ibn Rushd was publicly humiliated, exiled to Lucena, and his philosophical works were burned; he was rehabilitated shortly before his death in 1198; legacy: Ibn Rushd died in Marrakesh; his philosophical influence in Europe vastly exceeded his influence in the Islamic world; European scholasticism's encounter with Aristotle through Averroes shaped medieval Christian theology more than it shaped subsequent Islamic thought) is the hinge figure between Islamic philosophy and European Scholasticism.