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AVERROES [Abul - Walid Muhammad ibn -...
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See also:AVERROES [Abul - Walid Muhammad See also:ibn - Ahmad Ibn-Muhammad ibn-Rushd] (1126-1198) , Arabian philosopher, was See also:born at See also:Cordova. His See also:early See also:life was occupied in mastering the curriculum of See also:theology, See also:jurisprudence, See also:mathematics, See also:medicine and See also:philosophy, under the approved teachers of the See also:time. The years of his See also:prime See also:fell during the 'last See also:period of See also:Mahommedan See also:rule in See also:Spain under the See also:Almohades (q.v.). It was Ibn-Tufail (Abubacer), the philosophic See also:vizier of Yusef, who introduced Averroes to that See also:prince, and See also:Avenzoar (Ibn-Zuhr), the greatest of Moslem physicians, was his friend. Averroes, who was versed in the Malekite See also:system of See also:law, was made See also:cadi of See also:Seville (1169), and in similar appointments the next twenty-five yearsof his life were passed. We find him at different periods in Seville, Cordova and See also:Morocco, probably as physician to Yusef al-Mansur, who took See also:pleasure in engaging him in discussions on the theories of philosophy and their See also:bearings on the faith of See also:Islam. But See also:science and See also:free thought then, as now, in Islam, depended almost solely on the tastes of the wealthy and the favour of the monarch. The ignorant fanaticism of the multitude viewed speculative studies with deep dislike and distrust, and deemed any one a Zendik (infidel) who did not See also:rest content with the natural science of the See also:Koran. These smouldering hatreds burst into open See also:flame about the See also:year 1195. Averroes was accused of heretical opinions and pursuits, stripped of his honours, and banished to a See also:place near Cordova, where his actions were closely watched. At the same time efforts were made to See also:stamp out all liberal culture in See also:Andalusia, so far as it went beyond the little medicine, See also:arithmetic and See also:astronomy required for See also:practical life. But the See also:storm soon passed. Averroes was recalled to Morocco when the transient See also:passion of the See also:people had been satisfied, and for a brief period survived his restoration to See also:honour. He died in the year before his See also:patron, al-Mansur, with whom (in 1199) the See also:political See also:power of the Moslems came to an end, as did the culture of liberal science with Averroes. The philosopher See also:left several sons, some of whom became jurists like his own grandfather. One of them has left an See also:essay, expounding his See also:father's theory of the See also:intellect. The See also:personal See also:character of Averroes is known to us only in a See also:general way, and as we can gather it from his writings. His clear, exhaustive and dignified See also:style of treatment evidences the rectitude and See also:nobility of the See also:man. In the histories of his own nation he has little place; the renown which spread in his lifetime to the See also:East ceased with his See also:death, and he left no school. Yet, from a See also:note in a See also:manuscript, we know that he had intelligent readers in Spain more than a See also:century afterwards. His historic fame came from the See also:Christian Schoolmen, whom he almost initiated into the system of See also:Aristotle, and who, but vaguely discerning the expositors who preceded, admired in his commentaries the accumulated results of two centuries of labours. The See also:literary See also:works of Averroes include See also:treatises on jurisprudence, See also:grammar, astronomy, medicine and philosophy. In 1859 a See also:work of Averroes was for the first time published in Arabic by the Bavarian See also:Academy, and a See also:German See also:translation appeared in 1875 by the editor, J. See also:Miller. It is a See also:treatise en-titled Philosophy and Theology, and, with the exception of a German version of the essay on the See also:conjunction of the intellect with man, is the first translation which enables the non-Semitic See also:scholar to See also:form any adequate See also:idea of Averroes. The Latin See also:translations of most of his works are barbarous and obscure. A See also:great See also:part of his writings, particularly on jurisprudence and astronomy, as well as essays on See also:special logical subjects, prolegomena to philosophy, criticisms on See also:Avicenna and Alfarabius (See also:Farabi),remain in manuscript in the See also:Escorial and other See also:libraries. The Latin See also:editions of his medical works include the Colliget (i.e. Kulliyyat, or See also:summary), a resume of medical science, and a commentary on Avicenna's poem on medicine; but Averroes, in medical renown, always stood far below Avicenna. The Latin editions of his philosophical works comprise the Commentaries on Aristotle, the Destructio Destructionis (against Ghazali), the De Substantia Orbis and a See also:double treatise De Animae Beatitudine. The Commentaries of Averroes fall under three heads: the larger commentaries, in which a See also:paragraph is quoted at large, and its clauses expounded one by one; the See also:medium commentaries, which cite only the first words of a See also:section; and the paraphrases or analyses, treatises on the subjects of the Aristotelian books. The larger commentary was an innovation of Averroes; for Avicenna, copied by Albertus See also:Magnus, gave under the rubrics furnished by Aristotle works in which, though the materials were borrowed, the grouping was his own. The great commentaries exist only for the Posterior Analytics, Physics, De Caelo, De Anima and See also:Metaphysics. On the See also:History of Animals no commentary at all exists, and See also:Plato's See also:Republic is substituted for the then inaccessible Politics. The Latin editions of these works between 1480 and 158o number about too. The first appeared at See also:Padua (1472); about fifty were published at See also:Venice, the best-known being that by the Juntas (1552–1553) in ten volumes See also:folio. 1861) ; See E. See also:Renan, Averroes et l'Averroisme (2nd ed., See also:Paris, S. Munk, Melanges, 418-458 ; G. Stockl, Phil. d. Mittelalters, ii. 67-124; Averroes (Valor and Sohn), Drei Abhandl. fiber d. Conjunction d. separaten Intellects mit d. Menschen, trans. into German from the Arabic version of Sam. See also:Ben-Tibbon, by Dr J. Hercz (See also:Berlin, 1869) T. J. de See also:Boer, History of Philosophy in Islam (See also:London, 1903), ch. vi.; A. F. M. Mehren in Museon, vii. 613-627; viii. 1-20; Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (See also:Weimar, 1898), vol. i. pp. 461 f. See also ARABIAN PHILOSOPHY. (W. W.; G. W. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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