Averroes

Ibn Rušd (ابن رشد)
Averroes

Statue of Averroes in Cordoba
Full name	ʾAbū l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn ʾAḥmad ibn Rušd
Born	1126 Cordoba, Almoravid Empire (present-day Spain)
Died	December 10, 1198 (aged 71–72) Marrakesh, Morocco
Era	Medieval era (Islamic Golden Age)
Region	Muslim world, Western philosophy
School	Sunni Islam (Maliki madh'hab) Averroism
Main interests	Islamic theology, Islamic law, Mathematics, Medicine
Notable ideas	Reconciliation of Aristotelianism with Islam
Influenced by Aristotle, Alexander of Aphrodisias, Philoponus, Al-Farabi, Ibn Bājja
Influenced Siger de Brabant, Boetius of Dacia, Thomas Aquinas, Maimonides[1]

ʾAbū l-Walīd Muḥammad bin ʾAḥmad bin Rušd (Arabic: أبو الوليد محمد بن احمد بن رشد‎), better known just as Ibn Rushd (Arabic: ابن رشد‎), and in European literature as Averroes ( /əˈvɛroʊ.iːz/; 1126 – December 10, 1198), was a Muslim polymath; a master of Aristotelian philosophy, Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music theory, and the sciences of medicine, astronomy, geography, mathematics, physics and celestial mechanics. He was born in Córdoba, Al Andalus, modern-day Spain, and died in Marrakesh, Morocco. His school of philosophy is known as Averroism.

Ibn Rushd was a defender of Aristotelian philosophy against claims from Islamic theologians such as Ghazali who feared that such teachings would become an affront to the teachings of Islam.^[2]

Name

Averroes' name is also seen as Averroës, Averroès or Averrhoës, indicating that the "o" and the "e" form separate syllables. Averroes is a Latinisation of a Hebrew transcription of the Arab name Ibn Rushd.^[3]

According to Ernest Renan, he was also known as Ibin-Ros-din, Filius Rosadis, Ibn-Rusid, Ben-Raxid, Ibn-Ruschod, Den-Resched, Aben-Rassad, Aben-Rois, Aben-Rasd, Aben- Rust, Avenrosdy Avenryz, Adveroys, Benroist, Avenroyth, Averroysta, etc.^[4]

Biography

Ibn Rushd was the preeminent philosopher in the history of Al-Andalus.

Averroes was born in Córdoba to a family with a long and well-respected tradition of legal and public service. His grandfather Abu Al-Walid Muhammad (d. 1126) was chief judge of Córdoba under the Almoravids. His father, Abu Al-Qasim Ahmad, held the same position until the Almoravids were replaced by the Almohads in 1146.^[5]

Averroes’s education followed a traditional path, beginning with studies in Hadith, linguistics, jurisprudence and scholastic theology. Throughout his life he wrote extensively on Philosophy and Religion, attributes of God, origin of the universe, Metaphysics and Psychology. It is generally believed that he was perhaps once tutored by Ibn Bajjah (Avempace). His medical education was directed under Abu Jafar ibn Harun of Trujillo in Seville.^[6] Averroes began his career with the help of Ibn Tufail ("Aben Tofail" to the West), the author of Hayy ibn Yaqdhan and philosophic vizier of Almohad king Abu Yaqub Yusuf who was an amateur of philosophy and science. It was Ibn Tufail who introduced him to the court and to Ibn Zuhr ("Avenzoar" to the West), the great Muslim physician, who became Averroes's teacher and friend. Averroes's aptitude for medicine was noted by his contemporaries and can be seen in his major enduring work Kitab al-Kulyat fi al-Tibb (Generalities) the work was influenced by the Kitab al-Taisir fi al-Mudawat wa al-Tadbir (Particularities) of Ibn Zuhr.^[7] Averroes later reported how it was also Ibn Tufail that inspired him to write his famous commentaries on Aristotle:

Abu Bakr ibn Tufayl summoned me one day and told me that he had heard the Commander of the Faithful complaining about the disjointedness of Aristotle's mode of expression — or that of the translators — and the resultant obscurity of his intentions. He said that if someone took on these books who could summarize them and clarify their aims after first thoroughly understanding them himself, people would have an easier time comprehending them. “If you have the energy,” Ibn Tufayl told me, “you do it. I'm confident you can, because I know what a good mind and devoted character you have, and how dedicated you are to the art. You understand that only my great age, the cares of my office — and my commitment to another task that I think even more vital — keep me from doing it myself.”^[8]

Averroes was also a student of Ibn Bajjah ("Avempace" to the West), another famous Islamic philosopher who greatly influenced his own Averroist thought. However, while the thought of his mentors Ibn Tufail and Ibn Bajjah were mystic to an extent, the thought of Averroes was purely rationalist. Together, the three men are considered the greatest Andalusian philosophers.^[5]

In 1160, Averroes was made Qadi (judge) of Seville and he served in many court appointments in Seville, Cordoba, and Morocco during his career. Sometimes during the reign of Yaqub al-Mansur, Averroes' political career was abruptly ended and he faced severe criticism from the Fuqaha (Islamic jurists) of the time.^[9]

A contemporary of Averroes, Abdelwahid al-Marrakushi writing in 1224, reported that there were secret and public reasons for his falling out of favor with Yaqub al-Mansour:^[9]

And in his days [Yaqub al-Mansur], Abu al-Walid Ibn Rushd faced his severe ordeal and there were two causes for this; one is known and the other is secret. The secret cause, which was the major reason, is that Abu al-Walid [Averroes] —may God have mercy on his soul— when summarizing, commenting and expending upon Aristotle's book "History of Animals" wrote: "And I saw the Giraffe at the garden of the king of the Berbers".
And that is the same way he would mention another king of some other people or land, as it is frequently done by writers, but he omitted that those working for the service of the king should glorify him and observe the usual protocol. This was why they held a grudge against him [Averroes] but initially, they did not show it and in reality, Abu al-Walid wrote that inadvertently...Then a number of his enemies in Cordoba, who were jealous of him and were competing with him both in knowledge and nobility, went to Yaqub al-Mansur with excerpts of Abu Walid's work on some old philosophers which were in his own handwriting. They took one phrase out of context that said: "and it was shown that Venus is one of the Gods" and presented it to the king who then summoned the chiefs and noblemen of Cordoba and said to Abu al-Walid in front of them "Is this your handwriting?". Abu al-Walid then denied and the king said "May God curse the one who wrote this" and ordered that Abu al-Walid be exiled and all the philosophy books to be gathered and burned...And I saw, when I was in Fes, these books being carried on horses in great quantities and burned^[9]

—Abdelwahid al-Marrakushi, "The Pleasant Book in Summarizing the History of the Maghreb", (1224)

Averroes's strictly rationalist views collided with the more orthodox views of Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur, who therefore eventually banished Averroes, though he had previously appointed him as his personal physician. Averroes was not reinstated until shortly before his death in the year 1198 AD. He devoted the rest of his life (more than 30 years) to his philosophical writings.

Works

Imaginary debate between Averroes and Porphyry. Monfredo de Monte Imperiali Liber de herbis, 14th century.^[10]

Commentarium magnum Averrois in Aristotelis De Anima libros. French manuscript, third quarter of the 13th century

Averroes's works were spread over 20,000 pages covering a variety of different subjects, including early Islamic philosophy, logic in Islamic philosophy, Arabic medicine, Arabic mathematics, Arabic astronomy, Arabic grammar, Islamic theology, Sharia (Islamic law), and Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). In particular, his most important works dealt with Islamic philosophy, medicine and Fiqh. He wrote at least 67 original works, which included 28 works on philosophy, 20 on medicine, 8 on law, 5 on theology, and 4 on grammar, in addition to his commentaries on most of Aristotle's works and his commentary on Plato's The Republic.^[5]

He wrote commentaries on most of the surviving works of Aristotle. These were not based on primary sources (it is not known whether he knew Greek), but rather on Arabic translations. There were three levels of commentary: the Jami, the Talkhis and the Tafsir which are, respectively, a simplified overview, an intermediate commentary with more critical material, and an advanced study of Aristotelian thought in a Muslim context. The terms are taken from the names of different types of commentary on the Qur'an. It is not known whether he wrote commentaries of all three types on all the works: in most cases only one or two commentaries survive.

He did not have access to any text of Aristotle's Politics. As a substitute for this, he commented on Plato's The Republic, arguing that the ideal state there described was the same as the original constitution of the Arab Caliphate,^[5] as well as the Almohad state of Ibn Tumart.

His most important original philosophical work was The Incoherence of the Incoherence (Tahafut al-tahafut), in which he defended Aristotelian philosophy against al-Ghazali's claims in The Incoherence of the Philosophers (Tahafut al-falasifa). Al-Ghazali argued that Aristotelianism, especially as presented in the writings of Avicenna, was self-contradictory and an affront to the teachings of Islam. Averroes' rebuttal was two-pronged: he contended both that al-Ghazali's arguments were mistaken and that, in any case, the system of Avicenna was a distortion of genuine Aristotelianism so that al-Ghazali was aiming at the wrong target. Other works were the Fasl al-Maqal, which argued for the legality of philosophical investigation under Islamic law, and the Kitab al-Kashf, which argued against the proofs of Islam advanced by the Ash'arite school and discussed what proofs, on the popular level, should be used instead.

Averroes is also a highly regarded legal scholar of the Maliki school. Perhaps his best-known work in this field is Bidāyat al-Mujtahid wa Nihāyat al-Muqtaṣid ( بداية المجتهد و نهاية المقتصد), a textbook of Maliki doctrine in a comparative framework.

Jacob Anatoli translated several of the works of Averroes from Arabic into Hebrew in the 13th century. Many of them were later translated from Hebrew into Latin by Jacob Mantino and Abraham de Balmes. Other works were translated directly from Arabic into Latin by Michael Scot. Many of his works in logic and metaphysics have been permanently lost, while others, including some of the longer Aristotelian commentaries, have only survived in Latin or Hebrew translation, not in the original Arabic. The fullest version of his works is in Latin, and forms part of the multi-volume Juntine edition of Aristotle published in Venice 1562-1574.

Science

Medicine

Averroes wrote a medical encyclopedia called Kulliyat ("Generalities", i.e. general medicine), known in its Latin translation as Colliget. He also made a compilation of the works of Galen, and wrote a commentary on the Canon of Medicine (Qanun fi 't-tibb) of Avicenna (Ibn Sina) (980-1037).

Philosophy

Commentaries on Aristotle and Plato

Commentarium magnum Averrois in Aristotelis De Anima libros. French Manuscript, third quarter of the 13th century

He wrote commentaries on most of the surviving works of Aristotle. These were not based on primary sources (it is not known whether he knew Greek), but rather on Arabic translations. On each work, he wrote the Jami, the Talkhis and the Tafsir which are, respectively, a simplified overview, an intermediate commentary with more critical material, and an advanced study of Aristotelian thought in a Muslim context. The terms are taken from the names of different types of commentary on the Qur'an.

He did not have access to any text of Aristotle's Politics. As a substitute for this, he commented on Plato's Republic, arguing that the state there described was the same as the original constitution of the Arabs.

Independent philosophical works

His most important original philosophical work was The Incoherence of the Incoherence (Tahafut al-tahafut), in which he defended Aristotelian philosophy against al-Ghazali's claims in The Incoherence of the Philosophers (Tahafut al-falasifa). Al-Ghazali argued that Aristotelianism, especially as presented in the writings of Avicenna, was self-contradictory and an affront to the teachings of Islam. Averroes' rebuttal was two-pronged: he contended both that al-Ghazali's arguments were mistaken and that, in any case, the system of Avicenna was a distortion of genuine Aristotelianism so that al-Ghazali was aiming at the wrong target.

Other works were the Fasl al-Maqal, which argued for the legality of philosophical investigation under Islamic law, and the Kitab al-Kashf.

Jacob Anatoli translated his works from Arabic to Hebrew in the 13th century. Many of them were later translated from Hebrew to Latin by Jacob Mantino and others. Other works were translated directly from Arabic to Latin by Michael Scot. Many of his works in logic and metaphysics have been permanently lost, while others, including some of the longer Aristotelian commentaries, have only survived in Latin or Hebrew translation, not in the original Arabic. The fullest version of his works is in Latin, and forms part of the multi-volume Juntine edition of Aristotle published in Venice 1562-1574.

System of philosophy

Main article: Averroism

Averroes tried to reconcile Aristotle's system of thought with Islam. According to him, there is no conflict between religion and philosophy, rather that they are different ways of reaching the same truth. He believed in the eternity of the universe. He also held that the soul is divided into two parts, one individual and one divine; while the individual soul is not eternal, all humans at the basic level share one and the same divine soul. Averroes has two kinds of Knowledge of Truth. The first being his knowledge of truth of religion being based in faith and thus could not be tested, nor did it require training to understand. The second knowledge of truth is philosophy, which was reserved for an elite few who had the intellectual capacity to undertake its study.

Significance

Averroes, detail of the fresco The School of Athens by Raphael

Averroes is most famous for his translations and commentaries of Aristotle's works, which had been mostly forgotten in the West. Before 1150 only a few translated works of Aristotle existed in Latin Europe (i.e. excluding Greek Byzantium), and they were not studied much or given as much credence by monastic scholars. It was in part through the Latin translations of Averroes's work beginning in the 12th century that the legacy of Aristotle was recovered in the West.

Averroes's work on Aristotle spans almost three decades, and he wrote commentaries on almost all of Aristotle's work except for Aristotle's Politics, to which he did not have access. Hebrew translations of his work also had a lasting impact on Jewish philosophy. His ideas were assimilated by Siger of Brabant and Thomas Aquinas and others (especially in the University of Paris) within the Christian scholastic tradition which valued Aristotelian logic. Famous scholastics such as Aquinas believed him to be so important they did not refer to him by name, simply calling him "The Commentator" and calling Aristotle "The Philosopher." Averroes also greatly influenced philosophy in the Islamic world. His death coincides with a change in the culture of Al-Andalus. In his work Fasl al-Maqāl (translated a. o. as The Decisive Treatise), he stresses the importance of analytical thinking as a prerequisite to interpret the Qur'an.

Averroes's treatise on Plato's Republic has played a major role in both the transmission and the adaptation of the Platonic tradition in the West^{[citation needed]}. It has been a primary source in medieval political philosophy.

Averroes was one of those who predicted the existence of a new world beyond the Atlantic Ocean.^[11]

Jurisprudence and law

Averroes is also a highly-regarded legal scholar of the Maliki school. Perhaps his best-known work in this field is "Bidāyat al-Mujtahid wa Nihāyat al-Muqtaṣid," a textbook of Maliki doctrine in a comparative framework. He is also the author of "al-Bayān wa’l-Taḥṣīl, wa’l-Sharḥ wa’l-Tawjīh wa’l-Ta`līl fi Masā’il al-Mustakhraja," a long and detailed commentary based on the "Mustakhraja" of Muḥammad al-`Utbī al-Qurtubī.

Cultural influences

Reflecting the respect which medieval European scholars paid to him, Averroes is named by Dante in The Divine Comedy with the great pagan philosophers whose spirits dwell in "the place that favor owes to fame" in Limbo.

Averroes appears in a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, entitled "Averroes's Search", in which he is portrayed trying to find the meanings of the words tragedy and comedy. He is briefly mentioned in the novel Ulysses by James Joyce alongside Maimonides. He appears to be waiting outside the walls of the ancient city of Cordoba in Alamgir Hashmi's poem In Cordoba. He is also the main character in Destiny, a Youssef Chahine film. The asteroid 8318 Averroes was named in his honor.

List of works

Logic

Short Commentary

• [1] Short Commentary on Aristotle's Organon / Epitome in Libros Logicæ Aristotelis / Tajrīd al-ʾaqāwīl al-ḍarūrīya min ṣināʿat al-manṭiq (Aka: Al-ḍarūrī; Al-ḍarūrī fī l-manṭiq; Kitāb fī l-manṭiq; Muḫtaṣar fī l-manṭiq) ca. 552/1157

Middle Commentaries

• [2] Middle Commentary on the Isagoge / Talḫīṣ madḫal fī Fūrfūrīyūš (Aka: Talḥīṣ kitāb ʾĪsāġūjī)

Talḫīṣ kitāb ʾArisṭū fī l-manṭiq

• [3] Middle Commentary on the Categories / Talḫīṣ kitāb al-maqūlāt
• [4] Middle Commentary on Peri hermeneias / Talḫīṣ kitāb al-ʿibāra
• [5] Middle Commentary on the Prior Analytics / Media Expositio in Libros Priorum Resolutoriorum / Talḫīṣ kitāb al-qiyās
• [6] Middle Commentary on the Posterior Analytics / Media Expositio in Libros Posteriorum Resolutoriorum / Talḫīṣ kitāb al-burhān (Aka: Talḫīṣ kitāb al-burhān li-ʾArisṭūṭālīs; Talḫīṣ kitāb al-burhān lahū)
• [7] Middle Commentary on the Topics / Talḫīṣ kitāb al-jadal
• [8] Middle Commentary on the Sophistici Elenchi / Talḫīṣ kitāb al-safsaṭa
• [9] Middle Commentary on the Rhetoric / Talḫīṣ al-ḫiṭāba [570/1175 or 571/1176]
• [10] Middle Commentary on the Poetics / Talḫīṣ kitāb al-šiʿr

Long Commentaries

• [11] Long Commentary on the Prior Analytics (?) / Šarḥ kitāb al-qiyās li-ʾArisṭūṭālīs (Aka: Kitāb šarḥ kitāb al-qiyās li-ʾArisṭū)
• [12] Long Commentary on the Posterior Analytics / Šarḥ kitāb al-burhān

Questions

• [13] Questions on Logic / Quæsita in libros logicæ Aristotelis / (Part of: Masāʿil fī l-ḥikma, aka: Muqaddimāt fī l-ḥikma)

Questions on the Isagoge

• [13.1] On Alfarabi on the Isagoge about genus and differentia / Kalām ʿalā qawl ʾAbī Naṣr fī l-madḫal wa-l-jins wa-l-faṣl yuštarikān

Questions on the Categories

• [13.2] On substantial and accidental universals / Al-qawl fī kullīyāt al-jawhar wa-kullīyāt al-ʾaʿraḍ (Aka: Bāb ʿalā maqūla ʾawwal kitāb ʾAbī Naṣr (?), Maqāla ʿalā ʾawwal maqūla ʾAbī Naṣr (?))

Questions on Peri hermeneias

• [13.3] On the copula and on derived nouns / Maqāla fī l-kalima wa-l-ism al-muštaqq (Aka: Kalām lahū ʿalā l-kalima wa-l-ism al-muštaqq, Min kitāb al-ʿibāra li-ʾAbī Naṣr)
• [13.4] On compound and simple predicates / Min kitāb al-ʿibāra (Aka: De prædicatis compositis et divisis)

Questions on the Prior Analytics

• [13.5] On the definition: Critique of the positions of Alexander and Alfarabi / Al-qawl fī l-ḥadd wa-naqd mā ḏahaba ʾilayhī al-ʾIskandar wa-ʾAbū Naṣr (Aka: Maqāla fī l-ḥadd (juzʾ al-qiyās) wa-naqd maḏahabay al-ʾIskandar wa-ʾAbī Naṣr; De definitione termini)
• [13.6] Critique of Avicenna's position on the conversion of premises / Naqd maḏhab Ibn Sīnā fī inʿikās al-qaḍāyā (Aka: Maqāla fī naqd maḏhab Ibn Sīnā fī ʿaks al-qaḍāyā; De conversionibus)
• [13.7] Critique of Themistius's position on the contingent syllogisms in the first and second figure / Naqd maḏhab Tāmisṭiyūs fī l-maqāyīs al-mumkina fī l-šaklayn al-ʾawwal wa-l-ṯānī (Aka: De conditione syllogismorum contingentium circa duo eorum attributa, videlicet de numerositate illationis, et de figura in qua non concludunt)
• [13.8] Chapter on absolute premises / Maqāla fī l-muqaddima al-muṭlaqa (Aka: Quid sit propositio absoluta id est de inesse)
• [13.9] On the types of conclusions in compound syllogisms / Al-qawl fī jihāt al-natāʾij fī l-maqāyīs al-murakkaba wa-fī maʿnā al-maqūl ʿalā l-kull
• [13.10] Chapter on the dependency of the types of conclusions from the types of premises / Maqāla [...] fī luzūm jihāt al-natāʾij li-jihāt al-muqaddimāt
• [13.11] On the mixing of contingent and necessary premises / De mistione contingentis et necessarii
• [13.12] Chapter on the dependency of the conclusions from mixed syllogisms
• [13.13] Chapter on the meaning of "predicated on everything" / Maqāla [...] fī maʿnā al- maqūl ʿalā l-kull wa-ġayr ḏālika
• [13.14] Chapter on conditional syllogisms / Maqāla fī l-maqāʾis al-šarṭīya (Aka: Maqāla fī l-qiyās; De conditionali, an per ipsum ostendatur quæsitum primum ignotum)
• [13.15] Exposition of Alfarabi's commentary on the first book of the Prior Analytics / Talḫīṣ šarḥ ʾAbī Naṣr [li-]l-maqāla al-ʾūlā min al-qiyās li-l-ḥakīm...

Questions on the Posterior Analytics

• [13.16] On the predicates in demonstrations / Al-qawl fī l-maḥmūlāt al-barāhīn (Aka: Epistola de primitate prædicatorum in demonstrationibus)
• [13.17] On Alfarabi's Book on Demonstration / Min kitāb al-burhān li-ʾAbī Naṣr
• [13.18] On the definition of individuals / Al-qawl fī ḥadd al-šaḫṣ (Aka: An definitio sit particularis aut universalis tantum)
• [13.19] On the three types of definition in relation to demonstrations / De triplici genere diffinitionum in ordine ad demonstrationem
• [13.20] On whether the middle term is the cause of the major term / De medio demonstrationis an sit causa maioris extremi
• [13.21] Treatise on the disagreement of Alfarabi and Aristotle on the order of the Posterior Analytics and the rules of demonstrations and definitions / Kitāb fī mā ḫālafa ʾAbū Naṣr li-ʾArisṭū fī kitāb al-burhān min tartībihī wa-qawānīn al-barāhīn wa-l-ḥudūd (Aka: De conditionibus præmissarum demonstrationis)
• [13.22] On the conditions for the necessity of the premises of demonstrations / De conditionibus quæ requiruntur ad necessitatem præmissarum demonstrationum
• [13.23] On how a demonstration can be transferred from one science to another / Quomodo fiat translatio ab una arte in aliam
• [13.24] On demonstrations quia / De demonstrationibus quia
• [13.25] On the sense in which the definition is better known than the thing defined / Quomodo definitio sit notior ipso definito
• [13.26] On the definitions which are said to differ from demonstrations in their order / De definitionibus quæ dicuntur positione differentes a demonstratione

Philosophy of Nature

Physics

• [14] Short Commentary on the Physics / Jawāmiʿ al-samāʾ al-ṭabīʿī (Part of: Al-jawāmiʿ fī l-falsafa; Jawāmiʿ kutub ʾArisṭūṭālīs fī l-ṭabīʿīyāt wa-l-ʾilāhīyāt)
• [15] Middle Commentary on the Physics / Talḫīṣ kitāb al-samāʾ al- al-ṭabīʿī (Aka: [...] li-ʾArisṭūṭālīs; Talḫīṣ al- ṭabīʿī; Wa-laḫaṣa kitāb al-samāʿ al-ṭabīʿī li-ʾArisṭūṭālīs)
• [16] Long Commentary on the Physics / Šarḥ [kitāb] al-samāʾ al-ṭabīʿī

On the Heavens

• [17] Short Commentary on De cælo / Jawāmiʿ al-samāʾ wa-l-ʿālam (Part of: Al-jawāmiʿ fī l-falsafa; Jawāmiʿ kutub ʾArisṭūṭālīs fī l-ṭabīʿīyāt wa-l-ʾilāhīyāt)
• [18] Middle Commentary on De cælo / Talḫīṣ [kitāb] al-samāʾ wa-l-ʿālam
• [19] Long Commentary on De cælo / Šarḥ kitāb al-samāʾ wa-l-ʿālam (Aka: Šarḥ kitāb al-samāʾ wa-l-ʿālam li-ʾArisṭūṭālīs; Šarḥ al-samāʾ wa-l-ʿālam)
• [20] De substantia orbis

On Generation and Corruption

• [21] Short Commentary on De generatione et corruptione / Jawāmiʿ kitāb al-kaun wa-l-fasād (Part of: Al-jawāmiʿ fī l-falsafa; Jawāmiʿ kutub ʾArisṭūṭālīs fī l-ṭabīʿīyāt wa-l-ʾilāhīyāt)
• [22] Middle Commentary on De generatione et corruptione / Talḫīṣ [kitāb] al-kaun wa-l-fasād 567/1172

Meteorology

• [23] Short Commentary on the Meteorology / Jawāmiʿ kitāb al-ʾaṯār al-ʿulwīya (Part of: Al-jawāmiʿ fī l-falsafa; Jawāmiʿ kutub ʾArisṭūṭālīs fī l-ṭabīʿīyāt wa-l-ʾilāhīyāt)
• [24] Middle Commentary on the Meteorology / Talḫīṣ [kitāb] al-ʾāṯār al-ʿulwīya

Biology

• [25] Middle(?) Commentary on De animalibus / Talḫīṣ tisʿ maqālāt min kitāb al-ḥayawān (Aka: Talḫīṣ tisʿ maqālāt min kitāb al-ḥayawān wa-ḏālika min al-ḥādīya ʿašr ʾilā ʾāḫar al-diwān; Talḫīṣ fī l-maqāla al-ḥādīya ʿašara min kitāb al-ḥayawān li-ʾArisṭūṭālīs wa-ḏālika tisʿ maqālāt; Kitāb al-ḥayawān) 565/1169
• [26] Chapter on animals / Maqāla fī l-ḥayawān (Aka: Kalām lahū ʿalā l-ḥayawān)
• [27] Short Commentary on De plantis

Questions

• [28] Questions on the Philosophy of Nature / Sefer ha-derušim ha-ṭibʿiyim

Psychology

Commentaries

• [29] "Book on the Soul" or Short Commentary on De anima / Kitāb al-nafs
• [30] Middle Commentary on De anima / Talḫīṣ kitāb al-nafs 577/1181
• [31] Long Commentary on De anima / Šarḥ kitāb al-nafs (Aka: Šarḥ kitāb al-nafs li-ʾArisṭūṭālīs)
• [32] Commentary on the Parva naturalia / Talḫīṣ al-ḥiss wa-l-maḥsūs. Sevilla, 13. Rabīʿ al-ʾāḫar 565 [ca. 01/04/1170]

Treatises on the Intellect

• [33] Enquiry whether the intellect in us, named the material intellect, is able to know in the end the separate forms or not =Epistle on the possibility of conjunction / Kitāb fī l-faḥṣ hal yumkin al-ʿaql ʾallaḏī fīnā wa-huwa al-musammā bi-l-hayūlānī ʾan yaʿqila al-ṣuwar al-mufāriqa bi-ʾāḫirihī ʾau lā yumkin ḏālika wa-huwa al-maṭlūb ʾallaḏī kāna ʾArisṭūṭālīs waʿadanā bi-l-faḥṣ ʿanhū fī kitāb al-nafs (Aka: ʾIggeret ʾefšarut ha-debequt)
• [34] Chapter on the conjunction of the separate intellect with man / Maqāla fī ttiṣāl al-ʿaql al-mufāriq bi-l-ʾinsān (Aka: Masʾala fī ʿilm al-nafs suʾila ʿanhā fa-ʾajāba fīha; Epistola de connexione intellectus abstracti cum homine)
• [35] Chapter on the conjunction of intellect with man / Maqāla fī ttiṣāl al-ʿaql bi-l-ʾinsān (Aka: Maqāla ʾaiḍan fī ttiṣāl al-ʿaql bi-l-ʾinsān; Maqāla fī ḏālika ʾaiḍan)
• [36] Chapter on the intellect / Maqāla fī l-ʿaql (Aka: Maqāla ʾuḫrā fī ʿilm al-nafs ʾaiḍan)
• [37] Commentary on Alexander's treatise on the intellect / Šarḥ maqālat al-ʾIskandar fī l-ʿaql
• [38] Commentary on Avempace's epistle on the conjunction of the intellect with man / Šarḥ risālat ittiṣāl al-ʿaql bi-l-ʾinsān li-bn al-Ṣāʾiġ

ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Rušd (son of Averroes)

• [39] On whether the active intellect unites with the material intellect whilst it is clothed with the body / Hal yattaṣilu bi-l-ʿaql al-hayūlānī al-ʿaql al-faʿʿāl wa-huwa multabis bi-l-jism

Anonymous

• [40] De animæ beatudine / Tractatus Aueroys de perfectione naturali intellectus secundum mentem philosophi

Metaphysics

Commentaries

• [41] Short Commentary on the Metaphysics / Jawāmiʿ kitāb mā baʿd al-ṭabīʿa (Part of: Jawāmiʿ kutub ʾArisṭūṭālīs fī l-ṭabīʿīyāt wa-l-ʾilāhīyāt; Al-gawāmiʿ fī l-falsafa)
• [42] Middle Commentary on the Metaphysics / Talḫīṣ mā baʿd al-ṭabīʿa (Aka: Talḫīṣ kitāb mā baʿd al-ṭabīʿa li-ʾArisṭūṭālīs; Kitāb talḫīṣ mā baʿd al-ṭabīʿa li-ʾArisṭūṭālīs; Averrois in septem libros media expositio ab Hælia Cretensi in latinum conversa, Ante hac nunquam excusa, summis vigiliis elaborata) Cordova, 25. Rabīʿ al-ʾāḫar 570 [11/23/1174].
• [43] Long Commentary on the Metaphysics / Šarḥ mā baʿd al-ṭabīʿa.

Practical Philosophy

• [44] Middle Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics
• [45] Epitome of Plato's Republic

Mathematics

• [46] Epitome of the Almagest

See also

• List of Arab scientists and scholars
• List of Islamic studies scholars
• Arthur Hyman

Notes

1. ^ http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=227091077594594
2. ^ http://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_averroes.html
3. ^ Robert Irwin (2006). Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism and its Discontents. The Overlook Press. ISBN 978-1-58567-835-8.
4. ^ Ernest Renan, Averroès et l'Averroïsme : essai historique, 1882.
5. ^ ^{a b c d} Ahmad, Jamil (September 1994), "Averroes", Monthly Renaissance 4 (9), http://www.monthly-renaissance.com/issue/content.aspx?id=744, retrieved 2008-10-14 
6. ^ H. Chad Hillier (2006). Averroes (Averroes) (1126 - 1198 CE), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
7. ^ Bynum, WF & Bynum, Helen (2006), Dictionary of Medical Biography, Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-313-32877-3
8. ^ Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Oliver Leaman (1996), History of Islamic Philosophy, p. 314, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-13159-6.
9. ^ ^{a b c} Abdelwahid al-Marrakushi, al-Mojib fi Talkhis Akhbar al-Maghrib [The Pleasant Book in Summarizing the History of the Maghreb], pp.150-151 (1224), King Saud University
10. ^ "Inventions et decouvertes au Moyen-Age", Samuel Sadaune, p.112
11. ^ http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=10945

Further reading

• Averroes, Translated by Ralph Lerner (2005), Averroes On Plato's Republic, Cornell University Press, ISBN 0-8014-8975-X 
• Glasner, Ruth. Averroes' Physics: A Turning Point in Medieval Natural Philosophy (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009).
• Kogan, Barry S. (1985), Averroes and the Metaphysics of Causation, SUNY Press, ISBN 0-88706-063-3 
• Leaman, Olivier (1998), Averroes and his philosophy, Routledge, ISBN 0-7007-0675-5 
• Baffioni, Carmela (2004), Averroes and the Aristotelian Heritage, Guida Editori, ISBN 88-7188-862-6 
• Sorabji, Richard Matter, Space and Motion Duckworth 1988
• Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann, Sketch of a Cosmic Theory of the Soul from Aristotle to Averroes, in: Variantology 4. On Deep Time Relations of Arts, Sciences and Technologies In the Arabic-Islamic World and Beyond, ed. by Siegfried Zielinski and Eckhard Fürlus in cooperation with Daniel Irrgang and Franziska Latell (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2010), pp. 19–42.

External links

Works of Averroes

• Averroes, Islamic Philosophy Online (links to works by and about Averroes in several languages)
• The Philosophy and Theology of Averroes: Tractata translated from the Arabic, trans. Mohammad Jamil-ur-Rehman, 1921
• The Incoherence of the Incoherence translation by Simon van den Bergh. [N.B.: This also contains a translation of most of the tahafut as the refutations are mostly commentary of al-Ghazali statements that were quoted verbatim.]
• SIEPM Virtual Library, including scanned copies (PDF) of the Editio Juntina of Averroes' works in Latin (Venice 1550-1562)

Information about Averroes

• Forcada, Miquel (2007). "Ibn Rushd: Abū al‐Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Rushd al‐Ḥafīd". In Thomas Hockey et al. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. pp. 564–5. ISBN 9780387310220. http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Ibn_Rushd_BEA.htm.  (PDF version)
• Iskandar, Albert Z. (2008) [1970-80]. "Ibn Rushd, Abū’L-Walīd Muḥammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn Muḥammad". Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Encyclopedia.com. 
• Averroes on In Our Time at the BBC. (listen now)
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Averroes". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
•  "Averroes". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 
• Averroes Database, including full bibliography of his works
• "Averroes", BBC Radio 4 discussion, 5 October 2006, "In Our Time" programme.

Persondata
Name	Averroes
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1126
Place of birth	Córdoba, Al-Andalus
Date of death	1198-12-10
Place of death	Marrakech, Morocco