====== Ibn Rushd ======

Ibn Rushd (14 April 1126 - 11 December 1198), known in Latin Europe as Averroes, was an Andalusian polymath who wrote on Islamic jurisprudence, theology, medicine, astronomy, and philosophy, and is best known for his commentaries on the works of [[aristotle|Aristotle]] and for his defense of philosophical inquiry against critics within Islamic theology. He served as a judge (qadi) in Seville and Córdoba and later as court physician to the Almohad caliphs. His philosophical project centered on reconciling Aristotelian rationalism with Islamic revelation, a position that placed him in direct dialogue and dispute with [[al-ghazali|al-Ghazali]] and in a broader tradition shared with [[avicenna|Avicenna]]. Interpretations of how thoroughly he subordinated revelation to reason, and of how his work was received and transformed in the Latin West, remain contested; see [[ibn-rushd-viewpoint-rationalist-interpretation-viewpoint]] and [[ibn-rushd-viewpoint-traditionalist-interpretation-viewpoint]].

===== Current State of Knowledge =====

Scholars broadly agree on the outline of Ibn Rushd's biography and the structure of his major works, including his three tiers of commentary on Aristotle (short epitomes, middle commentaries, and long commentaries) and his theological treatise *The Decisive Treatise* (Fasl al-Maqal), which argued that philosophy and revealed law are not in conflict when both are properly understood. His *Incoherence of the Incoherence* (Tahafut al-Tahafut) was written as a point-by-point response to al-Ghazali's earlier critique of philosophers. The degree of his influence on later Islamic intellectual history, relative to his reception in medieval Europe where his commentaries shaped the school of thought known as Averroism, remains debated; see [[ibn-rushd-viewpoint-decline-narrative-viewpoint]] and [[ibn-rushd-viewpoint-continuity-viewpoint]]. For background on his life and the historical context of Almohad-era Córdoba, see [[ibn-rushd-history]].

===== Viewpoints =====

  * **Rationalist interpretation**: Holds that Ibn Rushd assigned philosophy a status equal to or surpassing literalist theology in determining truth, treating demonstrative reasoning as the highest path to understanding revelation. See [[ibn-rushd-viewpoint-rationalist-interpretation-viewpoint]]; for the underlying debate, see [[ibn-rushd-viewpoint-rationalist-interpretation-viewpoint-debate]].
  * **Traditionalist/harmonist interpretation**: Holds that Ibn Rushd consistently subordinated philosophy to revealed law, viewing his work as a defense of orthodoxy against the charge that philosophy undermines faith, rather than an elevation of reason over scripture. See [[ibn-rushd-viewpoint-traditionalist-interpretation-viewpoint]].
  * **Latin Averroist viewpoint**: A medieval European school, associated with figures such as Siger of Brabant, that drew on Ibn Rushd's commentaries to argue positions-such as the unity of the intellect across individuals-that were later condemned by ecclesiastical authorities and that some scholars argue diverged significantly from Ibn Rushd's own stated views. See [[ibn-rushd-viewpoint-latin-averroist-viewpoint]].
  * **Decline-narrative viewpoint**: Associates Ibn Rushd's death with the marginalization of philosophical inquiry in the Islamic world, sometimes framing him as the "last" major Islamic philosopher of his tradition. See [[ibn-rushd-viewpoint-decline-narrative-viewpoint]].
  * **Continuity viewpoint**: Disputes the decline narrative, arguing that philosophical and rationalist inquiry continued in various forms across the Islamic world after Ibn Rushd, particularly in Persianate and Shi'a intellectual traditions. See [[ibn-rushd-viewpoint-continuity-viewpoint]].

===== Controversies =====

  * His al-Ghazali rebuttal in *Incoherence of the Incoherence* remains a documented point of ongoing scholarly dispute over which thinker more successfully addressed the relationship between causality, divine power, and natural law. See [[ibn-rushd-al-ghazali-causality-controversy]].
  * His brief exile from the Almohad court late in life, reportedly tied to accusations of philosophical heterodoxy, is a documented historical episode with disputed causes and significance. See [[ibn-rushd-almohad-exile-controversy]].

===== Related Pages =====

  * [[ibn-rushd-history]] - History
  * [[ibn-rushd-causality-debate]] - Debate
  * [[ibn-rushd-viewpoint-rationalist-interpretation-viewpoint-debate]] - Viewpoint Debate
  * [[ibn-rushd-al-ghazali-causality-controversy]] - Controversy
  * [[ibn-rushd-almohad-exile-controversy]] - Controversy
  * [[al-ghazali]] - Related Main Topic
  * [[avicenna]] - Related Main Topic
  * [[aristotle]] - Related Main Topic
  * [[heliocentrism-islamic-astronomy-viewpoint]] - Related Viewpoint

===== Footnotes =====

  - Majid Fakhry, *Averroes (Ibn Rushd): His Life, Works and Influence* (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2001).
  - Oliver Leaman, *Averroes and His Philosophy* (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988).
  - Dominique Urvoy, *Ibn Rushd (Averroes)*, trans. Olivia Stewart (London: Routledge, 1991).
  - Richard C. Taylor, "Averroes: Religious Dialectic and Aristotelian Philosophical Thought," in *The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy*, ed. Peter Adamson and Richard C. Taylor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 180-200.
  - Catarina Belo, "Ibn Rushd (Averroes) on God's Knowledge of Particulars," *Journal of Islamic Studies* 17, no. 2 (2006): 177-199.