Ibn Rushd

Ibn Rushd, known in Latin Europe as Averroes, was a jurist, physician, and philosopher of the Islamic West (al-Andalus). He was born in Cordoba in 520 AH / 1126 CE into a distinguished family of judges: both his grandfather and his father served as qadi (Islamic judge) of Cordoba, and the family was renowned in the Maliki school of law. He trained in hadith (reports of the Prophet's words and deeds), jurisprudence, theology, and medicine.

Under the Almohad dynasty he rose to high office, serving as qadi of Seville (reportedly from 1169) and later chief qadi of Cordoba, the post his grandfather had held, and as court physician at Marrakesh. According to the standard biographical tradition, the philosopher Ibn Tufayl introduced him to the caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf, who asked him to clarify the works of Aristotle; the resulting commentaries became his enduring legacy, later shaping Latin Christian and Jewish thought.

In philosophy he is best known for the "Tahafut al-Tahafut" (The Incoherence of the Incoherence), a point-by-point reply to al-Ghazali's critique of the philosophers, and for the "Fasl al-Maqal," arguing that revelation and demonstrative reason cannot truly conflict. Whether his harmonization succeeded was, and remains, contested among Muslim scholars. Late in life he fell from favor under the caliph al-Mansur and was banished to Lucena; he was soon recalled and died at Marrakesh in 595 AH / 1198 CE. His body was later reburied in Cordoba.