Ibn Rushd (Averroes) was an Andalusian judge, physician and philosopher, born in Córdoba in 1126 and died in Marrakech in 1198. He is famous as “the Commentator” on Aristotle, because his commentaries on nearly all of Aristotle’s works shaped Jewish and Christian scholarship for centuries. He also wrote a major Islamic legal handbook and a seven-volume medical work, and he argued that the study of Allah’s creation through reason is commanded by the Quran.
Quick facts
| Full name | Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Rushd |
| Born | 1126, Córdoba, al-Andalus (Spain) |
| Died | 1198, Marrakech (now Morocco); later reburied in the family tomb at Córdoba, according to Britannica |
| Fields | Islamic law (Maliki fiqh), philosophy, medicine, astronomy |
| Most famous works | Decisive Treatise (Fasl al-Maqal); The Incoherence of the Incoherence (Tahafut al-Tahafut); Bidayat al-Mujtahid; Kulliyat fi al-Tibb (Latin: Colliget); commentaries on Aristotle |
| Known for | Arguing that revelation and demonstrative reasoning do not conflict; commentaries on Aristotle; chief judge of Córdoba; court physician |
Who was Ibn Rushd and where did he come from?
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Ibn Rushd came from an influential Andalusian family known for judicial power and religious scholarship. His father was a prominent judge, and his grandfather, who bore the same name, was a famed Maliki jurist and judge. For this reason he is called “the grandson” (al-hafid) in Arabic sources.
Britannica notes he was versed in Quranic exegesis, hadith and fiqh, trained in medicine, and accomplished in philosophy. He later became chief judge (qadi) of Córdoba, the same office his grandfather had held. Unlike Ibn Sina or al-Ghazali, he left no autobiography, so many details of his life remain uncertain.
How did a caliph’s question launch his work on Aristotle?
The philosopher Ibn Tufayl introduced Ibn Rushd to the Almohad caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf at some point between 1153 and 1169, according to Britannica. The caliph, himself a keen student of philosophy, asked whether the heavens were created or eternal. Ibn Rushd was reportedly frightened, but the caliph answered the question himself and put him at ease. The long conversation proved decisive for his career.
Soon afterwards the caliph asked him for a clear, correct interpretation of Aristotle. Between 1169 and 1195 Ibn Rushd wrote summaries, middle commentaries and long commentaries on most of Aristotle’s works, including the Organon, De anima, Physics, Metaphysics and the Nicomachean Ethics. Because Aristotle’s Politics was not available to him, he wrote on Plato’s Republic instead.
What did the Decisive Treatise argue about religion and philosophy?
Ibn Rushd’s most important religious-philosophical writings date to 1179–1180: the Decisive Treatise, the Exposition of the Methods of Proof and The Incoherence of the Incoherence. In the Decisive Treatise he asks, from the standpoint of Islamic law, whether studying philosophy and logic is permitted, forbidden or commanded.
His answer rests on the Quran. He cites the command in Surah Al-Hashr (59:2), “Reflect, you who have vision,” as textual authority for using intellectual reasoning. If a jurist derives the duty to learn legal reasoning from that verse, he argued, then someone seeking to know Allah can derive from it the duty to learn rational reasoning. Muslim scholars today still discuss how far this reading should go, but it shows how he connected reflection to worship.
The Quran also elevates knowledge in Surah Az-Zumar (39:9): “Are those who know equal to those who do not know?” And the Prophet ﷺ said that whoever travels a path in search of knowledge, Allah makes easy for him a path to Paradise (Sahih Muslim 2699, graded sahih).
Stanford’s entry quotes his principle that truth does not oppose truth. Britannica stresses that Ibn Rushd never held that religion and philosophy are two contradictory truths. That “double truth” idea, it says, was formulated by later Latin Averroists, not by him. For him, the Sharia is true, and demonstrative reasoning cannot lead to a conclusion that contradicts it.
Why did he write against al-Ghazali?
The Incoherence of the Incoherence is a direct reply to al-Ghazali, whose attack on the philosophers had become influential in Andalusia. Al-Ghazali’s Incoherence of the Philosophers had charged Ibn Sina with several heretical beliefs, including an eternal universe and God not knowing particulars. Ibn Rushd rejected al-Ghazali’s occasionalism, the view that Allah directly creates every event instead of things having real causal natures.
On God’s knowledge, Britannica reports that he denied that God ignores particulars; rather, God knows them in a way different from human knowledge. Scholars still debate how consistent his positions are on points like creation and the intellect, and the Stanford entry says his views evolved over time.
What was his work as a judge and jurist?
Ibn Rushd was a practising judge, and his main legal work is Bidayat al-Mujtahid (“The Distinguished Jurist’s Primer”). Stanford dates it from 1169 to 1188. It compares the reasoning behind the rulings of different Sunni schools and explains why jurists disagree.
Instead of simply listing differences, he traced each disagreement back to its underlying principles and causes, so that a diligent jurist (mujtahid) could decide new cases. Stanford adds that he wrote this against a legal culture focused on endless branching of individual cases.
What did Ibn Rushd contribute to medicine?
His medical encyclopedia Kitab al-Kulliyat fi al-Tibb became known in Latin as Colliget. Stanford dates the original text to 1162–1169 and notes he revised it repeatedly. Muslim Heritage describes it as a seven-volume work used at European universities until the eighteenth century.
According to Muslim Heritage, he recognised that no one catches smallpox twice and explained the function of the retina. He was not primarily a practising doctor; Stanford quotes his own admission that he had not had much practice. Still, after Ibn Tufayl, he served as personal physician to the caliphs, from 1182 under Abu Yaqub Yusuf and from 1184 under his son Abu Yusuf Yaqub, per Britannica. His fame as a physician was overshadowed by his fame as a philosopher, and the Colliget never rivalled al-Razi’s Continens or Ibn Sina’s Canon.
Why was he exiled in 1195?
Britannica reports that Abu Yusuf dismissed him from high office and banished him to Lucena in 1195, around the time of a campaign against Christian Spain. Britannica considers it likely that the caliph needed to appease the theologians, rather than the Arabic sources’ account of mob attacks. Stanford says the reasons “remain unclear.” It was short-lived: Britannica says the caliph recalled him to Marrakech.
Muslim Heritage adds that his Muslim contemporaries persecuted him while later generations largely neglected him. Stanford, however, calls it false that he had no influence in Muslim contexts. It identifies 39 direct disciples and shows his legal and religious works used in Andalusia and Morocco, and even copied in Safavid Iran.
Legacy
- Latin translations of his Aristotle commentaries began with Michael Scot around 1220, and by the 1230s he was known in Europe as “the Commentator,” according to Stanford.
- Maimonides acquired his commentaries, perhaps around 1190, and Jewish philosophers studied him for about four centuries.
- Some of his teachings were condemned at the University of Paris in 1270 and 1277, and the term “Averroist” became pejorative by the 1260s.
- The Junta editions of Aristotle with his commentaries (1552 and 1562) remain in use today, per Stanford.
- A statue of him stands in Córdoba, Spain.
Frequently asked questions
Was Ibn Rushd a Muslim scholar or only a philosopher?
He was both. He was a Maliki-trained jurist and qadi, studied hadith and Quranic exegesis, and wrote a legal handbook. Britannica says he held the Sharia to be the whole truth for all believers.
Did Ibn Rushd teach “double truth”?
No. According to Britannica, the double truth theory was formulated by Latin Averroists, not by Ibn Rushd himself.
Why is he called “the Commentator”?
Medieval European scholars used the title because his commentaries explained nearly all of Aristotle’s works, and these were translated into Latin and Hebrew.
What this means for you
Ibn Rushd shows that a Muslim can be a judge, a physician and a thinker at once, and that careful study of Allah’s creation can be an act of worship. Read him critically, remembering that scholars still disagree on some of his positions.
Read more: Browse the full Great Muslim Scientists series, then read Al-Zahrawi: The Cordoba Surgeon Who Taught Europe Surgery and Ibn Khaldun: The Historian Who Founded the Science of Society.
Sources: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Ibn Rushd [Averroes]; Britannica, Averroës; Muslim Heritage, Ibn Rushd.
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