Averroes: A Rationalist in Islam

by Roger Arnaldez, David Streight (Translator)

French Islamist Arnaldez examines the career of the most famous of medieval Islamic philosophers, whose work especially his comments on Aristotle influenced Aquinas and other European thinkers. He explores Averroes' contribution to law, medicine, and philosophy in 12th-century Spain. He includes a glossary and an annotated index of proper names, but no general index. The original AverroTs, un rationaliste en Islam was published by +ditions Ballland in 1998. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Genres: Philosophy, History

156 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2000

Reviews

[Jon Stout · Rating 3 out of 5]

Averroes (ibn Rushd in Arabic) always interested me because he influenced Maimonides, and Maimonides in turn influenced Thomas Aquinas, and I have always loved the vision of a Moorish Spain in which Muslims, Jews and Christians lived together in relative harmony. Averroes was one of the learned Muslim commentators on Aristotle who preserved classical Greek thought through the dark ages of Europe.

I should not have expected a warm and fuzzy picture of Averroes. He was a serious fellow, and the description in the book by Arnaldez portrays him in academic terms. The major tension in his life, at least from a modern point of view, was between his role as freethinking philosopher and his role as the Grand Cadi, the high judge of the Moorish city of Cordoba in the twelfth century. He seems to have resolved that tension by believing that the Koran offered guidance for people’s lives in the form of poetic and narrative exhortation, rather than in the form of philosophical argument, and that philosophy could support any philosophical position properly interpreted from the Koran.

The problem of interpretation was thus very important, “for example, is a given text noting an obligation, offering simple advice, or giving permission? Should it be taken at face value as an absolute, general principle? Or, should it be looked at as a text with a particular meaning from which there will eventually be a need to generalize, with the general principle from which it derives teased out of it?”

Averroes consequently ended up using Aristotle to provide a philosophical base for Islam, in much the same way that Maimonides and Thomas Aquinas later did for Judaism and Christianity. One of his unusual views was that there is no personal survival of the soul after death, even though there is immortality in the sense of the soul’s having been a moment in the collective intelligence of mankind. This view, very Platonic and congenial to the modern mind, is barely within the bounds of medieval religious belief.

[Gregg Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many books from the West's classical/ancient past that define the West today. Many books such as Aristotle, Plato, Euclid, and many more that are part of our classical literature. We almost lost all of this during the Dark Ages. There were some Islamic thinkers that had kept these books and translated them. One such Islamic thinkers was Averroes April 14, 1126 – December 10, 1198. Averroes was born in Córdoba, Al Andalus (present-day Spain), and died at Marrakesh in present-day Morocco. His body was interred in his family tomb at Córdoba.

When Europe slowly recovered from the dark ages we were able to rediscover these books because of Averroes. What would the West/Europe has been like had all the classic books been lost? Our world of medicine alone would have taken longer to recovered had it not been for men like Averroes.

Even to this day, I don't think enough of us really appreciate how the West is the beacon of knowledge today due to men like Averroes.

[Frater · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another short but excellent introduction to Averroes. It is formatted in a way so that it looks at the different roles Ibn Rushd(Averroes) played in society. He was a jurist of fiqh, a doctor, a commentator on greek philosophy and a speculative theologian.