AVERROES


Birth: 1126/Death: 10 December 1198
AVERROES- Biography


The complete name of Averroes the  great philosopher was Abdul Walid Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn Rushd. However, he is popularly known as Averroes. He was born in 1126 and died
on December 10, 1198.

Averroes was an Andalusian philosopher. He was born in Cordoba. Today, it is part of Spain.
Averroes died in Marrakech, modern day Morocco.

His school of philosophy is known as Averroism. He has been described as the founding father of secular thought in Western Europe. Though a great philosopher, he was also known as a physician, theologian, astronomer and mathematician.

Averroes family was a very famous one, mainly for its legal scholars. His grandfather was the chief judge of Cordoba. His father also was on the same position.

His views and ideas can be considered purely rationalist. In fact, they were against the orthodox Islamic views. It put him into many troubles

He wrote commentaries on most of the surviving works of Aristotle. These were not based on primary sources because he did not know Greek. His commentaries were based on Arabic
translations.

His most important original philosophical work was The Incoherence of the Incoherence.
In this work, he defended Aristotelian philosophy.

Other works were the Fasl al-Maqal and the Kitab al-Kashf. These works tried to prove the legality of philosophical investigation under Islamic law.