Ibn Rushd, known to the Latin West as Averroës, was the most important of the philosophers who lived and wrote in Islamic Spain during the twelfth century and was virtually the last of the great Muslim Aristotelians. His writings and reputation extend not only to philosophy but include medicine and the Islamic religious sciences of law (figh) and dialectical theology (kalam). Averroës' reputation is linked largely to his commentaries on and explanations of Aristotle's writings, in virtue of which he was known as "The Commentator" in the Christian West. In his own milieu, also, Averroës extended his defense of Aristotelianism in incisive treatises replying to theological and legal challenges to philosophy, in particular those of al-Ghazali.

Averroës' unique combination of philosophical and religious learning made him well qualified to undertake the defense of Aristotelian philosophy by meeting his opponents on...