1126-1198

Spanish Physician, Philosopher, Astronomer and Jurist

Ibn Rushd, known to the West as Averroës, is famous for his commentaries on Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), which were widely used as standard texts until the sixteenth century. This body of work earned him the appellation "the Commentator." He is also remembered for his medical treatise Kulliyat and philosophical work Tahafut at-tahafut.

Ibn Rushd was born in 1126 to a family of important jurists in Cordoba, Spain. While in Marrakesh, Morocco, to help with the reform of education (1153), he met the astronomer Abu Bakr ibn Tufayl (1105?-1184). Six years later, at Seville, Ibn Tufayl introduced Ibn Rushd to the Sultan's son, Abu Ya'qub Yusuf. As a result of their meeting, Ibn Rushd accepted the task of...