Ibn Rushd writes his commentaries on Aristotle
- Date
- 1170s–1190s CE
- Category
- Culture, arts & philosophy
- Region
- Iberia (al-Andalus, Córdoba/Seville)
- Era
- Post-Classical / Medieval
- Significance
Working in Córdoba and Seville through the 1170s and 1180s, the Andalusian philosopher, jurist and physician Ibn Rushd (Averroes, 1126–1198) produced the most systematic body of commentary on Aristotle's works yet attempted, organised in short, middle and long forms across nearly the whole corpus.
Defending the compatibility of philosophy and revealed religion, he argued against al-Ghazali's critique of the philosophers and insisted on the value of rational demonstration. Within the Islamic world his rationalism met resistance, and he was briefly exiled late in life. His greatest influence came in the Latin West: from the early thirteenth century his commentaries were translated into Latin, notably by Michael Scot at Toledo around 1217, and into Hebrew. They reintroduced a full and richly interpreted Aristotle to the universities of Paris, Oxford and Bologna, where the movement known as Latin Averroism shaped scholastic debate and influenced figures such as Thomas Aquinas. Ibn Rushd thus became a crucial conduit by which classical Greek thought, preserved and developed in the Islamic world, helped ignite the intellectual revival of high medieval Europe.
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Empires active in 1170s–1190s CE
- Jurchen Jin Dynasty1115 CE – 1234 CE
- Song Dynasty960 CE – 1279 CE
- Kanem-Bornu Empire700 CE – 1900 CE
- Abbasid Caliphate750 CE – 1258 CE
- Byzantine Empire330 CE – 1453 CE
- Kingdom of Chimor (Chimú)900 CE – 1470 CE
Related culture, arts & philosophy events
- Zhu Xi completes the Neo-Confucian synthesis and the Four Booksc. 1175-1190
- Rise of the Kingdom of Ife, cradle of Yoruba civilisationc. 1170 CE
- Birth of Gothic architecture at Saint-Denisc. 1140–1144 (Saint-Denis choir)
- The Toledo School and the Latin translation of Greek-Arabic learning12th century (Gerard of Cremona d. 1187)
- Building of Angkor Wat by Suryavarman IIc. 1122–1150 CE
- Al-Ghazali completes The Incoherence of the Philosophersc. 1095 CE
Further reading
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