Abū 'l-Walīd Muḥammad bin Aḥmad bin Rushd (Arabic: أبو الوليد محمد بن احمد بن رشد), better known just as Ibn Rushd (Arabic: ابن رشد), and in European literature as Averroes (pronounced /əˈvɛroʊ.iːz/) (1126 – December 10, 1198), was an Andalusian Muslim polymath; a master of Aristotelian philosophy, Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music theory, and the sciences of medicine, astronomy, geography, mathematics, physics and celestial mechanics. He was born in Córdoba, Al Andalus, modern-day Spain, and died in Marrakech, modern-day Morocco. His school of philosophy is known as Averroism. He has been described by some[1] as the founding father of secular thought in Western Europe and "one of the spiritual fathers of Europe,"[2] although other scholars oppose such claims.
Wikipedia
Averroes (Abonlwalid Mo'hammed ibn Abmed ibn Mo'hnmmed ibu-Roschd) was born at Cordova about 1120.
His family belonged to the most considerable in Andalusia, high in office, high in esteem. He was greatly befriended by Abubacer, and was intimate with the family of Avenzoar, his colleague at the court of Yousouf, during whose reign he continued in high favour and was employed in various important offices, so that his works were written amid continual interruptions. This favour seems to have been increased under Yousouf s successor, Yacoub Almansour, who was foud of discussing scientific and philosophic questions with him. Indeed Averroes occasionally so far forgot etiquette as to address his sovereign thus: ' Listen, O my brother! ' Such intimacy naturally excited the jealousy of those less favoured, and perhaps by their machinations, or perhaps from some imprudence on his part, he suddenly fell into disgrace. The pretext was his heterodoxy. He was banished from Cordova, and his works were condemned to the flames—an exception being made in favour of the works on medicine, arithmetic, and elementary astronomy.
Almansour issued an edict declaring that God had ordained hell-fire for those who impiously asserted truth to be given by Reason alone. From such a sovereign such a declaration must be attributed to the kind of coercion exercised by priests over all but the most self-willed rulers. At any rate, the disgrace of Averroes was only temporary. The edict was rescinded, and Averroes recalled. But the end was near. He died at Morocco in 1198.
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