Encyclopedia of Islam

Ibn Rushd, Muhammad

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was later transferred to Cordoba, his hometown, 

for burial.

Ibn Rushd is estimated to have written more 

than 100 books and treatises in his lifetime. He 

is best known for his commentaries on Aristotle, 

whose works had been translated into Arabic 

in  s

yria

 during the eighth century. Ibn Rushd’s 

commentaries were written in Arabic, translated 

into Hebrew and Latin, and then transmitted to 

Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries. Indeed, 

it was mainly through Ibn Rushd’s commentar-

ies that European intellectuals and theologians 

(known as the Scholastics) discovered Aristotle. 

Even though it met with strong opposition from 

the Catholic Church, his work contributed signifi-

cantly to the advancement of the Western philo-

sophical tradition during the High Middle Ages. 

Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), the foremost Catholic 

theologian of the time, consulted and contended 

with Ibn Rushd’s interpretation of Aristotle in 

composing his major theological works, Summa 

Theologica and Summa contra Gentiles.

Another one of Ibn Rushd’s major works was 

a treatise that argued against the views of a

bU

h

amid

 

al

-g

hazali

 (d. 1111), the famous Bagh-

dadi scholar who adhered to the a

shari

 s

chool

 of 

Sunni theology and was held in high esteem by the 

Almohads. In a book titled The Incoherence of the 

Philosophers (Tahafut al-falasifa), al-Ghazali had 

opposed the Neoplatonist philosophical views of 

al

-F

arabi

 (d. 950), i

bn

 s

ina

 (d. 1037), and others 

who argued that the world was eternal, that God 

had no knowledge of the particulars of his 

cre

-

ation

, and who denied a bodily resurrection and 

final judgment. Instead, al-Ghazali maintained 

that philosophy and religion were incompatible 

and that philosophers should be condemned as 

infidels. Ibn Rushd, defending Aristotle and the 

Islamic philosophical tradition, entitled his refu-

tation of al-Ghazali The Incoherence of the Incoher-

ence (Tahafut al-tahafut) and asserted that reason 

and revelation were indeed compatible, it was 

only that they differed in language and interpre-

tation. Some of those who read his work alleged 

that he held to a belief in “two truths”—that there 

was one truth that could be known by human 

reason and another that could be known by rev-

elation from God. A fuller reading of Ibn Rushd, 

however, does not support this claim. In addi-

tion to his philosophical and theological works, 

he also wrote books on Islamic law, politics, and 

astronomy. His medical encyclopedia, The Book of 

Generalities (Kitab al-kulliyat), dealt with a variety 

of topics, including anatomy, disease, diet, and 

healing. It was translated into Latin and read by 

medical students in medieval Europe.

The persecution and condemnation Ibn Rushd 

suffered in his last years, combined with the politi-

cal and cultural decline of Islamicate Spain, damp-

ened the impact of his work in Islamicate lands. 

Statue commemorating Ibn Rushd in Cordoba, 

Spain

  (Federico R. Campo)