A family of jurists in Córdoba
Born in Córdoba to a family of judges, Ibn Rushd studies law, the sciences and medicine.
Andalusian philosophy · Aristotelianism · 1126–1198
Averroes
Think with texts and their disagreements.
Córdoba · Seville · Marrakesh
Biography
The thread of a life.
Ibn Rushd, known in Latin as Averroes, was born in Córdoba in 1126 into a family of jurists in the Maliki tradition. His father and grandfather held judicial responsibilities. His education included law, the sciences and medicine within the intellectual world of al-Andalus and the Maghreb. These multiple skills matter for understanding a body of work reducible neither to commentary on Aristotle nor to a simple conflict between religion and reason.
Judge, physician and commentator
As judge and later physician, he works between Andalusian courts and the Almohad court.
Law, demonstration and controversy
The 1179 treatises and his reply to al-Ghazali develop arguments about law and philosophy.
Exile and transmissions
After removal from court and a stay in Lucena, he dies in Marrakesh in 1198.
Understanding a life in depth
01A family of jurists in Córdoba
Ibn Rushd, known in Latin as Averroes, was born in Córdoba in 1126 into a family of jurists in the Maliki tradition. His father and grandfather held judicial responsibilities. His education included law, the sciences and medicine within the intellectual world of al-Andalus and the Maghreb. These multiple skills matter for understanding a body of work reducible neither to commentary on Aristotle nor to a simple conflict between religion and reason.
02Judge, physician and commentator
Averroes served as a judge in Seville and Córdoba and became a physician at the Almohad court. His legal work compares disagreements among schools rather than merely listing answers. His Aristotelian writings take different forms—epitomes, middle and long commentaries—for different purposes. The story of his meeting the caliph through Ibn Tufayl illuminates a courtly setting but must be read as transmitted testimony.
03Law, demonstration and controversy
Around 1179 the Decisive Treatise and Exposition of the Methods of Proof examined religious law, demonstrative reasoning and interpretation. The Incoherence of the Incoherence then answered al-Ghazali’s objections to philosophers. These writings belong to specific debates among Muslim jurists, theologians and philosophers. Reducing them to a timeless opposition between science and faith would erase their arguments and the settings that give them meaning.
04Exile and transmissions
Near the end of his life Averroes was removed from court and spent time in Lucena amid accusations and political tensions. He died in Marrakesh in 1198. His works circulated in Arabic and, through Hebrew and Latin translations, in other intellectual traditions; some survive principally in translation. Medieval European debates about intellect gave “Averroism” multiple meanings. His reception in Muslim and Jewish worlds must not disappear behind that Latin label.
Near the end of his life Averroes was removed from court and spent time in Lucena amid accusations and political tensions. He died in Marrakesh in 1198. His works circulated in Arabic and, through Hebrew and Latin translations, in other intellectual traditions; some survive principally in translation. Medieval European debates about intellect gave “Averroism” multiple meanings. His reception in Muslim and Jewish worlds must not disappear behind that Latin label.
Sources & reference points