Ibn Rushd Biography

Imam Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd al-Hafid — known to the Latin West as Averroes — was a twelfth-century Andalusi polymath, Maliki jurist, Aristotelian philosopher, and chief judge of Cordoba whose work shaped both Islamic legal scholarship and the trajectory of medieval European thought. Born in 520 AH / 1126 CE into a distinguished Cordoban family of Maliki qadis — both his father and grandfather had served as chief judge of Cordoba — he received a thorough training in Qur'an, hadith, fiqh, linguistic sciences, theology, philosophy, and medicine.

Ibn Rushd's scholarly output spans two distinct legacies. Within the Islamic tradition, his Bidayat al-Mujtahid wa Nihayat al-Muqtasid is one of the most respected works of comparative Islamic jurisprudence, presenting the disagreements among the Sunni schools alongside the evidentiary basis for each position. He served as chief qadi of Seville and later of Cordoba and, under the Almohad caliph Abu Ya'qub Yusuf, as personal physician at the Almohad court — composing al-Kulliyat fi al-Tibb, a comprehensive medical encyclopedia. In philosophy, he produced detailed commentaries on nearly the entire Aristotelian corpus that earned him in Latin Christendom the title 'The Commentator' (used by Dante, Aquinas, and others), as well as Tahafut al-Tahafut, his celebrated response to Imam al-Ghazali's Tahafut al-Falasifa, and Fasl al-Maqal, his treatise on the relationship between revelation and rational inquiry.

Ibn Rushd fell into political disfavor late in life and was briefly exiled to Lucena before being recalled. He died in Marrakesh in 595 AH / 1198 CE; his body was later returned to Cordoba for burial. His commentaries on Aristotle, translated into Latin and Hebrew, became central texts in European universities for the following four centuries, while his Bidayat al-Mujtahid remains a standard reference in contemporary comparative fiqh courses across the Muslim world.