Averroes

Averroes

Averroes (Arabic: ابن رشد; with the kunya Abū al-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Rushd ابوالوليد محمد بن احمد بن محمد بن رشد; Latin: Averroes, 14 April 1126, Córdoba, al-Andalus – 10 December 1198, Marrakesh, Morocco) was an Andalusian-Arab philosopher, physician, jurist, mathematician and medical scholar. Through his translations and commentaries he reintroduced Aristotle to Europe. He was among the representatives of Peripateticism, the Aristotelian current in Islamic philosophy.

Significance

Averroes is best known for his translations into Arabic — many of them now lost in the West — of the works of Aristotle and for his commentaries on them. Before 1150 there existed in Europe only a few translations of Aristotle's works, and even these were disliked and left unstudied by the clergy. The rediscovery of Aristotle's legacy in the West began with the translation of Averroes's works into Latin in the early 12th century.

Averroes's work on Aristotle spans a period of thirty years, during which he wrote commentaries on all of Aristotle's works except the Politics, to which he had no access. The Hebrew translations of his works also left a lasting influence on Jewish philosophy. Averroes's ideas were absorbed by professors at the University of Paris such as Siger of Brabant, Thomas Aquinas and Boethius of Dacia, who came from the Christian scholastic tradition and valued Aristotle's works on logic. Renowned scholastic philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas held him in the highest regard, calling him not by his name but "the Commentator" and calling Aristotle "the Philosopher." He left no school in the Islamic world, and his death marked the end of free intellectual life in al-Andalus.

Averroes in literature

Because of the respect shown to him by the medieval scholastics of Europe, Dante placed Averroes in the Divine Comedy in Limbo — where "honor owed to fame" resides — alongside the other great pagan philosophers.

In Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, which tells the ill-fated story of Quasimodo and Esmeralda, Averroes is referenced in a passage touching on the sources of science and law. He is mentioned under his name known in Europe, Averroes.

Averroes is also mentioned in James Joyce's Ulysses and in Jorge Luis Borges's La Busca de Averroes (Averroes's Search).

In Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose, Ibn Rushd is mentioned many times, and his commentaries and inferences on Aristotle are cited as references.

His works

Averroes is known to have written more than 150 works across many fields including politics, religion, law, medicine and philosophy. He wrote in particular many commentaries on Aristotle's Organon corpus. These commentaries are of three kinds by size: short, middle and long. The short and middle commentaries are, for the most part, not commentaries on the entire work but studies in which certain obscure passages are analyzed across many pages. Here, taking into account both the abundance of Averroes's works and the fact that they were translated into many languages, we will convey information about his works in detail.

Isagoge

Averroes wrote a work titled Isagoge in the nature of an introduction to the six-book corpus of the Organon. We find a similar example in the work titled al-Madkhal that Avicenna wrote for his Shifāʾ (Book of Healing) corpus. Averroes wrote two commentaries on this work; of these, two manuscripts of the Arabic text — of the summary titled al-Ḍarūrī fī al-manṭiq — written in Hebrew script have survived to the present, but its Hebrew and Latin translations have been lost.

Talkhīṣ madkhal Furfūriyūs

He wrote a medium-length commentary on the above work, titled Talkhīṣ madkhal Furfūriyūs. This commentary, translated into Latin by William de Lune under the title Averrois, Commentarium medium. Super libri introductionum Porphyrii, also has a Hebrew translation. Both translations were published by Jacob Mantino (Venice, 1560). Drawing on the Latin and Hebrew versions, Herbert A. Davidson translated the work into English and published it in the series "Corpus Commentariorum Averrois in Aristotelem."

I. Kitāb al-Maqūlāt (Categorias)

This is the translation of Aristotle's Categories. The philosopher wrote two commentaries on this work; the original of his short Arabic commentary has been lost. The Latin translation made by Abraham of Balmes under the title "Epistola de Primitate Praedicatorum" was printed (Venice, 1560), while its Hebrew translation is lost.

II. Talkhīṣ Kitāb al-Maqūlāt / Qāṭīghūriyās (Commentary on the Categories)

This is the middle commentary he wrote on the above translation of the Categories. Its Arabic manuscript copies have also survived. Only a single copy of the Arabic original written in Hebrew script exists. Maurice Bouyges published the Arabic text of the middle commentary (Beirut, 1932), and Gérard Jéhami later republished it within Talkhīṣ Manṭiq Arisṭū (Beirut, 1982, pp. 1–77), based on the Florence, Leiden and Mashhad copies. This middle commentary was translated into Latin three times. The translation made by Jacob Mantino under the title Commentum Averrois cordubensis expositione media was printed (Venice, 1552, 1562, 1573); a second translation, understood to be anonymous, appeared as Liber praedicamentorum Aristotelis cum commentariis Averrois (Lyon, 1542); and yet another anonymous translation was published by Nicoletto of Padua under the title Commentum Auerois super librum predicamentorum Aristotelis (Venice, 1483). It also appears that Zacharias Zenari produced a new and different edition of the work in Venice in 1560. Two copies have also survived of the Hebrew translation made in Naples by Jacob ben Abba-Mari Anatolio. Drawing on its Arabic, Hebrew and Latin translations, Herbert A. Davidson translated this work into English under the title Middle Commentary on Aristotle's Categoriae and published it within the series "Corpus Commentarium Averrois in Aristotelem" (Cambridge, 1969); Levi ben Gerson wrote a commentary on this Hebrew translation.

I. Kitāb al-ʿIbāra (Περὶ Ἑρμηνείας / Peri Hermenias / De Interpretatione)

This is the Arabic translation of Aristotle's On Interpretation. It was translated into Latin by Abraham of Balmes. Averroes wrote two commentaries — a short one and a middle one — on his own Arabic translation. The original of the short Arabic commentary has been lost. But its Latin version exists and was published under the title "Epithome in Libros Perihermenias" (Venice, 1560).

II. Talkhīṣ Kitāb al-ʿIbāra / Bārī Armanyās (Commentary on "On Interpretation")

This is the middle-sized commentary on On Interpretation. Its Arabic original has survived and was published by Gérard Jéhami. The Latin translation of this commentary made by Jacob Mantino, currently in Venice, was printed by Cominum de Tridino under the title "Aristotelis Perihermenias Commentum Averrois Cordobensis Expositione Media" (Venice, 1560). There is also another translation of the work made by William de Lune.

Some of his works

He has countless works on philosophy. He wrote many short, middle and long commentaries on Aristotle's Organon corpus. Let us list the following:

Commentary on the Introduction to the Organon (Leiden University Library, nos. 2073, 2820; this commentary, translated into Latin by William de Lune under the title Averrois, Commentarium medium. Super libri introductionum Porphyrii, also has a Hebrew translation. Both translations were published by Jacob Mantino (Venice, 1560). Drawing on the Latin and Hebrew versions, Herbert A. Davidson translated the work into English and published it within the series "Corpus Commentariorum Averrois in Aristotelem.")

Sources

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