Ibn Rushd (1126 - 1198)
Ibn Rushd (1126 - 1198), often Latinized as Averroes, was a Andalusian philosopher and thinker who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, Islamic jurisprudence and law, and linguistics. His philosophical works include numerous commentaries on Aristotle, for which he was known in the West as
The Commentator. He also served as a judge and a court physician for the Almohad caliphate. Averroes, who served as the royal physician at the Almohad court, wrote a number of medical treatises. The most famous was
al-Kulliyat fi al-Tibb ("General Principles of Medicine", Latinized in the west as the
Colliget), written around 1162, before his appointment at court. The Latin translation became a medical texbook in Europe for centuries. He also wrote summaries of the works of Greek physician Galen and a commentary on Avicenna's
Urjuzah fi al-Tibb ("Poem on Medicine").
Averroes was a prolific writer and his works, according to Fakhry, "covered a greater variety of subjects" than those of any of his predecessors in the East, including philosophy, medicine, jurisprudence or legal theory, and linguistics. Averroes wrote at least 67 original works, including 28 works on philosophy, 20 on medicine, 8 on law, 5 on theology, and 4 on grammar. Many of Averroes' works in Arabic did not survive, but their translations into Hebrew or Latin did.
