Averrho'es,

Averrho'es, or AVERROES (properly Ibn Roshd), the most famous of the Arabian philosophers, was born at Cordova, in Spain, in 1126. His father, who was judge there, instructed him in Mohammedan jurisprudence. In theology and philosophy, he had Ibn Tophail for his teacher; and in medicine, Ibn Zohr, the elder. His talents and acquirements made him be appointed successor to his father, and afterwards judge in Morocco. For a while he was the calif's physician. Being accused of a departure from the orthodox doctrines of Mohammedanism, he was dismissed from his office, and condemned to recant his heretical opinions, and do penance. After this, he returned to his native place, and lived in great poverty, until the Calif Al-mansur reinstated him in his offices, on which he went back to Morocco, where he died in 1198. Averrhoes regarded Aristotle as the greatest of all philosophers. He translated (from the Syriac) and illustrated Aristotle's writings with great penetration; but the influence of the Alexandrian or Neoplatonic views is seen in his works, as in those of most of the Arabian philosophers. Thus he teaches the doctrine of a Universal Reason (other than the individual reasons), indivisible, but shared in by all; and denied the immortality of individual men. He expounded the Koran according to Aristotle, and so founded a Moslem philosophy of religion, the cause of many heresies. In opposition to the Arabian orthodox school, especially against Algazali, Averrhoes stood forth on the side of reason as the defender of philosophy. The Arabians called him, by way of eminence, the Expositor (of Aristotle). Most of his writings are known to us only through Latin translations (Ven. 1489). The Arabic text of the philosophical works was published in 1859 by M. J. Müller, followed by a German translation in 1875. Averrhoes also wrote a sort of medical system, which, under the name of Colliget, was translated into Latin, and repeatedly printed. The philosophy of Averrhoes attained to importance in the Christian Church as early as the 13th century, although his pantheistic doctrine of the unity of the active principle in the universe was often repudiated as an error, and astrology was characterised as Averrhoism. See Renan's Averroès et l'Averroïsme (2d ed. 1860).