Celebrating Ibn Rushd’s Eight-Hundredth Anniversary

Abstract

In the context of the world-wide celebrations of the eight-hundrthanniversary of Abu al-Walid Ibn Rushd, known to Western scholars asAverroes (1126-1198), the Tunisian Cultural Foundation (Bayt al-Hikmah) held an International Averroes Symposium, sponsored jointlywith UNESCO, in Carthage, Tunis, on February 16 to February 22,1998. The symposium was hosted by Abd al-Wahab Buhdiba, Directorof Bayt al-Hikmah, and was inaugurated by the President of Tunisia,Zayn al-Abidin Ali, who declared 1998 Ibn Rushd’s year. This symposiumwas attended by a large number of scholars from France, England,Spain, the United States, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Libya, andTunisia.It was my good fortune to open the symposium with a lecture titled“Averroes, Aquinas and the Rise of Latin Scholasticism in WesternEurope,” in which I tried to highlight the decisive role Ibn Rushd‘sCommentaries on Aristotle played in the rediscovery of Aristotle inWestern Europe, the resurgence of interest in Greek-Arabic philosophy,and the consequent rise of Latin Scholasticism. Through translations bysuch eminent scholars as Michael the Scot and Heman the German duringthe first decades of the thirteenth century, Ibn Rushd’s work triggereda genuine intellectual revolution in leamed circles. Before long, Latinphilosophers and theologians had split into two rival groups, the pro-Averroists, with Siger of Bradbant (d. 1281) at their head, and the anti-Averroists, with St. Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) at their head. ”he principalissues around which the controversy tumed were the unity of theintellect, the eternity of the world, the immortality of the soul and thedenial of divine providence. The confrontaton between the two rivalgroups became so acute that in 1270, the Bishop of Paris, Etienne ...