Abul-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd (14 April 1126-10 December 1198), better known in the Arab World as Ibn Rushd and in the West as Averroes, was an Andalusian Arab polymath who was best known for his translation of the works of Aristotle and other Greco-Roman philosophers into Arabic to prevent them from being lost.
Biography[]
Abul-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd was born on 14 April 1126 in Cordoba, Al-Andalus, Almoravid Caliphate in present-day Spain to a family of Sunni Muslim Moors. Ibn Rushd was affiliated with the Maliki school of Sunni Islam and defended Aristotelian thought against the Ash'ari school under al-Ghazali, and he believed that things happened following laws that God created rather than occurring due to God making them happen. Ibn Rushd became a famous Muslim philosopher, translating Aristotle's works into Arabic to prevent his ideas from being lost during the Dark Ages. In addition, he made contributions to medicine, geography, physics, and other fields, and he was one of the first people to come up with the concept of what is now known as inertia. Ibn Rushd reconciled Aristotelian thought with Islam, a great achievement; he died at the age of 72 in Morocco.