Averroes (Abu al‐Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmed ibn Muhammad ibn Rushd) (1126–98)

Abstract Averroes was arguably the last great Muslim representative of the main tradition of political philosophy that was founded by Abu Naṣr Alfarabi in Baghdad sometime during the tenth century of the Common Era. This tradition, which emphasized the place of the philosopher in the political community and therefore also the questionable status of philosophy or science in any city or nation, moved in two separate although inter‐related directions following the death of Alfarabi in 950. Ibn SĪnā (Lat. Avicenna; d. 1098) adapted Alfarabi's somewhat neutral philosophical blueprint to fit a more strictly Islamic context and spoke forcefully and persuasively in the eastern part of the Muslim empire about the central importance of political science and its ability to comprehend the meaning of prophetic inspiration. In particular, he stressed the manner in which the books of Plato and Aristotle on the subject of prophecy and the divine law best explain the phenomenon of law more generally and Islamic law in particular. In Muslim‐ruled western or maghrebĪ lands during the twelfth century, Averroes renewed the Farabian approach by refocusing philosophy on political concerns and in particular on the ability of philosophy to justify itself before the tribunal of the law and its interpreters.