Ibn Tufayl: Political Rationalism in an Elitist Order

The chapter studies Ibn Tufayl in reference to two key political dynamics. The first is the power transition from the Almoravids to the Almoahads. The second is the Almohad official policy of establishing/imposing the doctrine of Ibn Tumart’s tawhid. Writing his magnum opus, Hayy ibn Yaqzan, when he was in government service, Ibn Tufayl’s views were determined mainly by the above-mentioned political dynamics. Analyzing that connection in detail, the chapter demonstrates how political rationalism was behind Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy ibn Yaqzan. The power transition from Almoravids to the Almohads, and the latter’s use of political power to impose a religious doctrine, were the two key factors for Ibn Tufayl, who worked as an advisor to the Almohad caliphs, in his detection that social, political and economic factors, particularly political power, were the formatives of political decisions, as well as of the relationship between religion and politics. The chapter studies also a distinct aspect of Ibn Tufayl’s political rationalism, that is, his view of the role of social/tribal dynamics, given that the power struggle between the Almoravids and the Almohads was substantially a matter of the inter-tribal politics of the Masmuda Berber tribes and the Sanhaja Berber tribes.