Averroes Decisive Treatise & Epistle Dedicatory

 

 

 

Description :

 

Averroes (Ibn Rushd, 1126-1198) emerged from an eminent family in Muslim Spain to become the first and last great Aristotelian of the classical Islamic world; his meticulous commentaries influenced Christian thinkers and earned him favourable mentions.

 

The Book of the Decisive Treatise was and remains one his most important works and one of history’s best defenses of the legitimate role of reason in a community of faith. The text presents itself as a plea before a tribunal in which the divinely revealed Law of Islam is the sole authority; Averroes, critical of the anti-philosophical tone of the Islamic establishment, argues that the Law not only permits but also mandates the study of philosophy and syllogistic or logical reasoning, defending earlier Muslim philosophers and dismissing criticisms of them as more harmful to the Islamic community than the philosophers’ own views had been. As he details the three fundamental methods the Law uses to aid people of varied capacities and temperaments, Averroes reveals a carefully formed and remarkably argued conception of the boundaries and uses of faith and reason.
 

 

 

Ibn Rushd, Arabic (ابن رشد), known as Averroes 510-595 AH (1126 – 1198CE), was an Andalusian-Arab philosopher and physician, a scholar of philosophy and Islamic law, mathematics, and medicine. He was born in Cordoba, Spain, and died in Marrakech, Morocco. His school of philosophy is known as Averroism.


Ibn Rushd, came from a family of jurists trained himself in law and medicine and later served as Qadi (judge) in Seville and Cordoba. In 1182 he was appointed physician to the court of caliph Abu Ya`qub Yusuf in Marrakesh and to his son, Abu Yusuf Ya`qub, in 1195 but was recalled shortly before his death. In the field of medicine Averroës produced his Kulliyat fi al tib (General Medicine) between 1162 and 1169. He is however better known for his great commentaries on Aristotle.


Al-Dhahabi in Siyar A`lam al-`Ulama' (15:452) quotes al-Abbar as saying: 'No one of his scholarly perfection, his erudition, or his high manners was ever raised in Andalus.'

 

 

 

 

 

Table of Contents :

---Foreword to the Series,

---Preface,
---Biographical Sketch of Averroes,
---Translator’s Introduction to the Decisive Treatise,
---Translator’s Introduction to the Epistle Dedicatory.

The Book of the Decisive Treatise
---I. Introduction,
---II. That philosophy and logic are obligatory,
---III. That demonstration accords with the Law,
---IV. Summary,
---V. On what is intended by the Law and its methods,
---VI. On the emergence of factions within Islam,
---VII. Conclusion.

Epistle Dedicatory
---I. Introduction,
---II. Statement of the doubt,
---III. The solution,
---IV. Consequences,
---V. Conclusion.

---Appendix
---Notes,
---Bibliography,
---Index of Quranic Verses,
---Index of Names and Terms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Dimensions : 24 x 16cm.