Despite his important stature in the history of philosophy, Averroes is a thinker whose work has been left largely unexplored in this century. It is the aim of this book to rectify this omission, and to argue that his philosophical output is of considerable philosophical as well as historical significance.

This book describes the correlation which exists between religion and philosophy, the nature of external knowledge, and methods of argument and faith. It reveals the in-depth knowledge based on a collection of short works on religion by Averroës.

The Decisive Treatise is perhaps the most controversial work of Averroes (Ibn Rushd, 1126-1198) and belongs to a trilogy which boldly represent the philosophical contribution to Islamic theology of this famous Andalusian commentator on Aristotle. The Decisive Treatise is a fatwa (a legal opinion) that the judge, Averroes, promulgated for his fellow Malikite jurists in order to demonstrate that the study of philosophy is not only licit from the point of view of religious law, but even mandatory for the skilled people. However, many subjects are dealt with in this comparatively short book: An epistemology aimed to show that philosophical truth and religious truth are not in contradiction; a sociology of knowledge pointing out that humans are classified in three classes (philosophers, theologians, common folk); a Qur'anic hermeneutics suggesting how to approach philosophically the Holy Book in agreement with religious requirements and linguistic rules.

"In one fashion or another, the question with which this introduction begins is a question for every serious reader of Plato's Republic: Of what use is this philosophy to me? Averroes clearly finds that the Republic speaks to his own time and to his own situation.... Perhaps the greatest use he makes of the Republic is to understand better the shari'a itself.... It is fair to say that in deciding to paraphrase the Republic, Averroes is asserting that his world—the world defined and governed by the Koran—can profit from Plato's instruction."—from Ralph Lerner’s IntroductionAn indispensable primary source in medieval political philosophy is presented here in a fully annotated translation of the celebrated discussion of the Republic by the twelfth-century Andalusian Muslim philosopher, Abu'l-Walid Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn Rushd, also know by his his Latinized name, Averroes. This work played a major role in both the transmission and the adaptation of the Platonic tradition in the West. In a closely argued critical introduction, Ralph Lerner addresses several of the most important problems raised by the work.

Engages with all aspects of Averroes' philosophy, from his thinking on Aristotle to his influence on Islamic law.

Ruth Glasner presents an illuminating reappraisal of Averroes' physics. She reveals that Averroes changed his interpretation of the basic notions of physics - the structure of corporeal reality and the definition of motion - more than once.

The twelfth-century philosopher Ibn Rushd, also known as Averroes, played a crucial role in the transmission of classical philosophy to Islam, and his work had a profound influence on western scholasticism and on aspects of Renaissance thought. This book, first published in 1991, sets out the main elements of Ibn Rushd¿s work against the historical and cultural background of Muslim Spain. It shows how his writings formed part of the wider movement of Almohadism and seeks to understand the mixed reception of his thought and the rise and fall of his reputation.