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Averroes (born Cordoba 1126, died Morocco 1198) was an expert on jurisprudence who held office in Cordoba, Seville and Morocco, and who enjoyed considerable influence in the Islamic Almohade Caliphate. Apart from law, he also was learned in medicine, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy and theology.

He wrote several philosophical treatises, some of which have come down to use through their Latin and Hebrew translations, and others which have disappeared altogether. Averroes was exiled to North Africa for his philosophical ideas, and many of his writings were consigned to the flames. Nevertheless, his commentaries on Aristotle were influential on the work of later thinkers, such as St Thomas Aquinas, who did not necessarily agree with his conclusions, but respected his work. For this, he won the title of "The Commentator" in medieval universities.

Averroes can be categorized as a neo-Platonic Aristotelian who believed that religion and philosophy worked on two different planes but were compatible because they found the same truth in different ways (one through symbol and the other through reason).

Source: The Catholic Encyclopedia. See also: On the Harmony of Religions and Philosophy (Kitab fasl al-maqal).

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