MWANAFALSAFA
Ibn Bajja (Avempace)
أبو بكر محمد بن يحيى بن الصائغ (ابن باجه)
- Lifespan
- c. 1085 – 1138/1139
- Region & background
- Zaragoza, al-Andalus — died in Fez (Morocco)
- Intellectual tradition
- Falsafa — Andalusian Aristotelianism
Key ideas
- The “solitary” thinker seeking a good life in an imperfect city
- The highest human pleasure lies in knowledge
- Stages of knowledge, from common opinion to intellectual understanding
- Analysis of motion and resistance in physics
Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, known as Ibn Bājja (Latin: Avempace), was born in Zaragoza around 1085 — probably a few years earlier — and died in Fez in 1138 or 1139. He served Almoravid rulers as a courtier, poet and at times vizier, and was imprisoned at least twice. Several accounts claim he was poisoned, but this remains uncertain.
He is the first major philosopher of al-Andalus. His best-known work, The Rule of the Solitary, asks how an individual devoted to knowledge can live well in a city that is not virtuous, while his Letter on the Conjunction of the Intellect with Man describes the ascent of the mind toward the highest knowledge. He also wrote on physics, notably on motion, as well as on music and medicine.
Notable works
- Tadbīr al-Mutawaḥḥid (The Rule of the Solitary)
- Risālat al-Ittiṣāl (Letter on the Conjunction of the Intellect with Man)
- Risālat al-Wadāʿ (The Farewell Letter)