Philosophy in Western Islam

From the conquest of Spain in 711 to the end of the Omayyade caliphate of al-Andalus (the Islamic name of the Spanish peninsula) in 1031, cultural change took place along the same lines as in the East. Starting in the 11th c., however, at first under the Almoravids and then under the Almohads, Spanish-Islamic philosophy created its own range of interests, particularly developing the theme of philosophic research as a lifelong process leading to political wisdom (Ibn Bagga) and possibly even to beatification (Ibn Tufayl, who uses doctrines of Avicenna). At the height of the Almoravid era, lived the Sufi philosopher Ibn Arabi and the greatest philosopher of al-Andalus, Ibn Rushd (Averroes): to Averroes we owe the first commentary on Aristotle intentionally written without any attempt to integrate religion, and in accord with his belief that philosophy is the supreme form of using reason and reserved to those few capable of obtaining it (while religion is intended to be understood by everyone). Averroes was the last of the ‘Hellenizing’ Islamic philosophers, and he strongly influenced the development of Latin thought: in fact, Averroism was one of the most innovative trends in 13th c. philosophy and gave important contributions to Renaissance thought.