Editing Averroes (section)

== Legacy ==
{{Main|Averroism}}

=== In Jewish tradition ===
[[Maimonides]] (d. 1204) was among early Jewish scholars who received Averroes's works enthusiastically, saying he "received lately everything Averroes had written on the works of Aristotle" and that Averroes "was extremely right".{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|p=132}} Thirteenth-century Jewish writers, including [[Samuel ibn Tibbon]] in his work ''Opinion of the Philosophers'', [[Judah ben Solomon ha-Kohen]] in his ''Search for Wisdom'' and [[Shem-Tov ibn Falaquera]], relied heavily on Averroes's texts.{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|p=132}} In 1232, [[Joseph Ibn Kaspi]] translated Averroes's commentaries on Aristotle's ''[[Organon]]''; this was the first Jewish translation of a complete work. In 1260 [[Moses ibn Tibbon]] published the translation of almost all of Averroes's commentaries and some of his medical works.{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|p=132}} Jewish Averroism peaked in the fourteenth century;{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|p=133}} Jewish writers of this time who translated or were influenced by Averroes include [[Kalonymus ben Kalonymus]] of [[Arles]], France, [[Todros Todrosi]] of Arles, [[Elia del Medigo]] of Candia and [[Gersonides]] of [[Languedoc]].{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|pp=132–133}}

Averroes was cited by Falaquera, [[Yehuda Moscato]] and [[Abraham Bibago]] to argue that the Greeks borrowed their scientific and philosophical knowledge from Jewish sources.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fuss |first=Abraham M. |date=1994 |title=The Study of Science and Philosophy Justified by Jewish Tradition |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40914819 |journal=The Torah U-Madda Journal |volume=5 |pages=101–114 |jstor=40914819 |issn=1050-4745}}</ref>

=== In Latin tradition ===
Averroes's main influence on the [[Western culture|Christian West]] was through his extensive commentaries on Aristotle.{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|p=131}} After the fall of the [[Western Roman Empire]], western Europe fell into a cultural decline that resulted in the loss of nearly all of the intellectual legacy of the Classical Greek scholars, including Aristotle.{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|p=129}} Averroes's commentaries, which were translated into Latin and entered western Europe in the thirteenth century, provided an expert account of Aristotle's legacy and made them available again.{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|p=133}}{{sfn|Adamson|2016|pp=181–182}} The influence of his commentaries led to Averroes being referred to simply as "The Commentator" rather than by name in Latin Christian writings.{{sfn|Adamson|2016|p=180}} He has been sometimes described as the "father of free thought and unbelief"<ref>{{cite book|last=Guillaume|first=Alfred|title=The Legacy of Islam|year=1945|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bratton|first=Fred|title=Maimonides, medieval modernist|url=https://archive.org/details/maimonidesmediev00brat|url-access=registration|year=1967|publisher=Beacon Press}}</ref> and "father of rationalism".<ref name="Gill-2009"/>

[[Michael Scot]] (1175 – {{c.}} 1232) was the first Latin translator of Averroes who translated the long commentaries of ''[[Physics (Aristotle)|Physics]]'', ''Metaphysics'', ''On the Soul'' and ''On the Heavens'', as well as multiple middle and short commentaries, starting in 1217 in [[Paris]] and [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]].{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|pp=133–134}} Following this, European authors such as [[Hermannus Alemannus]], William de Luna and [[Armengaud of Montpellier]] translated Averroes's other works, sometimes with help from Jewish authors.{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|p=134}} Soon after, Averroes's works propagated among Christian scholars in the [[scholasticism|scholastic]] tradition.{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|p=134}} His writing attracted a strong circle of followers known as the [[Latin Averroism|Latin Averroists]].{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|p=134}} Paris and [[Padua]] were major centers of Latin Averroism, and its prominent thirteenth-century leaders included [[Siger of Brabant]] and [[Boethius of Dacia]].{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|p=134}}

Authorities of the Roman Catholic Church reacted against the spread of Averroism. In 1270, the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paris|Bishop of Paris]] [[Étienne Tempier]] issued [[Condemnations of 1270|a condemnation]] against 15 doctrines—many of which were Aristotelian or Averroist—that he said were in conflict with the doctrines of the church. In 1277, at the request of [[Pope John XXI]], Tempier issued another condemnation, this time targeting 219 theses drawn from many sources, mainly the teachings of Aristotle and Averroes.{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|pp=134–135}}

[[File:Benozzo Gozzoli 004a.jpg|thumb|alt=Drawing of a man (Thomas Aquinas) sitting with another man (Averroes) lying on his feet|The ''Triumph of Saint Thomas Aquinas over Averroes'' by Benozzo Gozzoli, depicting [[Thomas Aquinas|Aquinas]] (top center), a major Averroes critic, "triumphing" over Averroes (bottom), depicted at the feet of Aquinas]]
Averroes received a mixed reception from other Catholic thinkers; [[Thomas Aquinas]], a leading Catholic thinker of the thirteenth century, relied extensively on Averroes's interpretation of Aristotle but disagreed with him on many points.{{sfn|Adamson|2016|p=180}}{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|p=138}} For example, he wrote a detailed attack on Averroes's theory that all humans share the same intellect.{{sfn|Adamson|2016|p=192}} He also opposed Averroes on the eternity of the universe and [[divine providence]].{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|p=140}} [[Ramon Llull]] opposed Averroism and established a distinction between a religion that could be tolerated—Islam—and a philosophy that should be opposed—Averroism, especially in its Latin version.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bordoy Fernandez|first=Antoni|title=Ramón Llull y la crítica al averroísmo cristiano|url=http://ibdigital.uib.es/greenstone/collect/taula/index/assoc/Taula_20/03v037p0/21.dir/Taula_2003v037p021.pdf|url-access=registration|year=2002|publisher=Universitat de les Illes Balears}}</ref>

The Catholic Church's condemnations of 1270 and 1277, and the detailed critique by Aquinas weakened the spread of Averroism in Latin [[Christendom]],{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|p=135}} though it maintained a following until the sixteenth century, when European thought began to diverge from Aristotelianism.{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|p=133}} Leading Averroists in the following centuries included [[John of Jandun]] and [[Marsilius of Padua]] (fourteenth century), [[Gaetano da Thiene (philosopher)|Gaetano da Thiene]] and [[Pietro Pomponazzi]] (fifteenth century), and [[Agostino Nifo]] and [[Marcantonio Zimara]] (sixteenth century).{{sfn|Fakhry|2001|pp=137–138}}

=== In Islamic tradition ===
Averroes had no major influence on Islamic philosophic thought until modern times.{{sfn|Leaman|2002|p=28}} Part of the reason was geography; Averroes lived in Spain, the extreme west of the Islamic civilization far from the centers of Islamic intellectual traditions.{{sfn|Adamson|2016|p=181}} Also, his philosophy may not have appealed to Islamic scholars of his time.{{sfn|Adamson|2016|p=181}} His focus on Aristotle's works was outdated in the twelfth-century Muslim world, which had already scrutinized Aristotle since the ninth century and by now was engaging deeply with newer schools of thought, especially that of [[Avicenna]].{{sfn|Adamson|2016|p=181}} In the nineteenth century, Muslim thinkers began to engage with the works of Averroes again.{{sfn|Leaman|2002|p=28}} By this time, there was a cultural renaissance called ''[[Al-Nahda]]'' ("reawakening") in the Arabic-speaking world and the works of Averroes were seen as inspiration to modernize the Muslim intellectual tradition.{{sfn|Leaman|2002|p=28}}