AVEMPACE°

AVEMPACE ° (Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Bajja , called Ibn al-Şā ʾigh ; d. 1138), Muslim philosopher, born in Saragossa; lived in Seville, Granada, and Fez where he died supposedly as the result of an accusation of heresy. He was a celebrated philosopher, mathematician, musician, poet, and served as vizier. His influence on Spanish philosophical studies was profound and continued the tradition of *al-Fārābī. Through the writings of *Averroes, he influenced the whole later Jewish philosophical school, writing in Hebrew, in Spain, Southern France, and Italy until the 16^th century. His Governance of the Solitary was summarized by *Moses b. Joshua of Narbonne and, until the publication of the original Arabic text in 1946, the Hebrew summary was the only source for the knowledge of Avempace's political thought. He describes the way of life the philosopher ought to follow in the existing corrupt communities in order to achieve union with the Active *Intellect. Perhaps under the impact of the chaotic conditions then existing in Spain and North Africa, he seems to counsel the sage to withdraw from society rather than to attempt to influence it toward a more philosophic course. In this he influenced Maimonides in his Guide of the Perplexed which at times also seems to suggest that the solitary way is the best. His Epistle of Farewell, translated into Hebrew in the first half of the 14^th century by Ḥayyim ibn Vivas, may be considered a summary of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. It contains his doctrine of the immortality of the intellect which can be achieved only through philosophic study, not through mystical exercises. He later developed this theme at greater length in his Epistles of Conjunction. Excerpts from these works were translated by Shem Tov ibn *Falaquera in his philosophical source book to *Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed entitledMoreh ha-Moreh. In general, Avempace influenced the Jewish world through Maimonides and Averroes in the field of political theory and the doctrine of the immortality of the intellect. In addition he was also known for his views on physics and astronomy (Maimonides, Guide, 2:9, 24; 3:29). Ḥasdai *Crescas frequently refers to him in connection with the interpretation of certain passages of Aristotle's Physics. Crescas' knowledge derives from quotations of Avempace's views by Averroes.

bibliography:

R. Lerner and M. Mahdi, Medieval Political Philosophy (1963), 122–33; Aṣín Palacios, in: Al-Andalus, 7 (1942), 1–47; 8 (1943), 1–87; Schreiner, in: Mi-Mizraḥ u-mi-Ma'arav, 1 (1895), 96–106; 4 (1899), 26–39; Shem Tov Ibn Falaquera, Moreh ha-Moreh (1837), 135–8 and passim; Maimonides, Guide, ciii–cviii (introd.); H.A. Wolfson, Crescas' Critique of Aristotle (1929), index. add. bibliography: eis², 3 (1971), s.v. Badjdja (includes bibliography).

[Lawrence V. Berman]