Ibn Tufayl | |
|---|---|
 Imaginary sketch representing Ibn Tufayl (1961) | |
| Title | Ibn Tufayl Abubacer Aben Tofail Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail Avetophail |
| Personal life | |
| Born | 1105 |
| Died | 1185 (aged 79–80) |
| Era | Islamic Golden Age |
| Region | Al-Andalus |
| Main interest(s) | Early Islamic philosophy,literature,kalam,Islamic medicine |
| Notable idea(s) | Wrote the firstphilosophical novel, which was also the firstnovel to depictdesert island,feral child andcoming of age plots, and introduced the concepts ofautodidacticism andtabula rasa |
| Notable work(s) | Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (Philosophus Autodidactus) |
| Occupation | Muslim scholar |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Islam |
| Creed | Avicennism |
| Muslim leader | |
Influenced by | |
Influenced | |
Ibn Ṭufayl (fullArabic name:أبو بكر محمد بن عبد الملك بن محمد بن طفيل القيسي الأندلسيʾAbū Bakr Muḥammad bin ʿAbd al-Malik bin Muḥammad bin Ṭufayl al-Qaysiyy al-ʾAndalusiyy;Latinized form:Abubacer Aben Tofail;Anglicized form:Abubekar orAbu Jaafar Ebn Tophail;c. 1105 – 1185) was anArabAndalusianMuslimpolymath: awriter,Islamic philosopher,Islamic theologian,physician,astronomer, andvizier.[1]
As a philosopher and novelist, he is most famous for writing the firstphilosophical novel,Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (The Living Son of the Vigilant), considered a major work of Arabic literature emerging fromAl-Andalus.[2] As a physician, he was an early supporter ofdissection andautopsy, which was expressed in his novel.[3]
Born in Guadix, nearGranada, he was educated byIbn Bajjah (Avempace).[4] His family were from the ArabQays tribe.[5] He was a secretary for several leaders, including the rulers ofCeuta andTangier, in 1154.[6] He also served as a secretary for the ruler ofGranada, and later asvizier andphysician forAbu Yaqub Yusuf, theAlmohad caliph,[4] to whom he recommendedIbn Rushd (Averroës) as his own future successor in 1169.[7]Ibn Rushd later reports this event and describes how Ibn Tufayl then inspired him to write his famousAristotelian commentaries:
Abu Bakr ibn Tufayl summoned me one day and told me that he had heard theCommander of the Faithful complaining about the disjointedness of Aristotle's mode of expression — or that of the translators — and the resultant obscurity of his intentions. He said that if someone took on these books who could summarize them and clarify their aims after first thoroughly understanding them himself, people would have an easier time comprehending them. "If you have the energy," Ibn Tufayl told me, "you do it. I'm confident you can because I know what a good mind and devoted character you have, and how dedicated you are to the art. You understand that only my great age, the cares of my office — and my commitment to another task that I think even more vital — keep me from doing it myself."[8]
Ibn Rushd became Ibn Tufayl's successor after he retired in 1182; Ibn Tufayl died several years later inMorocco in 1185. The astronomerNur Ed-Din Al-Bitruji was also a disciple of Ibn Tufayl. Al-Bitruji was influenced by him to follow the Aristotelian system of astronomy, as he had originally followed the Ptolemaic system of astronomy.[9]
His work in astronomy was historically significant as he played a major role in overturning the Ptolemaic ideas on astronomy.[10] This event in history is called the "Andalusian Revolt", where he influenced many, including Al-Bitruji, to desert the Ptolemaic ideas.[10] He was influential in the development of Islamic astronomy. Many later astronomers and scholars built upon his ideas and used his work as a basis for their own research and discoveries.[11]
Many Islamic philosophers, writers, physicians, and astronomers have been influenced by Ibn Tufayl and his work. These people includeNur al-Din al-Bitruji, Abu ‘Abdallah Muhammad b. al-Abbar,Abd al-Wahid al-Marrakushi,Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari, andIbn al-Khatib.[12]
Ibn Tufayl served as the secretary of the Almohad governor of Granada, and later as the secretary of the Almohad governor of Ceuta and Tangiers (Abū Saʿīd ʿUthmān, one of'Abd al-Mu'min's sons). Eventually, Ibn Tufayl moved to the service ofAbū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf, who was a prince at the time and later became the second Almohad caliph.[13]
Ibn Tufayl was the author ofḤayy bin Yaqẓān (Arabic:حي بن يقظان,lit. 'Alive, son of Awake'), also known asPhilosophus Autodidactus in Latin, a philosophicalromance and allegorical novel inspired byAvicennism andSufism, and which tells the story of anautodidacticferal child, raised by agazelle and living alone on adesert island, who, without contact with other human beings, discovers ultimate truth through a systematic process ofreasonedinquiry. Hayy ultimately comes into contact with civilization and religion when he meets acastaway named Absal (Asāl in some translations). He determines that certain trappings ofreligion, namely imagery and dependence on material goods, are necessary for the multitude in order that they might have decent lives. However, imagery and material goods are distractions from the truth and ought to be abandoned by those whose reason recognizes that they are. The names of the characters in the novel, Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān, Salamān, and Absāl were borrowed fromIbn Sina's tales.[14] The title of the novel is also the same as Ibn Sina's novel. Ibn Tufayl did this on purpose to use the characters and the title as a small reference to Ibn Sina, as he wanted to touch upon his philosophy.[14]
Ibn Tufayl'sPhilosophus Autodidactus was written as a response toal-Ghazali'sThe Incoherence of the Philosophers. In the 13th century,Ibn al-Nafis later wrote theAl-Risalah al-Kamiliyyah fil Siera al-Nabawiyyah (known asTheologus Autodidactus in the West) as a response to Ibn Tufayl'sPhilosophus Autodidactus.
Hayy ibn Yaqdhan had a significant influence on bothArabic literature andEuropean literature,[15] and it went on to become an influential best-seller throughoutWestern Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.[16][17] The work also had a "profound influence" on bothclassical Islamic philosophy andmodernWestern philosophy.[18] It became "one of the most important books that heralded theScientific Revolution" andEuropean Enlightenment, and the thoughts expressed in the novel can be found "in different variations and to different degrees in the books ofThomas Hobbes,John Locke,Isaac Newton, andImmanuel Kant."[19]
ALatin translation of the work, entitledPhilosophus Autodidactus, first appeared in 1671, prepared byEdward Pococke the Younger. The first English translation (bySimon Ockley) was published in 1708. These translations later may have inspiredDaniel Defoe to writeRobinson Crusoe, which also featured adesert island narrative.[20][21][22] The novel is also thought to have inspired the concept of "tabula rasa" developed byJohn Locke, inAn Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690).[23] Locke's concept of "tabula rasa" refers to a state in which an infant is as formless as a blank slate.[24] "Locke'sEssay went on to become one of the principal sources ofempiricism in modern Western philosophy, and influenced many enlightenmentphilosophers, such asDavid Hume andGeorge Berkeley. Hayy's ideas onmaterialism in the novel also have some similarities toKarl Marx'shistorical materialism.[25] It also foreshadowedMolyneux's Problem, proposed byWilliam Molyneux to Locke, who included it in the second book ofAn Essay Concerning Human Understanding.[26][27]Other European writers influenced byPhilosophus Autodidactus includedGottfried Leibniz,[15]Melchisédech Thévenot,John Wallis,Christiaan Huygens,[28]George Keith,Robert Barclay, theQuakers,[29]Samuel Hartlib,[30] andVoltaire.[31] In more recent readings,Nadia Maftouni has coined the termSciart for intertwined artistic and scientific activities and has described Ibn Tufayl'sHayy ibn Yaqzan as a leading instant which touches on issues likehuman anatomy,autopsy, andvivisection within the confines of his novel.[32]
"If you want a comparison that will make you clearly grasp the difference between theperception, such as it is understood by that sect [the Sufis] and the perception as others understand it, imagine a person bornblind, endowed however with a happy naturaltemperament, with a lively and firmintelligence, a surememory, a straight sprite, who grew up from the time he was an infant in a city where he never stopped learning, by means of thesenses he did dispose of, to know the inhabitants individually, the numerous species of beings, living as well as non-living, there, the streets and sidestreets, the houses, the steps, in such a manner as to be able to cross the city without a guide, and to recognize immediately those he met; thecolors alone would not be known to him except by the names they bore, and by certain definitions that designated them. Suppose that he had arrived at this point and suddenly, his eyes were opened, he recovered his view, and he crosses the entire city, making a tour of it. He would find no object different from the idea he had made of it; he would encounter nothing he didn’t recognize, he would find the colors conformable to the descriptions of them that had been given to him; and in this there would only be two new important things for him, one the consequence of the other: a clarity, a greaterbrightness, and a great voluptuousness."
