Everything about Ibn Bajjah totally explained
Abū-Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn al-Sāyigh (
Arabic أبو بكر محمد بن يحيى بن الصائغ), known as
Ibn Bājjah (
Arabic:ابن باجة), was an
Andalusian-
Muslim polymath: an
astronomer,
logician,
musician,
philosopher,
physician,
physicist and scientist,
psychologist, and
poet. He was known in the West by his
Latinized name,
Avempace. He was born in
Zaragoza in what is today
Spain and died in
Fes, Morocco in
1138. Avempace worked as vizir for Abu Bakr ibn Ibrahim Ibn Tîfilwît, the
Almoravid governor of
Saragossa. Avempace also wrote poems (panegyrics and 'muwasshahat') for him, and they both enjoyed music and wine. Avempace joined in poetic competitions with the poet
al-Tutili. He later worked, for some twenty years, as the vizir of Yahyà ibn Yûsuf Ibn Tashufin, another brother of the
Almoravid Sultan
Yusuf Ibn Tashufin (d. 1143) in Morocco.
His philosophic ideas had a clear effect on
Ibn Rushd and
Albertus Magnus.
Most of his writings and book were not completed (or well organized) because of his early death.
He had a vast knowledge of
Medicine,
Mathematics and
Astronomy.
His main contribution to
Islamic Philosophy is his idea on
Soul Phenomenology, but unfortunately not completed.
His beloved expressions were
Gharib غريب and
Mutawahhid متوحد, two approved and popular expressions of Islamic Gnostics.
Ibn Bajjah was also a renowned poet. In his explanation of the Zajal E.G. Gomes writes: "There is some evidence for the belief that it was invented by the famous philosopher and musician known as Avempace. Its chief characteristic being that it's written entirely in the vernacular. ” (Emilio Gracia Gomes in his essay “Moorish Spain")
Though many of his works have not survived, his theories on
astronomy and
physics were preserved by
Maimonides and
Averroes respectively, which had a subsequent influence on later astronomers and physicists in the
Islamic civilization and
Renaissance Europe, including
Galileo Galilei.
Astronomy
In
Islamic astronomy,
Maimonides wrote the following on the planetary model proposed by Ibn Bajjah:
Physics
In
Islamic science and
physics, Ibn Bajjah's law of
motion was equivalent to the principle that uniform motion implies absence of action by a
force. This principle would later form the basis of modern
mechanics and have a subsequent influence on physicists such as
Galileo Galilei. Ibn Bajjah's definition of
velocity was also equivalent to Galileo's definition of velocity:
» Velocity = Motive Power - Material Resistance
where the motive power is measured by the
specific gravity of the mobile body and the material resistance is the resisting medium whose resistive power is measured by its specific gravity.
Ibn Bajjah was also the first to state that there's always a
reaction force for every force exerted, a precursor to
Gottfried Leibniz's idea of force which underlies
Newton's third law of motion or law of reciprocal actions.
Text 71
Text 71 of
Averroes' commentary on
Aristotle's
Physics contains a discussion on Ibn Bajjah's theory of motion, as well as the following quotation from the seventh book of Ibn Bajjah's lost work on physics:
Psychology
In
Islamic psychology, Ibn Bajjah "based his
psychological studies on physics." In his
essay,
Recognition of the Active Intelligence, he wrote that
active intelligence is the most important ability of
human beings, and he wrote many other essays on
sensations and
imaginations. He concluded that "
knowledge can't be acquired by
senses alone but by Active Intelligence, which is the governing
intelligence of nature." He begins his discussion of the
soul with the definition that "bodies are composed of matter and form and intelligence is the most important part of man—sound knowledge is obtained through intelligence, which alone enables one to attain prosperity and build character." He viewed the unity of the
rational soul as the principle of the individual identity, and that by its contact with the Active Intelligence, it "becomes one of those lights that gives glory to
God." His definition of
freedom is "that when one can think and act rationally". He also writes that "the aim of life should be to seek
spiritual knowledge and make contact with Active Intelligence and thus with the
Divine."
Further Information
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