32 Facts About Avempace

1.

Avempace had a vast knowledge of medicine, mathematics, and astronomy.

FactSnippet No. 566,298
2.

Avempace was, in his time, not only a prominent figure of philosophy but of music and poetry.

FactSnippet No. 566,299
3.

Avempace wrote one of the first commentaries on Aristotle in the western world.

FactSnippet No. 566,300
4.

Avempace's works impacted contemporary medieval thought, and later influenced Galileo and his work.

FactSnippet No. 566,301
5.

Avempace was born in Zaragoza, in what is today Aragon, Spain, around 1085 and died in Fes, Morocco, in 1138.

FactSnippet No. 566,302
6.

Avempace enjoyed music and wine with the governor and composed panegyrics and muwashshahat to publicly praise Ibn Tifilwit, who rewarded him by nominating him as his vizier.

FactSnippet No. 566,303
7.

Avempace worked, for some twenty years, as the vizier of Yusuf Ibn Tashfin.

FactSnippet No. 566,304
8.

Ibn Bajja, known as Avempace, was an important Islamic philosopher, among his many other trades.

FactSnippet No. 566,305
9.

However, the most important idea from Avempace's system was not mentioned in the treatise, "how the union of the active intellect with man occurs, which is the ultimate goal being pursued by the solitary.

FactSnippet No. 566,306
10.

Avempace alluded to the idea that the perfect man does not just require physical health, but spiritual health too.

FactSnippet No. 566,307
11.

Avempace goes into more detail about the soul, which he describes of having both an acquired intellect, as well as an active intellect.

FactSnippet No. 566,308
12.

Avempace considers experience as the second essential part of medicine.

FactSnippet No. 566,309
13.

Avempace defines the body as an artificial collection of matter, which acts as an instrument for the soul to work through.

FactSnippet No. 566,310
14.

Avempace is said to have been influenced by Platonic and Aristotelian views on the subject.

FactSnippet No. 566,311
15.

Avempace, known as "Ibn al-Sa'igh" by Jewish tradition, is rarely recognized for his philosophical and astronomical works that influenced and were employed by many Medieval Jewish philosophers during and after his short life.

FactSnippet No. 566,312
16.

Maimonides admired Avempace for his achievements, stating that "[Ibn Bajja] was a great and wise philosopher, and all of his works are right and correct".

FactSnippet No. 566,313
17.

Specifically incorporating Avempace's philosophies regarding the existence of a single intellect after death, the union of man with the Active Intellect, the division of man into three classes of increasing consciousness, and the proposal of the prophet as an ideal solitary man.

FactSnippet No. 566,314
18.

Avempace rejects that feeling ultimate pleasure comes from witnessing the divine world internally.

FactSnippet No. 566,315
19.

Avempace attributed this to being a very busy man and having his hands in a variety of a fields.

FactSnippet No. 566,316
20.

Avempace watched the conjunction and “saw them having an elongate figure” although their figure is circular.

FactSnippet No. 566,317
21.

Avempace reported observing "two planets as black spots on the face of the Sun.

FactSnippet No. 566,318
22.

However, Avempace cannot have observed a Venus transit, as there were no Venus transits in his lifetime.

FactSnippet No. 566,319
23.

Avempace was given the privileged to add a commentary to Ibn al-Sayyid's work on geometry and Euclid's Elements.

FactSnippet No. 566,320
24.

Avempace starts with a good kinematic definition of motion and construes it as a force.

FactSnippet No. 566,321
25.

In relation to the example of the stone falling through the mediums air and water, Avempace brings up an example of dust particles to explain his ideas on natural movements.

FactSnippet No. 566,322
26.

From Text 71; Ernest A Moody, who is a notable philosopher, medievalist, and logician, offered four main reasons in favor of the view that Avempace was at least a major thinker within the paradigm of the "Theory of an 'impressed force.

FactSnippet No. 566,323
27.

Avempace, however, believes that a magnet is more complicated than one might think.

FactSnippet No. 566,324
28.

Avempace was a critic of Ptolemy and he worked on creating a new theory of velocity to replace the one theorized by Aristotle.

FactSnippet No. 566,325
29.

Avempace is known to have made contributions to the field of botany in addition to philosophy and the physical sciences.

FactSnippet No. 566,326
30.

Avempace's work, titled Kitab al-nabat is a commentary influenced by the work De Plantis.

FactSnippet No. 566,327
31.

Avempace writes about the reproductive nature of plants and their supposed genders based on his observations of palm and fig trees.

FactSnippet No. 566,328
32.

Avempace's book Kitab al-Tajribatayn 'ala Adwiyah Ibn Wafid is an attempt to classify plants from a pharmacological perspective.

FactSnippet No. 566,329