Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Rushd of Cordoba, known as Ibn Rushd al-Hafid ("the grandson"), was a Maliki jurist and chief judge of Cordoba, a physician and a philosopher, whom the Franks call Averroes 1 2. The Encyclopaedia of Islam presents him as the "Commentator of Aristotle", famous in the medieval West as Averroes, a scholar of the religious sciences and the natural sciences, theologian and philosopher, born in Cordoba in 520 AH/1126 CE and dead in Marrakesh in 595 AH/1198 CE. 3 The editor of Bidayat al-Mujtahid distinguishes him from his grandfather Ibn Rushd al-Jadd (died 520 AH), author of al-Muqaddimat on the opening of Malik's Mudawwana 1. He was born in Cordoba in 520 AH (1126 CE) into a family known for learning and judgeship in al-Andalus 4 2. Al-Bakri's biographical note says he studied law, recited the Muwatta' to his father from memory, mastered medicine, and turned to kalam, philosophy and logic 5. He became judge of Cordoba after a period in Seville, and stood high with al-Mansur and was honoured in his state 6.
Al-Bakri says his works exceed sixty, among them Bidayat al-Mujtahid in law, Fasl al-Maqal, Tahafut al-Tahafut, in which he answered al-Ghazali, al-Kulliyyat in medicine, and epitomes and commentaries on Aristotle's books 7 8. Al-Bakri says Sultan Ya'qub al-Mansur put him to trial at the end of his life over an alleged leaning to the sciences of the ancients, and he was confined to his house until he died in Marrakesh in 595 AH 9. Al-Zirikli, for his part, says al-Mansur exiled him to Marrakesh and burned some of his books, then was reconciled with him and allowed him to return, and that he died in Marrakesh and his body was carried to Cordoba 2.
This narrative was written with AI help from the sources it cites, and has not yet been read by a human editor.