«We know nothing better than our dedication [to science], which is superior to the rest of other kinds of trades, and that men recognize that science is the highest of human things, because the most Noble recognizes that true science is something superior and worthy, whatever its usefulness or profit or whatever we find that they said above about science. We will always hope to achieve [with it] something great, even if we do not know what it is that we achieve, except that we do not find a [proper] place for its greatness in the soul nor can we express what it is, due to its greatness, loftiness and splendid beauty. And this, to the point that some men are convinced that it becomes like a light that ascends to heaven."
This extraordinary praise of scientific and philosophical knowledge came from the pen of Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn al-Sa'ig ibn Bayyah , better known by the name of Avempace. Known is a saying, of course, because it is rare to have read it or even heard of it, despite the fact that it was one of the most illustrious philosophers of Al-Andalus , understanding by philosopher a complete sage in the manner of his time who touched on practically all subjects:medicine, astronomy, physics, botany... And not only science:also poetry and music, logic and theology; politics even. A tremendous cultural baggage that exerted a powerful influence in other later medieval figures such as Averroes and Maimonides from Cordoba or even the Christian scholastics.
And that the historical context that he had to live was not easy, in the Almoravid period. , when the Muslim territory of the Iberian Peninsula was already fragmented into taifas . Avempace was born in one of them, Zaragoza , in the year 1080, from a goldsmith family. At that time, the city was a kingdom far from the axis of Islamic power and, therefore, favorable to a flourishing of culture , allowing doctrines that in other places were proscribed as heretical and harboring a certain coexistence between Mohammedans, Christians and Franks.
A perfect setting for this character to develop a prolific career recovering the memory of the great classics, fundamentally Aristotle and Plato , but also other less popular ones such as Themistio, Alexander of Aphrodisias or Nicholas of Damascus, as well as an Andalusian predecessor such as Avicenna , as versatile as he was and who had previously translated the works of these authors. As can be deduced from the opening paragraph, a fragment of his Risalat al-wada (Farewell letter ), Avempace said that the ideal of Man is pure knowledge through contemplation, not for practical purposes but per se because that way you get closer to God. This type of thinking was called falasifa and it was truly revolutionary because it broke with the more widespread theological philosophy.
It recovered the Aristotelian human vision but he expanded it by formulating the idea of the Intellectual Man -mystical, suprarational and semi-divine-, which was above the scientific and, of course, the common, although due to the difficulty of reaching such a level he proposed a precedent of what was later the ascetic ; In this way, a superior community of perfect people would be achieved that referred, in part, to the Republic of Plato but going beyond the strictly civil and political scope enunciated by the Greek. It is not surprising that this particular fusion of Platonism and Aristotelianism , expressed in the works Tadbir al-mutawahid (Solitary Regime ) and Risala ittisal al-aql bi-l-insan (Treatise on the union of the intellect with Man ), had a considerable influence on Saint Thomas Aquinas a century later, even if it was to refute it in part.
In 1115 the Almoravids entered Zaragoza and the emir Ibn Tiflwit , who surrounded himself with poets and scholars, appointed him vizier. But Avempace only lasted two years in office because his strong character made him collide with his superior; for this, he was dismissed and imprisoned for a time. Later, Alfonso I of Aragon laid siege to the city and took it at the end of 1118, with which the philosopher went into exile and he was stumbling through various locations in the south and Levante. Both in Granada and Seville he had problems again, this time with some prestigious colleagues such as the doctor Avenzcar and the writer Abenjaoán, so he put land in between and ended up in Fez . Never better said about finishing because there he died between 1138 and 1140, gossips say that he poisoned.
Gone was an extraordinary cultural baggage embodied in some seventy works -lost for the most part-, in which he contributed important theses in multiple fields. Thus, in astronomy he rethought the representation of the planetary system known until then, in poetry he is considered the creator of the zéjel (a type of composition that combines colloquial verses and music, later inherited by Christians), in botany he focused his attention on pharmacology and herbalism (because of his other profession, medicine), etc.
For all these reasons, Avempace is considered the first philosopher of Al-Andalus itself (Avicenna became more famous as a doctor), as expressed by his followers Ibn Tufayl , the Jew Maimonides or the same Averroes , who was the one who systematized and ordered his theories.