Avempace

Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Yaḥya ibn aṣ-Ṣā’igh at-Tūjībī ibn Bājja (Arabic: أبو بكر محمد بن يحيى بن الصائغ التجيبي بن باجة), known simply as Ibn Bajja (Arabic: ابن باجة) or his Latinized name Avempace (; c. 1085 – 1138), was an Arab polymath, whose writings include works regarding astronomy, physics, and music, as well as philosophy, medicine, botany, and poetry.

He was the author of the Kitāb an-Nabāt ("The Book of Plants"), a popular work on botany, which defined the sex of plants. His philosophical theories influenced the work of Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Albertus Magnus. Most of his writings and books were not completed (or well-organized) due to his early death. He had a vast knowledge of medicine, mathematics, and astronomy. His main contribution to Islamic philosophy was his idea on soul phenomenology, which was never completed.

Avempace was, in his time, not only a prominent figure of philosophy but also of music and poetry. His diwan (Arabic: collection of poetry) was rediscovered in 1951. Though many of his works have not survived, his theories in astronomy and physics were preserved by Moses Maimonides and Averroes respectively, and influenced later astronomers and physicists in the Islamic civilization and Renaissance Europe, including Galileo Galilei.

Avempace wrote one of the first (argued by some to be the first) commentaries on Aristotle in the Western world. While his work on projectile motion was never translated from Arabic to Latin, his views became well known around the Western world and to Western philosophers, astronomers, and scientists of many disciplines. His works impacted contemporary medieval thought, and later influenced Galileo and his work. Avempace's theories on projectile motion are found in the text known as "Text 71".

Avempace was of Arab descent. He was born in Zaragoza, in what is today Aragon, Spain, around 1085 and died in Fes then under the Almoravid dynasty, in 1138. Rulers of Zaragoza shifted constantly throughout Avempace's young life, but in 1114, a new Almoravid governor of Zaragoza was appointed: Abu Bakr 'Ali ibn Ibrahim as-Sahrawi, also known as Ibn Tifilwit. The close relationship between Avempace and Ibn Tifilwit is verified in writings by Ibn al-Khatib. Avempace enjoyed music and wine with the governor and also composed panegyrics and muwashshahat to publicly praise Ibn Tifilwit, who rewarded him by nominating him as his vizier. In a diplomatic mission to meet the overthrown Imad ad-Dawla Ibn Hud King in his castle, Avempace was placed in jail for some months for reasons unknown. Ibn Tifilwit was also killed during a quest against the Christians in 1116, ending his short reign and inspiring Avempace to compose mournful elegies in his honor. Avempace also had a talent for singing and composition in music. In the beginning of his career, he wrote the manuscript Risālah fī l-alḥān (Tract on melodies) and incorporated his commentary on al-Fārābī’s treatise based on music. He determined the correlations between different melodies and temperament. According to biographer al-Maqqarī, Avempace's passion for music was due to poetry and had “the virtue of dispelling the sadness and pain of the hearts [sic].” He included his scientific knowledge and wit in many poems. Avempace joined in poetic competitions with the poet al-Tutili.

After the fall of Zaragoza in 1118 by the hands of King Alfonso The Battler, Avempace looked for shelter under Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Yûsuf Ibn Tashfin, another brother of the Almoravid Sultan (Ali Ibn Yusuf Ibn Tashfin) in Xàtiba. He worked, for some twenty years, as the vizier of Yusuf Ibn Tashfin. Throughout these decades, it is clear that Avempace was not as agreeable with those close to the ruler, Ibn Tashfin, as he was during the previous reign of Ibn Tifilwit. Writings by Ahmad al-Maqqari gives us insight into the hostility and disagreements between Avempace and the father of a famous physician respected by Ibn Tashfin, Abd al-Malik. A poetry anthology, Qala’id al-iqya (Necklace of Rubies), was also created by a courtier of Ibn Tashufin's, Abu Nasr al-Fath Ibn Muhammad Ibn Khaqan, which condescendingly placed Avempace in last place. Under Ibn Tashfin, the Sultan of the Almoravid empire, Avempace was imprisoned twice. The details of the imprisonment are not well understood, but can be assumed. Despite being unwelcomed, Avempace remained with the Almoravid empire for the rest of his life until his death in 1138. There has been evidence presented that brings up the argument that the cause of Avempace's death was by poison from his peers. Al-Maqqari details in his writing that a physician, Abu l-'Ala' Ibn Zuhr, was an enemy of Avempace's whose servant, Ibn Ma‛yub, was suspected of poisoning him at the time but was never convicted. Among his many teachers was Abu Jafar ibn Harun of Trujillo, a physician in Seville, Al-Andalus.

Ibn Bajja, also known as Avempace, was an important Islamic philosopher, among his many other trades. In his time, he was seen as a controversial figure, receiving criticism from his peers like Ibn Tufayl. However, he was also respected by his peers and even his critics. While Ibn Tufayl was noted for criticizing Ibn Bajjah's work, he also described him as having one of the sharpest minds with one of the soundest reasoning as compared to the others following the first generation of speakers.

Around his time, Islamic philosophy, and the post-hellenic world, was mainly divided into two opposing branches of thoughts. The Eastern branch, which was led by Ibn Sina, known as Avicenna in Latin, and the Western branch, which was led by Ibn Bajjah. Avempace's work in philosophy is seen as uneven and mostly incomplete, but what parts of his work that survive to this day demonstrates originality in his thought process. His main philosophical work is the unfinished politico-ethical treatise Governance of the Solitary.

Upon his unplanned trip to Egypt, Avempace wrote Risālat al-wadāʿ (Letter of Bidding Farewell) and Risālat al-ittiṣāl al-ʿaql bi al-insān (Letter on the Union of the Intellect with Human Beings) that were dedicated to Ibn al-Imām. His famous works included Tadbīr al-mutawaḥḥid (Management of the Solitary), the Kitāb al-nafs (Book on the Soul), and the Risāla fī l-Ghāya al-insāniyya (Treatise on the Objective of Human Beings). The reflections of his famous accomplishments show how these were written near the end of his life. He was inspired based on Aristotelian line. In Avempace's philosophy, it contains two key pillars, solitude and conjunction. Solitude represents the isolation philosopher commonly seeks in order to protect himself from the corruption of society and conjunction refers to the philosopher's quest for the lowest celestial intelligence. It is required for the human soul's development.

These works are tough to understand. Nevertheless, Risālat al-ittiṣāl has interpreted the introduction. The treatise stated the overall point of Avempace's thinking:"The ultimate end of man, namely the contemplation of truth, with the active intellect joining the human intellect in a contemplative and almost mystic way."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."

From his writings, Ibn Bajjah has been shown to take a liking to Plato's contribution to philosophy. Ibn Bajjah, in particular, takes from Plato's idea of the necessary connection between man and city with a bit of a twist. Plato's idea was to model the perfect city after the human soul. On the other hand, Avempace wanted to use the perfect city as a model for the human soul. Avempace imagines the perfect city as a place that is free of any beliefs or opinions that are in opposition of the truth and where true science reigns supreme. Any man or idea that contradicts these true beliefs are defined as "weeds." Weeds are only to be found in imperfect cities.

In Islamic astronomy, Maimonides wrote the following on the planetary model proposed by Avempace:

"I have heard that Abu Bakr [Ibn Bajja] discovered a system in which no epicycles occur, but eccentric spheres are not excluded by him. I have not heard it from his pupils; and even if it be correct that he discovered such a system, he has not gained much by it, for eccentricity is likewise contrary to the principles laid down by Aristotle.... I have explained to you that these difficulties do not concern the astronomer, for he does not profess to tell us the existing properties of the spheres, but to suggest, whether correctly or not, a theory in which the motion of the stars and planets is uniform and circular, and in agreement with observation."

In his commentary on Aristotle's Meteorology, Avempace presented his own theory on the Milky Way galaxy. Aristotle believed the Milky Way to be caused by "the ignition of the fiery exhalation of some stars which were large, numerous and close together" and that the "ignition takes place in the upper part of the atmosphere, in the region of the world which is continuous with the heavenly motions." On the other hand, Aristotle's Arabic commentator Ibn al-Bitriq considered "the Milky Way to be a phenomenon exclusively of the heavenly spheres, not of the upper part of the atmosphere" and that the "light of those stars makes a visible patch because they are so close." Avempace's view differed from both, as he considered "the Milky Way to be a phenomenon both of the spheres above the moon and of the sublunar region." The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes his theory and observation on the Milky Way as follows:

"The Milky Way is the light of many stars which almost touch one another. Their light forms a “continuous image” (khayâl muttasil) on the surface of the body which is like a “tent” (takhawwum) under the fierily element and over the air which it covers. Avempace defines the continuous image as the result of refraction (in‛ikâs) and supports its explanation with an observation of a conjunction of two planets, Jupiter and Mars which took place in 500/1106-7. He watched the conjunction and “saw them having an elongate figure” although their figure is circular."

Avempace also reported observing "two planets as black spots on the face of the Sun." In the 13th century, the Maragha astronomer Qotb al-Din Shirazi identified this observation as the transit of Venus and Mercury. However, Avempace cannot have observed a Venus transit, as there were no Venus transits in his lifetime.

Averroes was another important philosopher, and while he was born shortly before Avempace's death, Averroes later in life would be in opposition to Avempace's theories the majority of the time. Avempace starts with a good kinematic definition of motion and construes it as a force. According to Avempace regarding freely falling objects, what is moved as the heavy body falls, is the heavy body and what moves it downward is its 'gravity' or its 'form' or 'nature'.

Text 71 of Averroes' commentary on Aristotle's Physics contains a discussion on Avempace's theory of motion, as well as the following quotation from the seventh book of Avempace's lost work on physics:

"And this resistance which is between the plenum and the body which is moved in it, is that between which, and the potency of the void, Aristotle made the proportion in his fourth book; and what is believed to be his opinion, is not so. For the proportion of water to air in density is not as the proportion of the motion of the stone in water to its motion in air; but the proportion of the cohesive power of water to that of air is as the proportion of the retardation occurring to the moved body by reason of the medium in which it is moved, namely water, to the retardation occurring to it when it is moved in air."

"For, if what some people have believed were true, then the natural motion would be violent; therefore, if there were no resistance present, how could there be any motion? For it would necessarily be instantaneous. What then shall be said concerning the circular motion? There is no resistance there, because there is no cleavage of a medium involved; the place of the circle is always the same, so that it does not leave one place and enter another; it is therefore necessary that the circular motion should be instantaneous. Yet we observe in it the greatest slowness, as in the case of the fixed stars, and also the greatest speed, as in the case of the diurnal rotation. And this is caused only by the difference in perfection between the mover and the moved. When therefore the mover is of greater perfection, that which is moved by it will be more rapid; and when the mover is of lesser perfection, it will be nearer (in perfection) to that which is moved, and the motion will be slower."

Averroes writes the following comments on Avempace's theory of motion:

Avempace is known to have made contributions to the field of botany in addition to philosophy and the physical sciences. His work, titled Kitab al-nabat (The Book of Plants) is a commentary influenced by the work De Plantis. In this commentary, Avempace discusses the morphology of various plants and attempts to classify them based on their similarities. He also writes about the reproductive nature of plants and their supposed genders based on his observations of palm and fig trees. Kitab al-nabat was written in Arabic and has most recently been translated into Spanish.

Avempace's book Kitāb al-Tajribatayn ‘alā Adwiyah Ibn Wāfid (Book of Experiences on Drugs of Ibn Wafid) is an attempt to classify plants from a pharmacological perspective. It is based on the work of Ibn al-Wafid, a physician and Avempace's predecessor, and is said to have influenced the later work of Ibn al-Baitar, a prominent Arab pharmacologist and botanist.

Avempace's work in botany is evident in his political works.

Recently, the web page Webislam, created by Spanish converts to Islam, reported that the score of the Nuba al-Istihlál of Avempace (11th century), arranged by Omar Metiou and Eduardo Paniagua, is very similar to Marcha Granadera (18th century), which is now the official anthem of Spain. That makes it the world's oldest song (about a thousand years old) used for the official anthem of a country.

In 2009, a crater 199k km (62 mi) from the South Pole of the Moon was designated The Ibn Bajja crater by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in his honor.