As a philosopher and novelist, he is most famous for writing the first philosophical novel, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (The Living Son of the Vigilant), considered a major work of Arabic literature emerging from Al-Andalus.[2] As a physician, he was an early supporter of dissection and autopsy, which was expressed in his novel.[3]
Born in Guadix, near Granada, he was educated by Ibn Bajjah (Avempace).[4] His family were from the Arab Qays tribe.[5] He was a secretary for several leaders, including the rulers of Ceuta and Tangier, in 1154.[6] He also served as a secretary for the ruler of Granada, and later as vizier and physician for Abu Yaqub Yusuf, the Almohad caliph,[4] to whom he recommended Ibn Rushd (Averroës) as his own future successor in 1169.[7]Ibn Rushd later reports this event and describes how Ibn Tufayl then inspired him to write his famous Aristotelian commentaries:
Abu Bakr ibn Tufayl summoned me one day and told me that he had heard the Commander of the Faithful complaining about the disjointedness of Aristotle's mode of expression — or that of the translators — and the resultant obscurity of his intentions. He said that if someone took on these books who could summarize them and clarify their aims after first thoroughly understanding them himself, people would have an easier time comprehending them. "If you have the energy," Ibn Tufayl told me, "you do it. I'm confident you can because I know what a good mind and devoted character you have, and how dedicated you are to the art. You understand that only my great age, the cares of my office — and my commitment to another task that I think even more vital — keep me from doing it myself."[8]
Ibn Rushd became Ibn Tufayl's successor after he retired in 1182; Ibn Tufayl died several years later in Morocco in 1185. The astronomer Nur Ed-Din Al-Bitruji was also a disciple of Ibn Tufayl. Al-Bitruji was influenced by him to follow the Aristotelian system of astronomy, as he had originally followed the Ptolemaic system of astronomy.[9]
His work in astronomy was historically significant as he played a major role in overturning the Ptolemaic ideas on astronomy.[10] This event in history is called the "Andalusian Revolt", where he influenced many, including Al-Bitruji, to desert the Ptolemaic ideas.[10] He was influential in the development of Islamic astronomy. Many later astronomers and scholars built upon his ideas and used his work as a basis for their own research and discoveries.[11]
Ibn Tufayl served as the secretary of the Almohad governor of Granada, and later as the secretary of the Almohad governor of Ceuta and Tangiers (Abū Saʿīd ʿUthmān, one of 'Abd al-Mu'min's sons). Eventually, Ibn Tufayl moved to the service of Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf, who was a prince at the time and later became the second Almohad caliph.[13]
Ibn Tufayl was the author of Ḥayy bin Yaqẓān (Arabic: حي بن يقظان, lit. 'Alive, son of Awake'), also known as Philosophus Autodidactus in Latin, a philosophical romance and allegorical novel inspired by Avicennism and Sufism, and which tells the story of an autodidacticferal child, raised by a gazelle and living alone on a desert island, who, without contact with other human beings, discovers ultimate truth through a systematic process of reasonedinquiry. Hayy ultimately comes into contact with civilization and religion when he meets a castaway named Absal (Asāl in some translations). He determines that certain trappings of religion, namely imagery and dependence on material goods, are necessary for the multitude in order that they might have decent lives. However, imagery and material goods are distractions from the truth and ought to be abandoned by those whose reason recognizes that they are. The names of the characters in the novel, Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān, Salamān, and Absāl were borrowed from Ibn Sina's tales.[14] The title of the novel is also the same as Ibn Sina's novel. Ibn Tufayl did this on purpose to use the characters and the title as a small reference to Ibn Sina, as he wanted to touch upon his philosophy.[14]
Ibn Tufayl's Philosophus Autodidactus was written as a response to al-Ghazali's The Incoherence of the Philosophers. In the 13th century, Ibn al-Nafis later wrote the Al-Risalah al-Kamiliyyah fil Siera al-Nabawiyyah (known as Theologus Autodidactus in the West) as a response to Ibn Tufayl's Philosophus Autodidactus.
Raǧaz ṭawīl fī aṭ-Ṭibb (Arabic: رجز طويل في الطب, lit. 'Long Poem in Rajaz Metre on Medical Science'[9]): Is a long poem describing how to diagnose illnesses, and find their cures. The poem is written in the Arabic Rajaz metre. It was only found recently in the capital of Morocco, which is Rabat.[9][32]
English translations of Hayy bin Yaqzan (in chronological order)
The improvement of human reason, exhibited in the life of Hai ebn Yokdhan, written in Arabic above 500 years ago, by Abu Jaafar ebn Tophail, newly translated from the original Arabic, by Simon Ockley. With an appendix, in which the possibility of man's attaining of the true knowledge of God, and things necessary to salvation, without instruction, is briefly considered. London: Printed and sold by E. Powell, 1708.
Abu Bakr Ibn Tufail, The history of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, translated from the Arabic by Simon Ockley, revised, with an introduction by A.S. Fulton. London: Chapman and Hall, 1929. available online (omits the introductory section)
Ibn Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqzān: a philosophical tale, translated with introduction and notes by Lenn Evan Goodman. New York: Twayne, 1972.
The journey of the soul: the story of Hai bin Yaqzan, as told by Abu Bakr Muhammad bin Tufail, a new translation by Riad Kocache. London: Octagon, 1982.
Two Andalusian philosophers, translated from the Arabic with an introduction and notes by Jim Colville. London: Kegan Paul, 1999.
Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings, ed. Muhammad Ali Khalidi. Cambridge University Press, 2005. (omits the introductory section; omits the conclusion beginning with the protagonist's acquaintance with Absal; includes §§1-98 of 121 as numbered in the Ockley-Fulton version)
Ben-Zaken, Avner, "Taming the Mystic", in Reading Hayy Ibn-Yaqzan: A Cross-Cultural History of Autodidacticism (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011). ISBN978-0801897399.
^Carra de Vaux, B., "Ibn Ṭufayl", in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 16 April 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_3394
^Avner Ben-Zaken, "Taming the Mystic", in Reading Hayy Ibn-Yaqzan: A Cross-Cultural History of Autodidacticism (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011). ISBN978-0801897399.
^Avner Ben-Zaken, Reading Hayy Ibn-Yaqzan: A Cross-Cultural History of Autodidacticism (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011). ISBN978-0801897399.
^G. A. Russell (1994), The 'Arabick' Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England, p. 228, Brill Publishers, ISBN978-90-04-09888-6.
^Samar Attar, The Vital Roots of European Enlightenment: Ibn Tufayl's Influence on Modern Western Thought, Lexington Books, ISBN0-7391-1989-3.
^Nawal Muhammad Hassan (1980), Hayy bin Yaqzan and Robinson Crusoe: A study of an early Arabic impact on English literature, Al-Rashid House for Publication.
^Amber Haque (2004), "Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists", Journal of Religion and Health43 (4): 357–377 [369].
^G. A. Russell (1994), The 'Arabick' Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England, pp. 224–239, Brill Publishers, ISBN978-90-04-09888-6.
^Dominique Urvoy, "The Rationality of Everyday Life: The Andalusian Tradition? (Aropos of Hayy's First Experiences)", in Lawrence I. Conrad (1996), The World of Ibn Tufayl: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Ḥayy Ibn Yaqẓān, pp. 38–46, Brill Publishers, ISBN90-04-09300-1.
"If you want a comparison that will make you clearly grasp the difference between the perception, such as it is understood by that sect [the Sufis] and the perception as others understand it, imagine a person born blind, endowed however with a happy natural temperament, with a lively and firm intelligence, a sure memory, a straight sprite, who grew up from the time he was an infant in a city where he never stopped learning, by means of the senses he did dispose of, to know the inhabitants individually, the numerous species of beings, living as well as non-living, there, the streets and sidestreets, the houses, the steps, in such a manner as to be able to cross the city without a guide, and to recognize immediately those he met; the colors alone would not be known to him except by the names they bore, and by certain definitions that designated them. Suppose that he had arrived at this point and suddenly, his eyes were opened, he recovered his view, and he crosses the entire city, making a tour of it. He would find no object different from the idea he had made of it; he would encounter nothing he didn’t recognize, he would find the colors conformable to the descriptions of them that had been given to him; and in this there would only be two new important things for him, one the consequence of the other: a clarity, a greater brightness, and a great voluptuousness."
^G. A. Russell (1994), The 'Arabick' Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England, p. 227, Brill Publishers, ISBN978-90-04-09888-6.
^G. A. Russell (1994), The 'Arabick' Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England, p. 247, Brill Publishers, ISBN978-90-04-09888-6.
P. Brönnle, The Awakening of the Soul (London, 1905)
Samar Attar, The Vital Roots of European Enlightenment: Ibn Tufayl's Influence on Modern Western Thought (Lanham, 2010)
Ben-Zaken, Avner, "Taming the Mystic", in Reading Hayy Ibn-Yaqzan: A Cross-Cultural History of Autodidacticism (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011). ISBN978-0801897399.
Mahmud Baroud, The Shipwrecked Sailor in Arabic and Western Literature: Ibn Tufayl and His Influence on European (London, 2012)
