Machine summary:
This issue reports on a conference celebrating Ibn Rushd’s achievements and later this year AJISS will have a report on the seminar “that the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) is organizing in Amman, Jordan, honoring his work.
In this editorial I will try to clarify Ibn Rushd’s place in Islamic Intellectual history and underscore his con- tributions to the development of philosophical, theological, and scientif- ic thought in the Muslim and Western worlds.
Although Ibn Rushd has an important position in the Islamic intellec- tual legacy, his contributions have not received due recognition in the Muslim world.
We feel it is essential to understand his work free of historical and contemporary ideological biases and dis- tortions in order to fully comprehend the problems and concerns that motivated Muslim scholars and provided the framework for Islamic thought.
Ibn Rushd did not find the differences in various theoretical issues among Muslim scholars as problematic.
In the Muslim World, Ibn Rushd was not the first in his attempts to reconcile philosophy and religion.
These books include summaries, commentaries or discussions of some of the works of Plato, Aristotle, Eucledes, Nicolus, Forferius, Ibn Sina, Al-Ghazali, Al- Farabi, in addition to other important initiatives.
Ibn Rushd, known as Averroes in the West, is in many ways the shaper of modem Western theology, philosophy, and science.
Unfortunately, Muslim intellectuals did not benefit from Ibn Rushd’s contribution.
Repeated misrepresentation of Ibn Rushd’s ideas is an important reason why he has not received his deserved place in Islamic intellectu- al history.