Similarly, the Kullī yat fī -l-.tibb (Generalities in Medi-
cine in Seven Books), or Colliget, imparted impulses
toward a reform of medical science to Renaissance
physicians, who appreciated Averroës’s detached and
apparently disinterested attitude vis-à-vis Galen without
seeing the rather reactionary Aristotelianism underly-
ing it. In a detailed analysis of the Colliget chapter
on respiration, Bürgel has discovered general tenden-
cies comparable to those also present in Averroës’s
astronomy: a preponderantly (albeit not exclusively)
speculative approach rooted in Aristotelian natural phi-
losophy, a preparedness to sacrifi ce scientifi c progress
to defend the teachings of the master, and, to a lesser
extent than in astronomy, resignation in the face of
technical diffi culties. In the Colliget, health is defi ned
in the traditional manner as an equilibrium of the four
humors; accordingly, the task of the physician consists
in preserving this harmony or in restoring it when it has
become disturbed through illness. The physician fi ghts
the cause of an illness with its opposite: an excess of
moisture with dryness, a superabundance of heat with
cold, amd so forth. In spite of interesting medical details,
the Colliget is intended as a compilation of received
medical wisdom rather than as an original work; but
it has certainly not yet received the scholarly attention
that it deserves.
The same could be said a fortiori of Averroës’s hand-
book of Islamic law, the Bid āyat al-mujtahid wa nih āyat
al-muqta.sid (Beginning for Him Who Works Toward an
Independent Judgment and End for Him who Contents
Himself with Received Opinion), a book that became
a standard work of reference in the Islamic world (un-
like Averroës’s philosophical writings, which remained
virtually unread by his fellow Muslims). The Bid ā ya
aims at furnishing the reader with an exposition of the
differences of opinion between the various juridico-
religious schools concerning the main points of the law.
The objective is to enable the user of the Bid āya to come
to an ijtihā d, an independent legal judgment based on
free choice among the orthodox traditions. The opinions
taken into consideration are almost exclusively Sunnite,
Averroës’s acquaintance with the Malikite tradition (in
which he was brought up) being most profound, but he
is careful to be scrupulously objective and impartial in
his presentation. Brunschvig has described the Bidāya as
the “most accomplished example of the methodical ap-
plication of the principles of Islamic law to the entirety
of Sunnite jurisprudence.” Together with Averroës’s
other writings, it testifi es to the versatility and greatness
of an encyclopedic mind.
See also Aquinas, Thomas
Further Reading
Aristotelis Opera cum Averrois Commentariis. 9 vols. and 3 suppl.
Venice, 1562; reprt, Frankfurt am Main, 1962.
Brunschvig, R. “Averroès juriste.” In Études d’Islamologie. Vol.- Paris, 1976. 167–200.
Bürgel, J. C. “Averroes ‘contra Galenum’: Das Kapitel von der
Atmung im Colliget des Averroes (...) eingeleitet, arabisch
herausgegeben und übersetzt,” Nachrichten der Akademie der
Wissenschaften in Göttingen (1967). Philologisch-historische
Klasse no. 9, 263–340.
Corpus Commentariorum Averrois in Aristotelem (in progress).
Series Arabica: 9 vols.; Series Hebraica: 3 vols.; Series Latina:
3 vols.; Series Anglica: 3 vols. Published since 1949, variously
in Cairo, Madrid, and Cambridge, Mass. More recently, sev-
eral important editions have appeared in other series.
Gauthier, L. Ibn Rochd (Averroès). Paris, 1948.
Rosemann, P. W. “Averroes: A Catalogue of Editions and Schol-
arly Writings from 1821 Onwards,” Bulletin de Philosophie
Médiévale 30 (1988), 153–221.
Urvoy, D. Ibn Rushd (Averroes). Trans. O. Stewart. London,
Philipp W. Rosemann
AVICENNA (980–1037)
The Persian philosopher, poet, and physician Ibn Sina
(Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Abdallah ibn Sina) is known in
the west as Avicenna. He was born in Bukhara and died
m Hamadan, Persia.
Avicenna was famous in Italy during the Middle
Ages as the author of the Canon of Medicine (al-Qanun
fi ’l tibb), a gigantic medical encyclopedia that remains
one of the most remarkable achievements of medieval
philosophical thought. The Canon was fi rst translated
from Arabic into Latin by Gerard of Cremona and his
pupils in Spain during the twelfth century, and thereafter
it formed the basis of the medical curriculum at every
university in the medieval west. Avicenna’s great work
is so comprehensive, well-constructed, and detailed that
today it is still the foundation for medical teaching in
some parts of the Middle East.
The life of Avicenna resembles that of many celebrat-
ed sages from the east. He was born into an educated
family and displayed remarkable precocity at an early
age, learning the Qur’an (Koran) from memory and then
studying texts of natural philosophy and medicine; by
the time he was sixteen, he was already a famous phy-
sician. He spent most of his life wandering throughout
Persia, often following a wealthy patron, and serving
as a physician, teacher, and government offi cial. In the
Islamic world, he is famous as a natural philosopher
whose melding and reconciliation of Aristotelian, Neo-
platonic, and Muslim thought was universally admired
in Arabic-and Persian-speaking cultures.AVERROËS