Preamble
It all began in 1086 when Yusuf ibn Tashfin was invited by the Muslim taifa princes of Al-Andalus in the Iberian Peninsula to defend their territories from the encroachment of Alfonso IV, King of León and Castile. In that year, Yusuf ibn Tashfin crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to Algecias, and defeated Castile at the Battle of az-Zallaqah (Battle of Sagrajas). He was prevented from following up his victory by trouble in Africa, which he chose to settle in person. He returned to Iberia in 1090, avowedly for the purpose of annexing the taifa principalities of Iberia. He was supported by most of the Iberian people, who were discontented with the heavy taxation imposed upon them by their spendthrift rulers. Their religious teachers, as well as others in the east, detested the taifa rulers for their religious indifference. The clerics issued a fatwa that Yusuf was of sound morals and had the religious right to dethrone the rulers, whom he saw as heterodox in their faith. By 1094, Yusuf had annexed most of the major taifas, with the exception of the one at Sargossa. The Almoravids were victorious at the Battle of Consuegra, during which the son of El Cid, Diego Rodríguez, perished. Alfonso, with some Leónese, retreated into the castle of Consuegra, which was besieged for eight days until the Almoravids withdrew to the south. After friendly correspondence with the caliph at Bagdad, whom he acknowledged as Amir al-Mu'minin ("Commander of the Faithful"), Yusuf ibn Tashfin in 1097 assumed the title of Amir al Muslimin ("Commander of the Muslims"). He died in 1106, when he was reputed to have reached the age of 100. The Almoravid power was at its height at Yusuf's death: the Moorish empire then included all of Northwest Africa as far eastward as Algiers, and all of Iberia south of the Tagus and as far eastward as the mouth of the Ebro, and including the Balearic Islands.
In 1108 Tamim Al Yusuf defeated the Kingdom of Castile at the Battle of Uclés. Yusuf did not reconquer much territory from the Christian kingdoms, except that of Valencia; but he did hinder the progress of the Christian Reconquista by uniting al-Andalus. In 1134 at the Battle of Fraga the Almoravids dynasty was victorious and even succeeded in slaying Alfonso I of Aragon in 1139. Three years afterwards, under Yusuf's son and successor, Ali ibn Yusuf, Sintra and Santarém were added, and he invaded Iberia again in 1119 and 1121, but the tide had turned, as the French had assisted the Aragonese to recover Zaragoza. In 1138, Ali ibn Yusuf was defeated by Alfonso VII of León, and in the Battle of Ourique (1139), by Alfonso I of Portugal, who thereby won his crown. Lisbon was conquered by the Portuguese in 1147. According to some scholars, Ali ibn Yusuf was a new generation of leadership that had forgotten the desert life for the comforts of the city. He was defeated by the combined action of his Christian foes in Iberia and the agitation of Almohads (the Muwahhids) in Morocco. After Ali ibn Yusuf's death in 1143, his son Tashfin ibn Ali lost ground rapidly before the Almohads. In 1146 he was nearly killed in a fall from a precipice while attempting to escape after a defeat near Oran where Ibn Rushd saved his life. This my friends is where our story really begins. The Almohads conquered Afica and Tashfin was forced to flee to Tarifa and to the last Almoravid holdings in Al Andalusia.
Ibn Rushd ("Averroes" to the West), the savior of Tashfin was born in Córdoba to a family with a long and well-respected tradition of legal and public service. His grandfather Abu Al-Walid Muhammad (d. 1126) was chief judge of Córdoba under the Almoravids. His father, Abu Al-Qasim Ahmad, held the same position in 1146 as the Almohads conquered Afica and Ibn Rushd saved he life of Tashfin near Oran. Ibn Rushd's education followed a traditional path, beginning with studies in Hadith, linguistics, jurisprudence and scholastic theology. Throughout his life he would write extensively on philosophy and religion, attributes of God, origin of the universe, metaphysics and pychology. It is generally believed that he was once tutored by Ibn Bajjah (Avempace). His medical education was directed under Abu Jafar ibn Harun of Trujillo in Seville. Ibn Rushd began his career with the help of Ibn Tufail ("Aben Tofail" to the West), the author of Havy ibn Yaqdhan and philosophic vizier of Almohad king Abu Yaqub Yusuf who was an amateur of philosophy and science. It was Ibn Tufail who introduced him to the court and to Ibn Zuhr ("Avenzoar" to the West), the great Muslim physician, who became Ibn Rushd's teacher and friend. Ibn Rushd's aptitude for medicine was noted by his contemporaries and can be seen in his major enduring work Kitab al-Kulyat fi al-Tibb (Generalities), influenced by the Kitab al-Taisir fi al-Mudawat wa al-Tadbir (Particularities) of Ibn Zuhr. Ibn Rushd later reported how it was also Ibn Tufail that inspired him to write his famous commentaries on Aristotle. Ibn Rushd also studied the works and philosophy of Ibn Bajjah ("Avempace" to the West), another famous Islamic philosopher who greatly influenced his own Averroist thought.
However, while the thought of his mentors Ibn Tufail and Ibn Bajjah were mystic to an extent, the thought of Ibn Rushd was purely rationalist. Together, the three men are considered the greatest Andalusian philosophers. Ibn Rushd became close friend to the Almoravid ruler Tashfin ibn Ali after he saved his life and devoted the next 30 years to his philosophical studies, writings and aiding the Almoravid Caliph in his rule. Together they met in the palace of Córdoba in 1145 when Calif Tashfin feared that his Almoravid Dynasty would be crushed by the Almohad Caliphate in the south and the Reconquista christian states of Portugal, Léon, Castile, Navarre and Aragon in the north. It was there where the Averroist philosophy and thoughts would start to become the doctrine of the Almoravid Dynasty and later create a cornerstone of a Almoravid own monotheistic view (called Almoravidi, Averroi or Rushdi) that would combine Muslim, Christian and Jewish elements.
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