Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad ibn Tufail al-Qaisi al-Andalusi | |
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Title | Ibn Tufayl Abubacer Aben Tofail Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail |
Born | 1105 Guadix, Andalusia |
Died | 1185 (aged 79–80) Marrakesh |
Era | Islamic Golden Age |
Region | Al-Andalus |
Occupation | Muslim scholar |
Religion | Islam |
Jurisprudence | Sunni Islam |
Creed | Avicennism |
Main interest(s) | Early Islamic philosophy, literature, kalam, Islamic medicine |
Notable idea(s) | Wrote the first philosophical novel, which was also the first novel to depict desert island, feral child and coming of age plots, and introduced the concepts of autodidacticism and tabula rasa |
Notable work(s) |
Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (Philosophus Autodidactus) |
Influenced by
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Ibn Tufail (c. 1105 – 1185) (full Arabic name: أبو بكر محمد بن عبد الملك بن محمد بن طفيل القيسي الأندلسي Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad ibn Tufail al-Qaisi al-Andalusi; Latinized form: Abubacer Aben Tofail; Anglicized form: Abubekar or Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail) was a Moorish Andalusian Muslim polymath: a writer, novelist, Islamic philosopher, Islamic theologian, physician, astronomer, vizier, and court official.
As a philosopher and novelist, he is most famous for writing the first philosophical novel, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, also known as Philosophus Autodidactus in the Western world. As a physician, he was an early supporter of dissection and autopsy, which was expressed in his novel.
Born in Guadix, near Granada, and belonging to the Qays Arab tribe, he was educated by Ibn Bajjah (Avempace). He served as a secretary for the ruler of Granada, and later as vizier and physician for Abu Yaqub Yusuf, the Almohad caliph, to whom he recommended Ibn Rushd (Averroës) as his own future successor in 1169. Ibn Rushd later reports this event and describes how Ibn Tufayl then inspired him to write his famous Aristotelian commentaries: