Averroes as a Physician: Intellectual and Social Contexts of Medicine in Al-Andalus

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When talking about the importance of medicine in the courtly context of 12th century Andalusia, the person and works of Averroes (1126 - 1198) offer a valuable starting point for discussion. Not only are we well informed about this author and his writings, we are also able to situate his life in the broader social context of the Almohad court. Thus, the possibility is enabled of achieving new insights on medicine in Almohad contexts in which medical activity had a public impact of which, hitherto, we did not know much of in detail. This endeavour is particularly interesting because Averroes’ œuvre is inextricably linked to the intellectual and political framework as dictated by the Almohad rulers of the 12th century. The scholarly activity of Averroes can only be understood against the background of the Almohad’s concern to distance themselves from the academic discourses of the Islamic East by offering something new. For medicine, this primarily means a delimitation of the contents of al-Qānūn fī l-ṭibb, the famous medical encyclopedia of Avicenna. In Andalusia, on the other hand, something of its own was created as an "answer" of sorts to the Eastern Islamic texts. Therefore, based on the results developed in the first funding phase, for the further work of this project, the fundamental question arises as to the background and the program for the design of an "Andalusian medicine" by Averroes and his intellectual environment. The main focus hereby will lay on Averroes' Commentary on Avicenna’s medical poem (Urjūza) as well as on Averroes' Theriak treatise because it is in both of these texts that Averroes deals intensively with positions in medical literature as they arose in the eastern Islamic region. The reception of these two texts in Latin and Hebrew academic contexts will also be of interest here. In a second step, these intellectual discussions will be situated in the Almohad court environment. The literary-didactic form of the medical didactic poem, which was quite popular in Andalusia, will play a special role here, as well as questions about the importance of courtly learned meetings. The potential of such a study lies in the possibility not only to expand the knowledge about Averroes but also to put these findings in a broader intellectual and political context. This will allow answers to the question of how medicine was practiced in Andalusia in the 12th century as a science and put it in contrast to the scholarly activities of the Islamic East. It will also elucidate to what extent the Almohad rulers not only promoted these learned discourses but also instrumentalized them with regard to their political program.