Prominent Arab intellectuals of our century, Christian, Muslim, secularist and fundamentalist, consider the disregard for the rationalism of Averroes (Ibn Rud, 1126-1198), who once stirred Europe with his commentaries on Aristotle, to be a major reason for the decay of Islamic culture. They criticize both Islamic reform movements and mere westernization and try with Ibn Rud's help to spread critical, rational and realistic thinking, in order to place the Arabs on a cultural par with the West.
This volume analyzes for the first time the different philosophical and historical approaches and social aims of authors like Fara? An??n, Mu?ammad 'Amm?ra, Mu?ammad al-??bir?, ?asan ?anaf? and ?ayyib T?z?n? within the framework of the Arabic reception of Ibn Rud since the end of the 19th century.
This work was rewarded with the Ernst-Reuther-Preis for outstanding dissertations.