ABSTRACT
Born in the first decade of the sixth/twelfth century at Wādī Āsh (Cadiz), north-east of Granada, Ibn Ṭufayl (d. 581/1185–6) was trained in medicine, perhaps at Seville or Cordova (Cordoba), and studied philosophy, including the work of Ibn Bājjah, although he never met this founding figure of Andalusian philosophy. Practising as a physician, he moved in court circles and became secretary to the governor of Granada and then to the governor of Ceuta and Tangier, a son of ‘Abd al-Mu’min, the military lieutenant and successor of the charismatic Ibn Tūmart (c. 473/1080–524/1130), who founded the Almohad dynasty in Spain and North Africa. Ibn Ṭufayl served as court physician to the Almohad caliph Abū Ya‘qūb Yūsuf (ruled 558/1163–580/1184) and possibly as a qāḍī in his regime. He is even named in one source, improbably, as a vizier. The ruler genuinely enjoyed his company, spending hours, sometimes days, in conversation with him. For Abū Ya‘qūb loved learning and books and took pride in assembling at his court more scholars and thinkers than any previous monarch in the Muslim West. A contemporary source describes Ibn Ṭufayl lining up for his pay, “with all the regular employees – medics, engineers, secretaries, poets, archers, soldiers, etc.”, and joking with them about the eclectic interests of the crown: “If they’re in the market for musical theory, I can supply it.”
