A Brief Abu Bekr Avempace Bio

Avempace, i.e., Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Bajjat (Abu Bekr), called Ibn al-Saigh (the son of the goldsmith), Arabian philosopher and poet, b. at Saragossa, practised medicine at Seville 1118, which he quitted about 1120, and became vizier at the court of Fez, where he died about 1138. An admirer of Aristotle, he was one of the teachers of Averroes. Al-Fath Ibn Khâkân represents him as an infidel and Atheist, and says: [24]“Faith disappeared from his heart and left not a trace behind; his tongue forgot the Merciful, neither did [the holy] name cross his lips.” He is said to have suffered imprisonment for his heterodoxy.