Avempace Biography | Poet

Avempace, more properly known as Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Bajjat (Abu Bekr), and often called Ibn al-Saigh, meaning “the son of the goldsmith,” was a celebrated Arabian philosopher, poet, physician, and scholar born in Saragossa. A brilliant intellectual deeply influenced by Aristotle, he emerged as one of the most important thinkers of medieval Islamic Spain and later became one of the teachers who shaped the philosophical outlook of Averroes.

Avempace practised medicine in Seville in 1118 before leaving the city around 1120. His talents eventually earned him the influential position of vizier at the court of Fez, where he spent his later years and died about 1138. Though admired for his intellect and scientific insight, he became a deeply controversial figure in religious circles. The writer Al-Fath Ibn Khâkân denounced him as an infidel and atheist, claiming that “faith disappeared from his heart and left not a trace behind.” His unorthodox philosophical views and independent spirit reportedly led to periods of imprisonment for heterodoxy. Today, Avempace remains remembered as a bold and questioning mind whose poetry and philosophy challenged conventional thought in the Islamic world.