Ibn Tufail (c.1105–1185) full name; Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad ibn Tufail al-Qaisi al-Andalusi أبو بكر محمد بن عبد الملك بن محمد بن طفيل القيسي الأندلسي. Andalusian Arab Muslim philosopher, physician and court official.
Born in Guadix near Granada, he was educated by Ibn Bajjah (Avempace). He served as a secretary for the ruler of Granada, and later as vizier and physician for Abu Yaqub Yusuf , ruler of Islamic Spain under Almohads dynasty, to whom he recommended Averroës as his own successor when he retired in 1182. He died in Morocco.
In his time his reputation as a thinker & scholar had him praised as a Maecenas. Ibn Tufail was also the author of Hayy ibn Yaqthan حي بن يقظان (Alive, Son of Awaken) the philosophical romance, and allegorical tale of a man who lives alone on an island and who without contact with other human beings discovers the truth by reasonable thinking, and then his shock upon contact with human society for dogmatism, and other ills.
It is possible that Hayy ibn Yaqthan inspired the book Robinson Crusoe.
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