What is "avempace"

Avempace ( – 1138) is the Latinate form of Ibn Bâjja , full name Abû Bakr Muḥammad Ibn Yaḥyà ibn aṣ-Ṣâ’igh at-Tûjîbî Ibn Bâjja al-Tujibi , a medieval Andalusian: his writings include works regarding astronomy, physics, and music, as well as philosophy, medicine, botany, and poetry.

He was the author of the Kitab al-Nabat ("The Book of Plants"), a popular work on botany, which defined the sex of plants. His philosophic ideas had a clear effect on Ibn Rushd(Averroes) and Albertus Magnus. Most of his writings and book were not completed (or well-organized) because of his early death. He had a vast knowledge of medicine, mathematics and astronomy. His main contribution to Islamic philosophy is his idea on soul phenomenology, which was never completed.

Avempace was, in his time, not only a prominent figure of philosophy, but also of music and poetry. His diwan (Arabic: collection of poetry) was rediscovered in 1951.

Though many of his works have not survived, his theories on astronomy and physics were preserved by Maimonides and Averroes respectively, which had a subsequent influence on later astronomers and physicists in the Islamic civilization and Renaissance Europe, including Galileo Galilei.