Ibn Tufayl | |
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![]() Imaginary sketch representing Ibn Tufayl (1961) | |
Title | Ibn Tufayl Abubacer Aben Tofail Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail Avetophail |
Personal | |
Born | 1105 |
Died | 1185 (aged 79–80) |
Religion | Islam |
Era | Islamic Golden Age |
Region | Al-Andalus |
Creed | Avicennism |
Main interest(s) | Early Islamic philosophy, literature, kalam, Islamic medicine |
Notable idea(s) | Wrote the first philosophical novel, which was also the first novel to depict desert island, feral child and coming of age plots, and introduced the concepts of autodidacticism and tabula rasa |
Notable work(s) | Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (Philosophus Autodidactus) |
Occupation | Muslim scholar |
Muslim leader | |
Influenced by | |
Influenced |
Ibn Ṭufayl (full Arabic name: أبو بكر محمد بن عبد الملك بن محمد بن طفيل القيسي الأندلسي ʾAbū Bakr Muḥammad bin ʿAbd al-Malik bin Muḥammad bin Ṭufayl al-Qaysiyy al-ʾAndalusiyy; Latinized form: Abubacer Aben Tofail; Anglicized form: Abubekar or Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail; c. 1105 – 1185) was an Arab Andalusian Muslim polymath: a writer, Islamic philosopher, Islamic theologian, physician, astronomer, and vizier.[1]
As a philosopher and novelist, he is most famous for writing the first philosophical novel, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (The Living Son of the Vigilant), considered a major work of Arabic literature emerging from Al-Andalus.[2] As a physician, he was an early supporter of dissection and autopsy, which was expressed in his novel.[3]