Email this article 
THE MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC COMMENTARY ON PLATO’S REPUBLIC: IBN RUSHD’S PERSPECTIVE ON THE POSITION AND POTENTIAL OF WOMEN
Full Text:
Abstract
This paper investigates the twelfth-century commentary on Plato’s Republic by the Andalusian Muslim philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes). Ibn Rushd is considered to be the only Muslim philosopher who commented on the Republic. Written around 375 BC, Plato’s Republic discusses the order and character of a just city-state and contains revolutionary ideas on the position and qualities of women, which remained contested also in Ibn Rushd’s time. This Muslim philosopher is primarily known as the most esteemed commentator of Aristotle. However, for the lack of an Arabic translation of Aristotle’s Politics, Ibn Rushd commented on the political theory of Aristotle’s teacher, i.e. Plato’s Republic, instead. In his commentary, Ibn Rushd juxtaposes examples from Plato’s context and those from contemporary Muslim societies. Notably, when he diverges from the text, he does not drift off toward more patriarchal, Aristotelian interpretations. On the contrary, he argues that women are capable of being rulers and philosophers, that their true competencies remain unknown as long as they are deprived of education, and that this situation is detrimental to the flourishing of the city. This article aims to critically analyse Ibn Rushd’s statements on the position of women, as well as their reception in scholarly literature.
Keywords
References
Abdel Haleem, M. A. S. (2010). The Qur’an: English Translation and Parallel Arabic text (Rev., New ed.). Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
Adamson, P. (2016). Arabic Translators Did Far More than just Preserve Greek Philosophy. Aeon, November 4. Accessed July 18, 2019. https://aeon.co/ideas/arabic-translators-did-far-more-than-just-preserve-greek-philosophy
Aristotle, & Reeve, C. D. C. (1998). Politics. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub.
ʿAṭīyah, A. A.-H. (1996). Mulāḥaẓa awwaliyya ḥawla waḍ‘iyyat al-mar’a ‘inda Ibn Rushd / Ibn Rushd on the Question of Women: Preliminary Remarks. Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, 16, 145-162.
Averroes, & Lerner, R. (1974). Averroes on Plato’s Republic. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Averroes, & Rosenthal, E. I. J. (1969). Averroes’ Commentary on Plato’s Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ayubi, Z. (2019). Gendered Morality: Classical Islamic Ethics of the Self, Femily, and Society. New York: Columbia University Press.
Badawi, A. (1978). Averroes face au texte qu’il commente. In J. Jolivet (Ed.), Multiple Averroès (pp. 59–89). Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Bauer, K. (2010). Debates on Women’s Status as Judges and Witnesses in Post-Formative Islamic Law. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 130(1), 1–21.
Belen, D., & Bolay, H. (2009). Averroës in the School of Athens: A Renaissance Man and His Contribution to Western Thought and Neuroscience. Neurosurgery, 64(2), 374–381.
Belo, C. (2009). Some Considerations on Averroes’ Views Regarding Women and Their Role in Society. Journal of Islamic Studies, 20(1), 1–20.
Benantar, A. (2013). (Re)traduction et restitution du texte d’Ibn Rushd dans sa langue d’origine : Commentaire de la République de Platon. Noesis, (21), 163–186.
Blair, E. D. (2017). Plato’s Dialectic on Woman: Equal, Therefore Inferior. London New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Brague, R. (1993). Note sur la traduction arabe de la Politique, derechef, qu´elle n´existe pas. In P. Aubenque and A. Tordesillas (Eds.), Aristote Politique. Etudes sur la politique d´Aristote (pp. 423–433). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Buchan, M. (1999). Women in Plato’s Political Theory. New York: Routledge.
Butterworth, C. E. (1976). Lerner, ed.: Averroes on Plato´s Republic (Book Review). Middle East Journal, 30(4), 575–576.
Butterworth, C. E. (1985). Ethics and Classical Islamic Philosophy: a Study of Averroes’ Commentary on Plato’s Republic. In Ethics in Islam (pp. 17–45). Malibu: Undena Publications.
Chahlane, A., & al-Jābirī, M. A. (1998). Aḍ-ḍarūrῑ fῑ s-siyāsa: mukhtaṣar kitāb as-siyāsa li-Aflaṭūn. Beyrouth: Centre for Arab Unity Studies.
Connell, S. M. (2016). Aristotle on Female Animals: a Study of the Generation of Animals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Coope, J. A. (2013). An Etiquette for Women: Women’s Experience of Islam in Muslim Spain. Essays in Medieval Studies, 29(1), 75–83.
Dales, R. C. (1984). The Origin of the Doctrine of the Double Truth. Viator, 15, 169–179.
Delgado, F. (2012). The Neurosciences in Averroes’ ‘Principles of Medicine’. Annals of Saudi Medicine; Riyadh, 32(3), 327–31.
Druart, T.-A. (2003). Philosophy in Islam. In A. S. McGrade (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Philosophy (pp. 97–120). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Drury, S. B. (1985). The Esoteric Philosophy of Leo Strauss. Political Theory, 13(3), 315–337.
Dutton, Y. (1994). The Introduction to Ibn Rushd’s ‘Bidāyat al-Mujtahid’. Islamic Law and Society, 1(2), 188–205.
Fortenbaugh, W. W. (2006). Aristotle on Slaves and Women. In W. W. Fortenbaugh (Ed.), Aristotle’s Practical Side (pp. 239–247). Leiden; Boston: Brill.
al-Ghazali, & Kamali, S. A. (1958). Al-Ghazali’s Tahafut Al-Falasifah. Lahore: The Pakistan Philosophical Congress.
al-Ghazali, & Marmura, M. E. (2009). The Incoherence of the Philosophers: Tahāfut al-falāsifa (2. ed). Provo: Brigham Young University Press.
Gutas, D. (1998). Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: the Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early ʻAbbāsid Society (2nd-4th/8th-10th Centuries). London; New York: Routledge.
Gutas, D. (2012). Platon: tradition Arabe. In Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques (Vol. Va, pp. 845–863). Turnhout: Brepols Publishers.
Harhash, N. (2015). Ibn Rushd’s (Averroes)’ Views on Women. Ibn Rushd, February 1. Accessed April 17, 2019. https://www.ibn-rushd.org/typo3/cms/magazine/16th-issue-winter-20142015/nadia-harbash/
Harhash, N. (2016). Debating Gender: A Study of Medieval and Contemporary Discussions in Islam. Al Ghazali, Averroes and Ibn Taymiyyah Views on Women with an Overview of Nawal Sa’adawi and Fatima Mernissi. MA thesis, Freie Universität Berlin.
Harris Bluestone, N. (1994). Why Women Cannot Rule: Sexism in Plato Scholarship. In N. Tuana (Ed.), Feminist Interpretations of Plato (pp. 109–130). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Horowitz, M. C. (1976). Aristotle and Woman. Journal of the History of Biology, 9(2), 183–213.
Hourani, G. F. (1976). On the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy. A Translation, with Introduction and Notes, of Ibn Rushd’s Kitab Fasl al-maqal, with Its Appendix (Damima) and an Extract from Kitab al-Kashf ‘an manahij al-adilla. London: Gibb Memorial Trust. Accessed November 3, 2021. http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ir/fasl.htm
Ibn Rushd, & Nyazee I.A.Kh (1994-1996). The Distinguished Jurist’s Primer, a Translation of Bidāyat Al-Mujtahid. Vol, II. Reading: Garnet Publishing.
al-Jābirī, M. A. (1995). al-Muthaqqafūn fi l-ḥaḍāra al-ʿarabiyya, miḥnat Ibn Ḥanbal wa-nakbat Ibn Rushd. Beyrouth: Centre for Arab Unity Studies.
Kukkonen, T. (2011). Ibn Rushd, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ḥafīd (Averroes). In H. Lagerlund (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy (pp. 494–501). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
Leaman, O. (1980). Ibn Rushd on Happiness and Philosophy. Studia Islamica, 52, 167–181.
Leaman, O. (1997). Averroes’ Commentary on Plato’s Republic, and the Missing Politics. In D. A. Agius & I. R. Netton (Eds.), Across the Mediterranean Frontiers: (Vol. 1, pp. 195–203). Turnhout: Brepols Publishers.
Leaman, O. (2002). An Introduction to Classical Islamic Philosophy (2nd ed). Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Leunissen, M. (2017). From Natural Character to Moral Virtue in Aristotle. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Mahdi, M. (1991). Philosophy and Political Thought: Reflections and Comparisons. Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 1(1), 9–29.
Mayhew, R. (2004). The Female in Aristotle’s Biology: Reason or Rationalization. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Melkebeek, T. (2016). Aristoteles over de vrouw. Tetradio, 25, 231–264.
Melkebeek, T. (2020). Aristoteles over de vrouw en het recht op woede. Ethiek & Maatschappij, 22(1–2), 19–32.
Parens, J. (2016). Leo Strauss and the Recovery of Medieval Political Philosophy. Rochester: University of Rochester Press.
Pines, S. (1975). Aristotle´s Politics in Arabic Philosophy. Israel Oriental Studies, 5, 150–161.
Plato, & Jowett, B. (2006). Timaeus. London: Echo Library.
Plato, & Reeve, C. D. C. (2004). Republic (3rd edition). Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Price, A. W. (1997). Love and Friendship in Plato and Aristotle. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Reisman, D. C. (2004). Plato’s Republic in Arabic. A Newly Discovered Passage. Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 14(2), 263–300.
Rosenthal, Erwin I. J. (1953). The Place of Politics in the Philosophy of Ibn Rushd. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 15(2), 246–278.
Rosenthal, Erwin Isak Jakob (1958). Political Thought in Medieval Islam: An Introductory Outline. Cambridge: CUP Archive.
Schirilla, N. (1996). Die Frau, das Andere der Vernunft? Frauenbilder in der arabisch-islamischen und europäischen Philosophie. Frankfurt am Main: IKO - Verl. für Interkulturelle Kommunikation.
Sheppard, D. J. (2009). Plato’s Republic. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Sidik, R., Sidek, M., Arshad, I. S., & Bakar, K. A. (2013). The Role and Contribution of Women in Andalusian Muslim Civilization. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 7(4), 323–327.
Sissa, G. (2002). Platon, Aristote et la différence des sexes. In G. Duby & M. Perrot (Eds.) Histoire des femmes en Occident, I. L´Antiquité (Vol. 1, pp. 83–130). Paris: Perrin.
Stauffer, D. J. (2008). Aristotle’s Account of the Subjection of Women. The Journal of Politics, 70(4), 929–941.
Tbakhi, A., & Amr, S. S. (2008). Ibn Rushd (Averroës): Prince of Science. Annals of Saudi Medicine, 28(2), 145–147.
Townsend, M. (2017). The Woman Question in Plato’s Republic. Lanham: Lexington Books.
al-Ubaidi, H., & al-Thahbi, F. (1998). Talkhῑṣ as-siyāsa li-Aflaṭūn: muḥāwarat al-jumhūriyya. Beyrouth: Dar al-Talia.
Urvoy, D. (1991). Ibn Rushd (Averroes). London; New York: Routledge.
Urvoy, D. (1998). Averroès: les ambitions d’un intellectuel musulman. Paris: Flammarion.
Van den Bergh, S. (2008). Averroes: Tahāfut al-Tahāfut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence). Havertown: Gibb Memorial Trust.
Vlastos, G. (1994). Was Plato a Feminist? In N. Tuana (Ed.), Feminist Interpretations of Plato (pp. 11–23). University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Walzer, R. (1951). Galeni Compendium Timaei Platonis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Accessed April 24, 2019. http://archive.org/details/GaleniCompendiumTimaeiPlatonis
Walzer, R. (1970). Greek into Arabic: Essays on Islamic Philosophy. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Ward, J. K. (Ed.). (1996). Feminism and Ancient Philosophy. New York: Routledge.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24848/islmlg.11.1.02