"Paramount examples of an extensive Arabic-Muslim tradition of textual commentary and rich corollaries to the Medieval Greek and Latin rhetorical commentaries produced in Europe. Each translation is accompanied by insightful scholarly introductions and notes that contextualize - both historically and culturally - the immensely significant work while highlighting comparative, multidisciplinary approach to rhetorical scholarship that offers new perspectives on one of the field's foundational texts."--Cover page 4.

The first English-language translation of a crucial medieval Arabic commentary on Aristotle’s Rhetoric, with context on its contribution to intellectual history. Abū al-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd (d. 1198 AD), known as Averroes in the West, wrote one of the most significant medieval Arabic commentaries on Aristotle’s famous treatise, Rhetoric. Averroes worked within a tradition that included the Muslim philosophers Al-Farabi (d. 950) and Avicenna (d. 1037), who together built an early canon introducing Aristotle’s writings to the academies of medieval Europe. Here, for the first time, Lahcen El Yazghi Ezzaher translates Averroes’ Middle Commentary into English, with analysis highlighting its shaping of philosophical thought. Ibn Rushd was born into a prominent family living in Córdoba and Seville during the reign of the Almoḥad dynasty in the Maghreb and al-Andalus. At court, he received support to write a body of rhetorical commentaries extending the work of his Arabic-Muslim predecessors, a critical step in fostering Aristotle’s influence on European scholasticism and Western education. Ezzaher’s meticulous translation of Averroes’ Middle Commentary reflects the depth and breadth of this engagement, incorporating a discussion of the Arabic-Muslim commentary tradition and Averroes’ contribution to it. His research illuminates the complexity of Averroes’ position, articulating the challenges Muslim scholars faced in making non-Muslim texts available to their community. Through his work, we see how people at different historical moments have adapted intellectual concepts to preserve rhetoric’s vitality and relevance in new contexts. Averroes’ Middle Commentary exemplifies the close connections between ancient Greece and medieval Muslim scholarship and the ways Muslim scholars navigated an appreciation for Aristotelian philosophy alongside a commitment to their cultural and religious systems.

"This Arabic-English translation of The Middle Commentary of Ibn Rushd, known in the West as Averroes, on Aristotle's Rhetoric makes available to English-speaking scholars and students of rhetoric, for the first time, one of the most significant medieval Arabic commentaries on Aristotle's famous rhetorical treatise"--

Students of language, politics, religion, and philosophy have always turned to Aristotle, attributed with one of the greatest intellectual minds that ever lived, for answers and the dissection of seemingly natural phenomena. Aristotle and his contemporaries considered rhetorical skills-the ability to give speeches and make persuasive arguments-one of the most important a scholar could possess. In his famous essay Rhetoric, Aristotle outlines the three basic elements of the rhetorical arts: logos, pathos, and ethos; or logic, emotion, and ethics (truth). This pyramid makes up the tenets of rhetoric which are still taught today, along with Aristotle's examinations on how to interpret and compose effective speeches and presentations. Aristotle (384 Bi322 Be was a member of the triad of great Greek philosophers: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great, Aristotle is considered the authority originator of many philosophical ideas and teachings. Famous today for works such as Politics, Poetics, Rhetoric, and Metaphysics, his many writings cover a wide range of subjects, ranging from literature, art, music, and politics to physics, zoology, biology, and the scientific method.

Charles E. Butterworth provides a bilingual edition (Arabic and English) of several of this influential twelfth-century philosopher's greatest works.