author

Ibn Tufayl ابن طفيل

c. 1110–1185

Physician and vizier to the Almohad caliph Abu Ya'qub Yusuf, and Ibn Rushd's patron at court. His philosophical tale of a self-taught child alone on an island became, five centuries later, an unlikely best seller in Latin, Dutch and English. He died in Marrakesh in 1185 or 1186.