Book, Averrois: the art of governing[LS]

Rosalie Helena de Souza Pereira, certainly one of the most prominent specialists in Arab-Islamic medieval philosophy in Brazil, brings to the public through the publisher Perspectiva, in Averroes: The Art of Governar, an extensive work dedicated to the analysis of the political thought of Averroes, author known by the epithet Commentator of Aristotle for his prolific comments on the Greek philosopher's work. Jurist, philosopher, theologian and doctor at the court of Islamic Spain, Averroes was the last representative of the philosophy produced in the golden period of Islam. In life, he was revered for his knowledge, but also persecuted and exiled. He left posterity with a gigantic work, which would have disappeared were it not for the Hebrew and Latin translations. In European universities, at the end of the Medieval period and in the Renaissance, his works were read, commented, admired and refuted. In The Art of Governar, the author analyzes Averroes' political philosophy based on the Commentary on the Republic, the only work by the Cordovan thinker consecrated to a Platonic text. To clarify Averroes' complex theses, Rosalie Pereira confidently explores the doctrines of Aristotle and Al-Farabi on which the Commentator was inspired. With notable erudition and solid argumentation, he penetrates with acuity into seminal themes for understanding Arab-Islamic thought, such as ethics, Islamic law and the essential qualities of the sovereign. A pioneering and instructive book, Averroes: The Art of Governing reveals the attempts to harmonize the ideas born from divine Revelation with the Greek philosophy inherited by Arab sages and confirms Averroes' famous thesis that the truth does not contradict the truth.