ABU BAKER (Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṭufayl). — Arab-Spanish physician, mathematician, and Islamic philosopher, born c. 1100, died in Morocco in 1185. He is best known for his *Risālat Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān*, in which he seeks to demonstrate that philosophy and religion are perfectly compatible, since the former, a product of rational discursive speculation, is reserved for superior minds, while the latter, consisting of imagery and parables, is suited to the common people. Mysticism is reserved for the elect and must not be fed to the masses; it is a source of ineffable delights, and man can only be shown the method by which it may be attained.
A. describes how Ḥayy, abandoned as a child on a deserted island, gradually arrives at philosophy—i.e., the Aristotelian system as expounded by Arab philosophers—entirely on his own. Ḥayy then turns to ascetic and mystical life. A certain Asāl, an Islamic religious man, teaches him the doctrines of Muslim belief, which Ḥayy finds to be in no way contradictory to the philosophical doctrines he has attained, though he does find them somewhat imaginative, parabolic, and practical in their norms of conduct. The two then travel to the island inhabited by Asāl and other Muslims, but the exposition of Ḥayy’s doctrines is not well received by the populace. He therefore returns to his island and devotes himself entirely to the mystical life. In this work, A. echoes ideas on the relationship between philosophy and religion that were also held by other Muslim Arab philosophers.