A novel written by a 12th-century Arab writer about a boy alone on an island influenced the Daniel Defoe classic ‘Robinson Crusoe.’
In early 12th-century Muslim Spain, a gifted philosopher, mathematician, poet, and medical doctor was born. Ibn Tufayl, or Abu Bakr ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Tufayl al-Qaysi, to give his full name,…
Besides [Ibn Tufayl's] contributions in medicine, he is best known for his treatise Ilayyu Ibn Yaqzan (‘The Alive’ son of ‘the Awake’)...