New single ‘Averroes’

I spent the summer reading about the history of philosophy and one name that kept coming up was Ibn Rushd (Averroes). His ideas and writings in 12th-century Córdoba, Spain shaped human thought in ways that still resonate today. He experienced arguably the most painful thing a writer could endure, all his books were burned in the city square before him. This was a time with no printing press, no cloud backups every word was painstakingly written and copied by hand. His ideas persevered and what survives today are not his Arabic originals but Latin and Hebrew translations which were studied by the likes of Thomas Aquinas and Maimonides. For the curious, Destiny by Youssef Chahine is a beautiful Egyptian film about his life.

I wrote this tune not to depict his life or recreate music from his time, it’s simply what I felt inspired to play as I delved into his life and work.