He was the most prominent Mālikī jurist of his time in al-Andalus (Spain) and the Maghrib (northwest Africa), but his fame today rests on being the grandfather of the philosopher of the same name, Ibn Rushd (Averroes), nicknamed al-Ḥafīd ("the grandson").
[1] The main sources of Ibn Rushd's life are his biographical entry in the catalogue of teachers, al-Ghunya, of his pupil, al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ.
From 1117 until his resignation in 1121, he held the highest judicial office in the Almoravid Emirate, that of qāḍī ʾl-jamāʿa in Córdoba.
[1] Ibn Rushd was primarily a systematizer of uṣūl al-fiqh (science of law), building on the basis of the generation of scholars who preceded him.
[4] The titles of seventeen works by Ibn Rushd are known, sixteen of them on Islamic law and one on the ʿaqīda (creed).