bu Bakr Mohammed bin Yahya bin al-Sayegh commonly referred to as Ibn Bajja, or by his Latinized name Avempace, was born in 1095 in the Taifa of Saragossa, modern day Spain and died in Fez, Morocco. He was not only a great Arab-Muslim thinker, but also an active politician in Moroccan society who served as minister for the Almoravids. Avempace wrote extensively on astronomy, logic, philosophy, music, botany, medicine, psychology, and poetry.
His book titled Kitab al-Nafs (Book of The Soul) was a philosophical treatise focusing on psychology and the principles of logic and reason. Although this treatise establishes a parallel with Aristotle's work De Anima (On the soul), with which it is often compared, it is not an explicit comment by him.
Avempace also had an influence on Averroès (1126-1198 AD), an Andalusian philosopher famous for being the “commentator on Aristotle” during the Almoravid and Almohad eras.
Avempace, philosopher and poet, sang this short poem one night near the grave of one of his friends while the moon was rising in the sky:
Your friend has just been put in the grave
And you appear after his death
What are you not veiling
So that your eclipse will be a mourning habit for him.
Avempace's writings are available in some of the best libraries in the world, such as Oxford, El Escorial, Berlin, Cairo, Taskent, Istanbul, and Baghdad.
In 2009, in honor of his achievements, The International Astronomical Union founded in 1919, decided to name a lunar crater in his name.