Rembrandt's depiction of Aristotle

Contact with Muslims in Spain and Sicily promoted a new acquaintance with the philosophy of Aristotle in Europe where intellectual life for centuries had been heavily dependent on platonism and neo-platonism. Averroes (1126-1198) was among the most widely read of the Muslim interpreters of Aristotle and was known throughout the middle ages as "the Commentator" by reason of his commentaries on Aristotelian texts. The university of Paris became the strongest center of the new Aristotelianism and some of its theologians became known as "Latin Averroists." The Averroists insisted on the independent use of reason. On occasion this brought some of them into conflict with more traditional theology. Some Averroists, for example, followed Aristotle in teaching the eternity of matter, a doctrine which excluded creation in time. Siger of Brabant (c. 1240-c. 1284) is a typical representative of Latin Averroism.