Institute

About institute

The Averroes Cultural and Educational Institute was founded in April 2008 in Ljubljana, and gets its name from one of the greatest philosophers and all-round scientists of the Middle Ages. Averroes is the Europeanised name of an Andalusian Arab philosopher called Ibn Rushd, whose works greatly contributed to the new flowering of Europe or, put another way, he could be called a bridge between »East« and »West«, when, among other things, forgotten knowledge from ancient times was rediscovered in his work.

The Averroes Institute is involved and intends to continue to be involved mainly in cultural and educational projects, the aim of which is to bring the different cultures in Slovenia together, to familiarise the Slovene public with them and thus promote interculturality in Slovenia. The specific aim of the Averroes Institue also follows from this, which is to promote general education, academic education and life-long reading and learning, so one of the most important projects of the Institute is the establishment of a specialist library, which will be the first of its kind in Slovenia. The target of this library is 1001 books, each with a different title, and to achieve this in the shortest possible time. However, our work will not end with the number 1001, we intend constantly to enrich the library.

The fields of interest of the Averroes Institute cover themes from Balkan, Oriental and Islamic studies and everything connected with these fields. In short, the Alverroes Institute wishes to be a »bridge« to multiculturality for the wider Slovene public, not just through the narrow notion of tolerance but through genuine coexistence and understanding.