Al-Farabi

Al-Farabi
Era	Medieval era
Region	Islamic philosophy
School	Known as "Father of Islamic Neoplatonism" and gave rise to the Farabian school
Main interests	Metaphysics, Political philosophy, Epistemology, Science, Logic, Music, Medicine

Abū Nasr Muhammad ibn al-Farakh al-Fārābi (in Persian: محمد فارابی) or Abū Nasr al-Fārābi (in some sources, known as Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Tarkhan ibn Uzalagh al-Farabi), also known in the West as Alpharabius, Al-Farabi, Farabi, and Abunaser (Turkestan,870–Damascus,950 CE) was an Islamic philosopher and one of the greatest scientists and philosophers of his time.

Biography

There is no consensus or sufficient evidence to decide the matter of al-Farabi's ethnic origins. The existing variations in the basic facts about al-Farabi's origins and pedigree indicate that they were not recorded during his lifetime or soon thereafter by anyone with concrete information, but were based on hearsay or guesses. The earliest known documents were written some 300 years after al-Farabi's death.

The oldest known document regarding his heritage, written by the medieval Arabic historian Ibn Abi Osaybe'a, mentions that al-Farabi's father was of Persian descent. Ibn al-Nadim, among other historians, states Farabi's origins (in Flügel p.263) to lie in Faryab in Khorasan ("men al-Faryab men ardhµ Khorasan"). Faryab is also the name of a province in today's Afghanistan. Some historians, such as medieval Turkish historian Ibn Khallekān, claim that Farabi was born in the small village of Wasij near Farab (in what is today Otrar, Kazakhstan) of Turkic parents. The older Persian form Parab is given in the historical account Hodud al-'alam for his birthplace.

But what is known with certainty is that after finishing his early school years in Farab and Bukhara, Farabi arrived in Baghdad in 901 to pursue higher studies. He studied under a Christian cleric Yuhanna ibn Haylan in Harran who abandoned lay interests and engaged in his ecclesiastical duties, and he remained in Baghdad for more than 40 years and acquired mastery over several languages and fields of knowledge.

Contributions

Farabi made notable contributions to the fields of mathematics, philosophy, medicine and music. As a philosopher and Neo-Platonist, he wrote rich commentary on Aristotle's work. He is also credited for categorizing logic into two separate groups, the first being "idea" and the second being "proof." Farabi wrote books on sociology and a notable book on music titled Kitab al-Musiqa (The Book of Music). He played and invented a varied number of musical instruments and his pure Arabian tone system is still used in Arab music (Touma 1996, p.170). Perhaps, his most notable work is Al-Madina al-fadila where he theorized an ideal state as in Plato's Republic. Farabi is also famous for his demonstration of the existence of void in physics.

Farabi had great influence on science and knowledge for several centuries. Unfortunately the book Theology of Aristotle, which he relied upon, was eventually revealed to be the work of Plotinus, a neo-Platonic philosopher. Nevertheless, he was regarded as the Second Teacher in philosophy for centuries. His work, aimed at synthesis of philosophy and sufism, paved the way for Ibn Sina's work.

Farabi saw religion as a symbolic rendering of truth, and, like Plato, saw it as the duty of the philosopher to provide guidance to the state. Influenced by the writings of Aristotle, in The Ideas of the Citizens of the Virtuous City and other books, he advanced the view – potentially considered heretical for a Muslim – that reason is superior to revelation. He engaged in rationalistic questioning of the authority of the Qur'an and rejected predestination.

He had also mentioned Alexander the Great in his works.

Philosophy

He discussed the philosophy of Plato & Aristotle elaborately. He hypothesized an Ideal State in his work Al-Madina al-fadila. His ideas were not extreme, rather he often tried to unify many contradictory ideas. He accepted the supremacy of Creator, while admitting the absoluteness of creation.

Political philosophy

His idealized state-leader in Al-Madina al-fadila is an absolute ruler. His state-leader assumes absolute power of the state and all others are subservient to him. Citizens are also classified in terms of the power & right they enjoy. A citizen can ordain her lower class and take orders from the upper. This philosophy had an impact on centralizing then divided Feudal societies. He explicitly claimed that attaining ideal state is impossible, but the struggle should be encouraged.

See also

• Charles Butterworth
• Islamic scholars

Sources

• Habib Hassan Touma (1996). The Music of the Arabs, trans. Laurie Schwartz. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. ISBN 0-931340-88-8
• Majid Fakhry, Al-Farabi, Founder of Islamic Neoplatonism: His Life, Works, and Influence, Oxford: Oneworld Publications, (2002), ISBN 1-85168-302-X
• Christoph Marcinkowski, "A Biographical Note on Ibn Bajjah (Avempace) and an English Translation of his Annotations to Al-Farabi's Isagoge". Iqbal Review (Lahore, Pakistan), vol. 43, no 2 (April 2002), pp 83–99.

External links

• al-Farabi at Britannica
• Abu Al-Nasr Al-Farabi: The Second Teacher
• Hakim Abou Nasr Farabi at irib.ir
• Abu Nasr al-Farabi at muslimphilosophy.com
• al-Fārābi — brief introduction by Peter J. King
• The Philosophy of Alfarabi and Its Influence on Medieval Thought (1947)
• Al-Farabi Kazakh National University