Al-Farabi
- Lived
- c. 872 - 950 CE
- Read next
- Meaning of the name Al-Farabi
Who was Al-Farabi? The Turkic philosopher of Baghdad who read Aristotle so faithfully that later Islamic philosophy called him the Second Teacher, second only to Aristotle himself. His treatise on the ideal city is the first work of political philosophy in Islam.
The Turkic philosopher of Baghdad who read Aristotle so faithfully that later Islamic philosophy called him the Second Teacher, second only to Aristotle himself. His treatise on the ideal city is the first work of political philosophy in Islam.
Life
Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Farabi was born in Farab in Turkestan around 872 CE. He came to Baghdad as a young man to study logic, and stayed for most of his life. He read the Metaphysics of Aristotle forty times, so it is said, before it became clear to him.
He was called al-Muallim al-Thani, the Second Teacher, because Muslim philosophers considered Aristotle the First Teacher and al-Farabi his greatest expositor and successor.
His major works include Kitab al-Musiqa al-Kabir (the Great Book of Music), which laid the foundations of Arabic music theory; Al-Madina al-Fadila (the Virtuous City), a political treatise on the ideal Muslim state modeled on Plato's Republic; Ihsa' al-Ulum (the Enumeration of the Sciences), which classified all knowledge; and dozens of works of logic and metaphysics.
The Virtuous City described a state ruled by a philosopher-prophet who understood the divine order and could translate it into political forms. This was the foundational text for later Muslim political philosophy.
He left Baghdad late in life for Damascus and Aleppo, where the Hamdanid Sayf al-Dawla welcomed him. He died in Damascus in 950 CE at nearly eighty. His tomb is in Damascus.
Stories
Each story is drawn from the classical Islamic sources.