al-Farabi

Agora

al-Farabi

c. 872–950

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

The best state is led by a ruler who is also a philosopher, and philosophy and religion express the same truth in different languages.

Placement

Philosophy in the Islamic World · Central Asia · Politics & Law, Logic, Metaphysics

Called the “Second Teacher” after Aristotle for his work in logic: he joined Aristotle’s logic and metaphysics with Plato’s politics in the image of a virtuous city ruled by a philosopher-prophet.

Key ideas

The virtuous city
Theory of the intellect

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Influence

Influenced by 4

Plato

influenced by ✓
Al-Farabi modelled his virtuous city, ruled by a philosopher who is also prophet and lawgiver, on Plato’s Republic and summarised the dialogues in The Philosophy of Plato. al-Farabi, Mabadi ara ahl al-madina al-fadila, ed. R. Walzer (1985); The Philosophy of Plato, tr. M. Mahdi (1962); SEP “al-Farabi”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata · InPhO
Plato › 428–348 BCE
Aristotle

influenced by ✓
Al-Farabi commented on Aristotle’s logical works, notably On Interpretation, and surveyed his whole corpus in The Philosophy of Aristotle; later tradition called him the ‘Second Teacher’. al-Farabi, Commentary on De interpretatione, tr. F. W. Zimmermann (1981); The Philosophy of Aristotle, tr. M. Mahdi, Alfarabi’s Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle (1962); SEP “al-Farabi”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata · InPhO
Aristotle › 384–322 BCE
Plotinus

influenced by ✓
Al-Farabi’s emanation of intellects from the First Cause draws on Plotinian Neoplatonism, known in Arabic through a paraphrase circulating as the Theology of Aristotle. P. Adamson, The Arabic Plotinus (2002); SEP “al-Farabi”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Plotinus › 204–270
Porphyry

influenced by
Al-Farabi wrote an Isagoge of his own on the model of Porphyry’s introduction, which opened the Arabic logical curriculum as it had the Greek. D. M. Dunlop, “Al-Farabi’s Eisagoge”, Islamic Quarterly 3 (1956); SEP “Porphyry”
Evidence: AI draft
Porphyry › c. 234–305

Influenced 5

Ibn Sina (Avicenna)

influenced ✓
In his autobiography Avicenna recalls that he understood Aristotle’s Metaphysics, read some forty times, only through al-Farabi’s treatise On the Aims of the Metaphysics. Ibn Sina, autobiography, tr. W. E. Gohlman, The Life of Ibn Sina (1974); D. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition (1988); SEP “Ibn Sina [Avicenna]”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata · InPhO
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) › 980–1037
Ibn Bajja (Avempace)

influenced ✓
Ibn Bajja annotated al-Farabi’s logical writings and, in The Governance of the Solitary, adapted al-Farabi’s virtuous city to the philosopher living in imperfect cities. Ibn Bajja, Tadbir al-mutawahhid; glosses on al-Farabi’s logic, ed. M. Fakhry (1994); SEP “Ibn Bajja [Avempace]”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Ibn Bajja (Avempace) › c. 1085–1138
Ibn Rushd (Averroes)

influenced ✓
Averroes took up al-Farabi’s view that demonstrative, dialectical and rhetorical arguments suit different audiences, arguing that philosophy and the revealed law agree (Decisive Treatise, c. 1179). Ibn Rushd, Fasl al-maqal (c. 1179), tr. C. E. Butterworth, The Book of the Decisive Treatise (2001); SEP “Ibn Rushd [Averroes]”; SEP “al-Farabi”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Ibn Rushd (Averroes) › 1126–1198
Maimonides

influenced ✓
In his letter to the translator Samuel ibn Tibbon (1199) Maimonides advised studying logic only in al-Farabi’s works and praised all his writings as flawless. Maimonides, letter to Samuel ibn Tibbon (1199), ed. I. Shailat, Iggerot ha-Rambam; S. Pines, “The Philosophic Sources of The Guide of the Perplexed” (1963); SEP “Maimonides”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Maimonides › 1138–1204
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi

influenced
The political part of al-Tusi’s Nasirean Ethics (1235) drew on al-Farabi’s virtuous city and his classification of virtuous and ignorant cities. Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Akhlaq-i Nasiri (1235), tr. G. M. Wickens, The Nasirean Ethics (1964)
Evidence: AI draft
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi › 1201–1274

Criticism

Criticized by 1

al-Ghazali

criticised by
Al-Ghazali named al-Farabi and Avicenna as the philosophers he meant to refute, condemning their eternal world, God’s knowing only universals and denial of bodily resurrection (Tahafut al-falasifa, 1095). al-Ghazālī, Tahāfut al-falāsifa (1095), introduction and conclusion; SEP “al-Ghazali”
Evidence: AI draft
al-Ghazali › 1058–1111

Works

c. 942The Virtuous City
The opinions of the inhabitants of the virtuous city – Plato's Republic within an Islamic horizon.

Position

Al-Farabi combined Aristotle’s logic and metaphysics with Plato’s political philosophy. The universe emanates from the One through a hierarchy of intellects, the lowest being the Active Intellect, which illuminates the human mind. True happiness lies in the perfection of the intellect, and it can only be attained in a well-ordered community. His “virtuous city” is ruled by a philosopher who is also a prophet-lawgiver, and he treats religion as an image of philosophical truth expressed in symbols for the many. His classification of the sciences and his logic made him the foundation on which Avicenna, Averroes and Maimonides built.

Life & context

Al-Farabi was born around 872 in Central Asia and studied logic in Baghdad with Christian teachers of the Aristotelian tradition. He lived a modest scholarly life, spent his last years at the court of the Hamdanid ruler Sayf al-Dawla in Aleppo, and died in Damascus in 950. Because of his mastery of logic he became known as the “Second Teacher” after Aristotle.