Al-Farabi, Medieval Islamic Philosopher

During the so-called golden age of Islam in tenth-century Baghdad, Muslim

intellectuals widely referred to Aristotle as the "First Teacher". The man they held
second only to Aristotle was a tenth-century Muslim thinker called Abu Nasr al-Farabi
(870-950 CE).[1] In the words of Muhsin Mahdi, a leading modern scholar of Islamic
studies,[2]

[Al-Farabi was] the great interpreter of the thought of Plato and Aristotle
... and the master to whom almost all major Muslim as well as a number of Jewish and
Christian philosophers turned for a fuller understanding of the controversial,
troublesome and intricate questions of philosophy ... He paid special attention to the
study of language and its relation to logic. In his numerous commentaries on
Aristotle's logical works he expounded for the first time in Arabic the entire range of
the scientific and non-scientific forms of argument and established the place of logic
as the indispensable prerequisite for philosophic inquiry.

On his works on logic, Maimonides (1135-1204 CE), the foremost intellectual figure
of medieval Judaism, had this to say,

You should always follow this rule: in studying logic, deal only with what was written
by the wise Abu Nasr al-Farabi, for all that he wrote, and particularly his work
Madabi al-Mawjudat [The Principles of Being], is a pure meal ...

Not very much is known of al-Farabi's private life. Born of Turkish descent in the
Farab (now Otrar) district of Turkestan – his father served in the Abbasid army of
which the Turks were an increasingly prominent part – al-Farabi grew up in
Damascus and later moved to Baghdad. Although a competent physician and
musician, he disdained a career derived from such learning and was intent neither on
financial gain nor public position or influence. Before settling down to teach in
Baghdad, he worked as a laborer in a garden and vineyard in Damascus, living on a
frugal diet and immersed in nocturnal study by the lamps of the night watchman in the
garden. Baghdad was, during most of al-Farabi's time there,

The city of Peace ... the scene of vibrant cultural renaissance ... With its vast number
of scholars, its bookstores, its meeting places for learned discussions, its diversified
population, the sophistication of its intellectual elite, the ambition and energy of its
rulers, this great urban center witnessed a splendor hardly equaled in the entire
Medieval world.[3]

One of the most revealing measures of the intellectual variety of the period ... was the
frequency in Baghdad of public debates between members of opposing schools of
thought. [For example, one] debate in 932 CE between ibn Yunis and al-Sarafi was on
the relative merits of the sciences of logic and grammar ... sponsored by the Caliph's
vizier ... the authorities were still willing to entertain a diversity of views at a time
when the proponents of orthodoxy had become increasingly articulate and powerful ...
the atmosphere ... was generally cosmopolitan.[4]

In Baghdad, al-Farabi learned philosophy, science, and languages from the leading
teachers of the day and despite his youth, soon outstripped them in fame.[5] One of
his early conclusions was that man could find truth by reason alone and live according
to it. He seems to have held human reason superior to revelation and the ultimate
highway to happiness. Here is one expression of his belief in the rational method,[2]

The attainment of certain truth is aimed at in every problem. Yet frequently we do not
attain certainty. Instead we may attain certainty about part of what we seek, and belief
and persuasion about the rest ... Or we may become perplexed, as when the arguments
for and against strike us as having equal force. The cause of this [confusion] is the
variety of methods we use in treating a problem ... So let it be clear to you that before
setting out to investigate problems we must realize that all these methods have to be
learned as an art ... This [logical] faculty enables us to discern whether what we infer
is certain knowledge or mere belief, whether it is the thing itself or its image and
similitude.

Al-Farabi's attempt to resuscitate and elevate ideas and texts written over a
millennium ago was in itself an act of boldness and supreme self-confidence,
especially since they were largely outside his own tradition. One can only imagine his
mounting excitement as he discovered and dissected them. He wrote an introduction
to the philosophy of Plato, the very first of its kind in Medieval times.[2]

The framework of his philosophy had a political science at its apex concerned with
happiness realized in this life, and how it could be achieved in cities and nations –
without recourse to revelation. He drew a close relation between happiness and
knowledge. ‘Happiness is an end … attained by virtuous actions, as knowledge results
from learning and study, ... ’[6] This is also the basis for the 'highest perfection of
man'.

The human things through which nations and citizens of cities attain earthly happiness
in this life and supreme happiness in the life beyond are of four kinds: theoretical
virtues, deliberative virtues, moral virtues, and practical arts. [Theoretical virtues are
innate in mankind, the rest] are acquired by meditation, investigation and inference,
instruction and study.[2]

Al-Farabi is regarded as the founder of political philosophy in Islam.[7] He embraced

Plato’s philosopher-king as the ideal: just as God rules the universe, so should the
philosopher, being the best of mankind, rule the state. He thus relates the political
travails of his time to the divorce of philosophy from governance. He decried wars
fought for conquest or gain, derided the superstition, mysticism and astrology of the
day, advocated an allegorical interpretation of scripture, and declared the pursuit of
scientific knowledge a prerequisite for the good life man must seek. For human beings
are not only free to choose their actions, they are fully responsible for them.

The two areas that appear to have occupied al-Farabi most are logic and political
philosophy ... [his] logical theories, in the last analysis, are informed by and reflect a
theory of human nature and human happiness. For al-Farabi, the end of human
existence includes, if it is not confined to, the effort to understand being in so far it is
knowable through reason ...

At the same time, the second conspicuous fact of al-Farabi's political theory is his
recognition of the challenge that revealed religion poses to the philosophic way of
life. Simply put, revealed religion claims to give a complete and authoritative account
of all things - human and divine, natural and metaphysical ... [it] exalts certainty over
investigation ... there are no basic truths left to discover, and wisdom becomes a
system of rules to be learned and taught. To meet the challenge ... al-Farabi resorts to
an ingenious applications of Aristotle's logical theories according to which religion
can be explained as an imitation of philosophy ... a direct presentation of truths for
which philosophy provides the proofs ...[4]

If the philosopher could live happily by reason alone what then of the non-
philosopher? Al-Farabi said that the latter could lead a good life only through symbols
expressed in prophetic faith: heaven, hell, the last judgment. Different religions
employ different symbols to drive home similar truth. Philosophy and the religion of
Islam express the same truths in different forms, which correspond to the different
levels at which human beings can comprehend it. The enlightened man can live by
philosophy alone; those who grasp the truth via symbols but reach a certain level of
understanding can be guided by theology;[8] the rest should live by the Shari'a and be
governed by a philosopher-king.

Curiously enough, al-Farabi maintained that Muhammad was the kind of ruler Plato
had envisaged and that his ideal state could therefore be created within Islam.
However, besides the qualities of Plato’s philosopher-king,[9] the ideal ruler must also
possess prophetic vision. Realizing the difficulty of finding all these qualities in a
single man, he relaxes the requirement of prophetic vision first, even proposes a small
council of men who collectively achieve the list, and then enumerates the qualities
that can be sacrificed next [10] until reaching a stage where, with further compromise,
'the city will undoubtedly perish'. He also classified the character of cities based on
their proximity to virtue and knowledge.

Islamic philosophers in al-Farabi's tradition – the faylasufs – while remaining devout

Muslims believed rationalism to be the most advanced form of religion, and which in
fact, led them to marginalize the role of God, akin to the Unmoved Mover of Aristotle
rather than the watchful and judgmental God of revelation. They also elaborated on
the major theological issues of the day: the nature of God (unity or plurality of
attributes), creation (ex-nihilo vs. emanation from the One), free will (is man
responsible for his actions?) and body and soul (material and spiritual attributes of
life). However, in case of a conflict between reason and revelation that simply could
not be resolved by creative interpretation, they acquiesced to the ultimate authority of
the Qur'an. The faylasufs found nothing problematical about the central role of
revelation in political authority, the revelation they themselves could live without;
they also tacitly accepted the Islamic injunction to jihad, [11] but the 'holy war' aspect
of which was no longer taken seriously in Abbasid times. As in the Christian West
until well after the Renaissance, reason and science were not seen as opposed to
revelation. They formed a subsidiary system, no doubt with an anxious co-existence at
times, within revelation's overarching framework.
In the last decade of his life when Abbasid power went into sharp decline and Shiite
orthodoxy was on the rise, al-Farabi returned to Syria where he died a bachelor at the
age of 80. The Hamdani Amir Saif al-Daula, patron of the arts in Aleppo, held him in
high esteem, by now a famous writer and scholar with books on logic, metaphysics,
ethics, political science, music, medicine and sociology. Al-Farabi, who shunned
attention in general, tried to rebuff his favors. Despite his asceticism and modesty, the
story goes that he often turned playful showman before his patron and 'exasperated
him with his outlandish attire and boorish manners'.[12] The circumstances of his
death are reported as follows:[11]

Al-Farabi was journeying from Damascus to Ascalon, and was met by a company of
thieves called ‘the Lads'. Al-Farabi said to them, ‘Take what I have of riding animals,
arms and clothing, and let me go’. But they refused and determined to kill him. Seeing
that there was no escape, al-Farabi dismounted and fought till he was slain, with his
friends. This greatly displeased the Hamdani rulers of Syria who pursued the thieves
and crucified them on tree-trunks close by his grave.

Al-Farabi lived more like a despairing, retiring philosopher than a flamboyant

intellectual. Scholars have speculated that he, having concluded that conscious,
enduring happiness is in principle outside the grasp of virtually all except a few, and
that revelation is irrelevant for happiness, wished to conceal this from the non-
philosophers. The idea that revelation is unnecessary, if adopted blindly, could lead
people to reject scripture with nothing to supplant it with. The fragile social structure
would fall apart. Mindful of the dangers inherent in the masses living without external
guidance, he continued to advocate scripture for them. What worried him perhaps was
the transformation of Abbasid society into one with large numbers of badly behaving
irreverent and rootless people, but this will have to remain our conjecture.

While philosophy in al-Farabi's tradition continued in elite circles it was increasingly

undertaken as a private activity – largely by peripatetic medicine men dependent on
the whims of their patrons. It was pursued with caution and often treated with
suspicion. The challenge to Islamic rationalism (and the rational minded Abbasid
theologians, the Mu'tazilah [8]) came from two disparate flanks: the Islamic mystics
(the older Ibn Sina/Avicenna, al-Ghazali, Ibn al-Arabi, al-Suhrawardi, Mulla Sadra)
and the orthodox faithful (traditionalist Sunni ulema, Ibn Hanbal, al-Ashari, Ibn
Hazm, Ibn Taymiyah, Abdul Wahhab). The next significant crop of rational
philosophers came from Moorish Spain (Ibn Bajjah, Ibn Tufayl, Ibn Rushd/Averroës).
The changing fortunes of these three viewpoints characterize much of medieval
Islamic thought.
___________________________

References:

[1] Quoted from Aristotelian Logic and the Arabic Language in al-Farabi by Shukri
B. Abed, SUNY Press, 1991.
[2] Al-Farabi's Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, translated and introduced by
Muhsin Mahdi, 1962. This book has three parts: the first spells out al-Farabi's own
philosophy and is titled, 'The Attainment of Happiness'. The second and third parts
deal with the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, respectively.
[3] In the words of Arabist Joel Kraemer.
[4] Politics and Excellence - The political philosophy of Al-Farabi by Miriam
Galston, Princeton University Press, 1990. pp 3-21.
[5] These include Nestorian Christian scholars like Abu Bishr Matta Ibn Yunis (870-
939 CE) and Yuhanna Ibn Haylan (860-920 CE), from whom he studied Arabic
grammar.
[6] Fusul Al-Madani (Aphorisms of the Statesman) by Al-Farabi, p 61. Translated,
annotated and introduced by D. M. Dunlop, 1961.
[7] Scholars disagree on al-Farabi's immediate purpose in turning to classical Greek
political philosophy but politics was a central part of Classical Greek thought and
certainly compatible with al-Farabi's concern with happiness realized in this life.
[8] In al-Farabi's time, the major school of theological Islam was the Mu'tazilah –
liberal in outlook and receptive to reason – centered in Abbasid Baghdad and
strongest during the progressive reign of caliphs al-Mansur, Haroon al-Rashid and al-
Mamun. Rejected by the orthodox Sunnis, it found moderate support