ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A Compilation of Islamic Philosophy and Theology [edited] Chapter Nine: Al-Farabi Life and works What little information there is about the life of Abu Nasr al-Farabi comes mostly from medieval Arabic biographers whose writings date from the fourth/tenth to the seventh/ thirteenth centuries. The earliest account in Ibn al-Nadim’s (d.

380/990) Kitab al-fithrist gives only minimal information about al-Farabi’s life; later accounts add to these bare bones extensive lists of his writings, information about his teachers and pupils and a few anecdotes of dubious reliability. Al-Farabi was probably of Turkish origin, born around 257/870 in Farab in Turkestan. Although the details of his early education are murky, he is reported to have studied logic in Baghdad under the Christian scholars Yuhanna ibn Haylan (d.

910.and Abu Bishr Matta (d. 940), one of the translators of Aristotle’s works into Arabic. Since the School of Baghdad was the principal there in the Arabic world to the philosophical and medical tradition of Alexandria, al-Farabi’s connection with these teachers forged one of the earliest links between Greek philosophy and the Islamic world.Al-Farabi himself is listed as the teacher of Yahya ibn Adi (d. 974), another of the important Christian translators and a noted logician in his own right.

Al-Farabi is also reported to have taught logic to the grammarian Ibn al-Sarraj, who in turn instructed al-Farabi in the science of Arabic grammar (Ibn Abi Usaybi ‘ah (1965): 606; Zimmermann, Introduction to al-Farabi (1981a): cxviiicxxii).

Although there are numerous anecdotes told about al-Farabi’s subsequent life and death by the later biographers, their historical accuracy is suspect.Al-Frarabi appears to have left Baghdad for Syria in 330/942, travelling to Aleppo and Damascus, and perhaps also to Egypt, between 339/942 and 337/948. He then returned to Damascus, where he died in 339/950.

From the lists of writings provided by the medieval biographers, al-Farabi’s philosophical output appears to have been enormous, with over one hundred works being credited to him (Walzer (1965): 780). If these lists are accurate, only a small portion of al-Farabi’s writings has survived. Many of these have only recently become available in modern editions, so the interpretation of al-Farabi’s work is continually being revised.

By far the largest part of al-Farabi’s writings is dedicated to logic and the philosophy of language.

✦ ✦ ✦