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 Uyghurish 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.
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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 among the Shi'a. The Mu'tazilah school survived another century after al-Farabi, when it finally got beaten down by Sunni orthodoxy. [9] The qualities of Plato's philosopher-king: Intelligence, good memory, keenness of mind, love of knowledge, moderation in matters of food, drink and sex, love of truthfulness, magnanimity, frugality, love of justice, firmness or courage. To this list, Al-Farabi added physical fitness and eloquence. [10] Mabadi Ara Ahl Al-Madina Al-Fadila by al-Farabi (available as 'Al-Farabi on the Perfect State'), Chapter 15: Perfect Associations and Perfect Ruler; Faulty Associations, sections 13, 14. Translated, annotated and introduced by Richard Walzer, 1985. [11] Islam distinguishes four ways by which the duty of jihad can be fulfilled: by the heart, the tongue, the hand, and the sword. The first consists in a spiritual purification of one's own heart by doing battle with the devil and overcoming his inducements to evil. The propagation of Islam through the tongue and hand is accomplished in large measure by supporting what is right and correcting what is wrong. The fourth way to fulfill one's duty is to wage war physically against unbelievers and enemies of the Islamic faith. Those who professed belief in divine revelation – Christians and Jews in particular – were given special consideration. Non-Muslims had the choice of either embracing Islam or at least submitting to Islamic rule and paying a poll and land tax. If both options were rejected, jihad was declared (if not always carried through). [12] A History of Islamic Philosophy by Majid Fakhry, Second Edition, Colombia University Press, 1983.
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