Al-Farabi and His School

Ian Richard Netton

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2005
• eBook ISBN:
  9781134959808
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Ethics & Moral Philosophy

Examines one of the most exciting and dynamic periods in the development of medieval Islam, from the late 9th to the early 11th century, through the thought of five of its principal thinkers, prime among them al-Farabi. This great Islamic philosopher, called 'the Second Master' after Aristotle, produced a recognizable school of thought in which others pursued and developed some of his own intellectual preoccupations. Their thought is treated with particular reference to the most basic questions which can be asked in the theory of knowledge or epistemology. The book thus fills a lacuna in the literature by using this approach to highlight the intellectual continuity which was maintained in an age of flux. Particular attention is paid to the ethical dimensions of knowledge.

1

THE AGE OF FĀRĀBISM

The Second Master and His Students

The Age of al-Fārāb

– the ‘Second Master’ after Aristotle¹ – and of those who followed and developed his teachings was one of the richest intellectually in the entire development of medieval Islamic thought. The age will be characterized here in this book as the Age of Fārābism: it will be defined as running from the birth of al-Fārāb

in AD 870 to the death of Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥ

d

in about AD 1023. The very useful term ‘Fārābism’ itself, borrowed from and modelled on the usage of Ibrahim Madkour,² is designed to signal a philosophical current, worthy of respect in its own right, which is not to be considered as a mere facsimile of ancient Greek thought. The historical parameters AD 870–1023 provide a neat, if artificial, framework and structure within which to examine the phenomenon of Fārābism, enclosing as they do four other major thinkers, apart from al-Fārāb

himself, who in one way or another interacted with, or were profoundly influenced by, the thought of the Second Master. These thinkers were: (1) Yaḥyā b. ‘Ad

(AD 893/4–974); (2) Abū Sulaymān al-Sijistān

(d. c. AD 987/8); (3) Abū ’l-Ḥasan al-‘Amin (d. AD 992); and (4) Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥ

d

(d. c. AD 1023). It is the analysis of the thought and ideas of these four, together with those of al-Fārāb

(AD 870–950) – an intellectual current designated globally in this book as ‘Fārābism’ – which constitutes the matter of what is presented here. Particular attention will be paid throughout to the epistemologies espoused by the above-named thinkers.

This is perhaps a suitable point to note, however, that the thought of Ibn S

nā (AD 979–1037), the most distinguished philosopher of all both in the east and the west to be influenced by al-Fārāb

,³ is not treated within the compass of this book. He has been treated in many places at considerable length elsewhere.⁴ Furthermore, the four thinkers discussed here as members of what is being described as the ‘School of Fārāb

’, or adherents of Fārābism, are a representative selection only: it is not my contention that these four were the only followers of al-Fārāb

.

The Age of Fārābism was one which encompassed major developments on both the political and religious fronts: it was certainly an age of deep instability and change. The few brief examples that follow must serve to illustrate this primary and elemental fact. It is only stressed here because it was the disruptive backdrop against which the thinkers discussed in this work lived, taught, wrote, thought and died: the fabric of their thought – not to mention their lives – could not help but be scarred, or even invaded, by these twin motifs of instability and change.

At the beginning of the tenth century AD the movement of the Qarāmiṭa, proponents of a complex theology akin to Ismā‘

lism, gained momentum: in AD 930 Mecca was attacked, many pilgrims were killed and the Black Stone set in the Ka‘ba was carried off. The Qarāmiṭa later returned it in AD 951. Though their action was probably directed more at the commercial ramifications of the pilgrimage to Mecca than the pilgrimage itself,⁵ the attack was devastating in its symbolism, striking as it did at a literal cornerstone of Islamic ritual. It may be said to constitute a valid and startling paradigm for the instability and change which beset the entire Age of Fārābism.

Other ‘signs of the times’ in that age are not difficult to discover: earlier the Būyids, who were influenced by, and tolerant towards, Twelver Sh

‘ism, Zaydism and Mu‘tazilism, had assumed effective control in Baghdad in AD 945. During the tenth century AD the star of the Sh

‘ite Ḥamdānids rose and waned in Mosul and Aleppo. By contrast, that of the Ismā‘

l

Fāṭimid...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• Preface and acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• 1 The Age of Fārābism
• 2 The Epistemological Substrate of Fārābism (i): The Paradigm of the Second Master
• 3 The Epistemological Substrate of Fārābism (ii): In the Steps of their Master
• 4 Conclusion
• 5 Bibliographical Guide
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index