Alternate Name
BornFārāb (Turkmenistan), circa870
DiedDamascus (Syria), 950
Fārābī is mainly known as a philosopher, and his writings on the classification of the sciences, including astronomy and astrology, were influential both in the Islamic world and in Europe. Not much is known about Fārābī’s early years. He studied logic with the Nestorian Christian Yuḥannā ibn Ḥaylān (died: circa 932) in Marw and then in Baghdad. In Baghdad, Fārābī studied Arabic and was therefore able to participate in the philosophical salons of Baghdad and to make use of Arabic philosophical and scientific works. He then went to Constantinople with his teacher during the reign of the ҁAbbāsid caliph al-Muktafī (902–908) or early during the reign of Caliph al-Muqtadir (908–932). He returned to Baghdad between 910 and 920, spending two decades there writing and teaching philosophy and allied sciences. In 942, Fārābī left Baghdad, probably to escape its instability, going first to Damascus and then...
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Selected References
— (1979). “La second traité de Farabi sur la validité des affirmations basées sur la position des étoiles.”Bulletin de philosophie médiévale 21: 47–51.
Al- Fārābī, Abū Nasr (1948). Risāla fī fadīlat al- ҁulūm wa-’l-sināҁāt. Hyderabad: Dā’irat al-Maҁārif.
— (1949). Ihsā' al- ҁulūm, edited by ҁ Uthmān Amīn. Cairo.
— (1969). Sharh al-Majistī, translated into Russian by A. Kubesova and B. Rosenfeld. Alma Ata: Nakau.
— (1982). “Nukat fīmā yasihhu wa-mā lā yasihhu min ahkām al-nujūm.” In Alfārābī’s philosophische Abhandlungen aus Londoner, Leidener, und Berliner Handschriften, edited by Friedrich Dieterici, pp. 104–114. Osnabrück: Biblio Verlag.
— (1985). Al-Farabi On the Perfect State (Mabādi’ ārā’ ahl al-madīna al-fādila), edited and translated by Richard Walzer. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
— (1986). Kitāb ārā’ ahl al-madīna al-fādila, edited by Y. Karam, J. Chlala, and A. Jaussen. Beirut: Librairie Orientale.
Druart, Thérèse-Anne (1978). “Astronomie et astrologie selon Farabi.” Bulletin de philosophie médiévale 20: 43–47.
Sezgin, Fuat (1978). Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums. Vol. 6, Astronomie, pp. 195–196. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
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Dhanani, A. (2014). Fārābī: Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Tarkhān al-Fārābī. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_437
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