He was in Baghdad at least until the end of September 942 as we learn from notes in some manuscripts of his Mabādeʾ ārāʾ ahl al-madīna al-fāżela, he had started to compose the book in Baghdad at that time and then left and went to Syria. He admits the validity of miracles since they are the means of proving prophecy. Abu Nasr al-Farabi is widely regarded as the founder of philosophy within the Islamic world. This would suggest that the more philosophically simple a thing is, the more perfect it is. His theology is also more than just metaphysics as rhetoric. The soul is governed by one of these intelligences which is the agent intelligence.
It is only by this process that a human soul may survive death, and live on in the afterlife. In fact, Porphyry has devoted several treatises to the attempt of reconciling the philosophy of Plato with that of Aristotle; and a number of scholars of the school of Alexandria followed in his footsteps; but none of these scholars ever thought of combining all the philosophers in a single school. It is also the only part of the soul to survive the death of the body. And perhaps we see the Neoplatonic element most of all in the doctrine of emanation as it is deployed in al-Farabi's hierarchy of being. He travelled to Damascus, Egypt, Harran and Aleppo, and in the latter city the Hamdanid ruler Sayf al-Dawla became his patron.
From this emanates a second being which is the First Intellect. In Farabian metaphysics, then, the concept of Neoplatonic emanation replaces that of Qur'anic creation ex nihilo see. Logic is emphasized at the expense of the more traditional linguistic sciences, and metaphysics is made to appear more scientific than natural science. The biographers have not reported anything contradictory. He completed his earlier education at Farab and Bukhara but, later on, he went to Baghdad for higher studies, where he studied and worked for a long time viz.
Whether or not we should read Plato as Parens and other Straussians claim al-Fârâbî understood him is a hotly debated question. More recently Mauro Zonta 2006 published fragments of a long commentary on the Categories in Hebrew, Arabic, and English translation. During the course of his career, he had suffered great hardships and at one time was the caretaker of a garden. Logic Next to the study of language, al-Fârâbî considers logic. It creates the mental images which are not imitations of sensibles and are the source of dreams and visions. Yet the overwhelming Neoplatonic substratum of so much else of what he writes fully justifies Fakhry's characterization of al-Farabi, cited earlier, as 'the founder of Arab Neo-Platonism'.
That explains perception and abstraction, the important operations of the mind which bring the intelligibles from potentiality to actuality; and when these intelligibles are conveyed to the mind, the intellect in its turn is transformed from an intellect in potency to an intellect in action. In that Court al-Farabi lived, first and foremost, as a scholar and seeker after truth. A major analysis of an important aspect of Farabian philosophy. That marks the second period of his life, the period of old age and full maturity. The Book of Letters deals with questions of logic, language, and translation. The latter is again classified into material, habitual, and acquired.
Most of these writings, however, are still in manuscript; and a great many of these manuscripts are not yet available. This work illustrates neatly al-Farabi's beliefs both about what can be known and the sheer range of that knowledge. Matter is as old as the ten intelligences, but it is created because it has emanated from the agent intelligence. Farabi also participated in writing books on early Muslim sociology and a notable book on music titled Kitab al-Musiqa The Book of Music which is in reality a study of the theory of Persian music of his day, although in the West it has been introduced as a book on Arab music. González Palencia, Catálogo de las Ciencias, Arabic text with Latin and Spanish translation, Madrid: Imprenta y Editorial Maestre, 1953. It is closely connected with inclinations and sentiments, and is involved in rational operations and volitional movements.
In The Great Book of Music he certainly indicates that music derives some of its principles from mathematics but he also insists, as we said above, on the importance of performance for determining its empirical principles. Language In the Enumeration of the Sciences al-Fârâbî first focuses on language, grammar, metrics, etc. This doctrine is at the same time spiritualistic and idealistic, for al-Farabi reduces almost everything to spirit. In this city to the age of 20 there he has had an opportunity to get acquainted with philosophical and scientific works belonging to one of the richest libraries of the time it was considered second after legendary Alexandria library as far as the number of books and hand righting was concerned. Other works of music theory include Styles in Music. It is needless to point out that these views in spite of their simplicity are similar to the ideas of modern psychologists, such as Freud, Horney, and Murray.
This virtuous city is compared in its function to the limbs of a perfectly healthy body. Special attention must be given to al-Farabi's treatment of the soul's imaginative faculty, which is essential to his interpretation of prophethood and prophetic knowledge. In this way, the chain of emanations goes on so as to complete the ten intelligences, and nine spheres and their nine souls. The virtuous society al-ijtima' al-fadil is defined as that in which people cooperate to gain happiness. His rational explanation depends on two other theories; the first is concerned with prophecy and the second with the interpretation of the Qur'an. His huge Kitâb al-musiqâ al-kabîr or Great Book of Music is the most important medieval musical treatise in Islamic lands and also includes sophisticated philosophical sections.