Major Works

• Book of the Opinions of the Inhabitants of the Virtuous City

  - Recommended edition: Al Farabi. Alfarabi on the Perfect State. Trans. Walzer, Richard. New York, NY. Oxford University Press, 1985.
  From Book Review: “Farabi is Islam’s first and, pace Ibn Sina, perhaps greatest Islamic Neoplatonist. He is certainly more original than his successor who leaned heavily upon him. Farabi in The Virtuous City produced a work “written by a… More

• The Book of Letters

  - Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings. Ed. Muhammad Ali Khalidi. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
  Excerpt: “The capacities for dialectic, sophistry, and for the uncertain or dubious philosophy must precede the capacity for the certain philosophy, which is demonstrative philosophy, since one becomes aware of demonstrations after these others (i.e.… More

• Book of Religion

  - Alfarabi: The Political Writings. Trans. Charles Butterworth. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001.
  Excerpt: “1. Religion is opinions and actions, determined and restricted with stipulations and prescribed for a community by their first ruler, who seeks to obtain through their practicing it a specific purpose with respect to them or by means of them.… More

• Selected Aphorisms

  - Alfarabi: The Political Writings. Trans. Charles Butterworth. Contains Selected Aphorisms. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001.
  Introduction by Translator: “In the Selected Aphorisms, Al Farabi begins with, then develops, a comparison between the health of the soul and that of the body. That is, somewhat abruptly, he starts his exposition by defining the health of each and… More

• Political Regime

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  • Part one found in:   Classical Arabic Philosophy: An Anthology of Sources. Trans. Jon McGinnis and David C. Reisman. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co. Inc., 2007.
  • Part two found in:   Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook. 2nd. Edition. Eds. Joshua Parens and Joseph C. MacFarland. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2011.
  Excerpt: 1. The principles by which the six types of bodies and accidents subsist are divided into six major levels, each one comprising a single kind. The First Cause is in the first level. The secondary causes are in the second. The active intellect is in… More

• Enumeration of the Sciences

  - Alfarabi. The Political Writings. Translated by Charles Butterworth. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001.  
  From the publisher: This volume presents four of Alfarabi’s most important texts, making his political thought available to classicists, medievalists, and scholars of religion and Byzantine and Middle Eastern studies. In a clear prose translation by… More

Other Works

• Directing the Attention to the Way to Happiness

  - Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook. 2nd. Edition. Eds. Joshua Parens and Joseph C. MacFarland. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2011. pp. 13-53.
  Excerpt: “1. 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. 2.… More

Commentary

• Democracy in Islamic Political Philosophy

  - Najjar, Fauzi M. “Democracy in Islamic Political Philosophy.” Studia Islamica, No. 51 (1980), pp. 107-122.
  Overview: The earliest article devoted exclusively to democracy in medieval Islamic political philosophy takes a rather pessimistic view of the subject. This article should be compared with the work by Khalidi that was cited above. Excerpt: “It is… More

• Philosophy in the Renaissance of Islam by Joel Kraemer

  - Kraemer, Joel. Philosophy in the Renaissance of Islam. Leiden: E.J. Brill. 1986.
  Overview: This important work of intellectual history provides outstanding historical background to Alfarabi. Excerpt: “In Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam, I portrayed the cultural revival that took place in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Baghdad… More

• Alfarabi and the Foundation of Islamic Political Philosophy by Muhsin Mahdi

  - Mahdi, Muhsin. Alfarabi and the Foundation of Islamic Political Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
  Overview:  The final work of perhaps the most important scholar of Alfarabi in the past generation was unfortunately left incomplete. The essays it contains, many of which have also been published elsewhere, are nonetheless extremely illuminating. Excerpt:… More

• An Islamic Philosophy of Virtuous Religions by Joshua Parens

  - Parens, Joshua.  An Islamic Philosophy of Virtuous Religions: Introducing Alfarabi. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006.
  Overview: This cogent effort to situate al-Farabi’s thought within the broader context of the political conditions of the Islamic world contains good discussions of war, tyranny, religion, and world government. Excerpt: “Now more than at any time… More

• Philosophy and ‘Jihād.’ Al-Fārābī on Compulsion to Happiness

  - Sweeney, Michael. “Philosophy and ‘Jihād.’ Al-Fārābī on Compulsion to Happiness.” Review of Metaphysics. Vol. 60, No. 3 (March 2007), pp. 543-572.
  Overview: A spirited effort to understand Alfarabi’s views of jihād in a manner very different from both Butterworth and Kraemer. Excerpt: “Abu Nasr Muhammed Alfarabi (870-950 A.D), arguably the most important political philosopher of medieval Islam,… More

• Milla in al-Fārābī and the Brethren of Purity

  - Heck, Paul L. “Milla in al-Fārābī and the Brethren of Purity.” In In the Age of Alfarabi: Arabic Philosophy in the Fourth/Tenth Century. Ed. Peter Adamson. London: Warburg Institute, 2008.
  Overview:  An effort to explain Alfarabi’s somewhat unusual attitude toward religion, and compare it with another important philosophical text from the same era. Volume Description: The papers in this volume were given at a conference held at the Warburg… More