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

• 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

• Political Regime

  - 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… More

• Enumeration of the Sciences

  - Alfarabi: The Political Writings. Trans. Charles Butterworth. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001.
  Excerpt: “1. Political science investigates the sorts of voluntary actions and ways of life; the dispositions, moral habits, inclination, and states of character from which those actions and ways of ife come about; the goals for the sake of which they… 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

• Politics and Excellence: The Political Philosophy of Alfarabi

  - Galston, Miriam. Politics and Excellence: The Political Philosophy of Alfarabi. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.
  Overview: An attempt to make sense of Alfarabi’s various treatments of virtue, happiness, and political science. It also contains some interesting suggestions about the manner of his writing. Description: Widely recognized as one of the most original… More

• Al-Fārābī’s Statecraft: War and the Well-Ordered Regime

  - Butterworth, Charles. “Al-Fārābī’s Statecraft: War and the Well-Ordered Regime.” In Cross, Crescent, and Sword: The Justification and Limitation of War in Western and Islamic Tradition. Eds. James Turner Johnson and John Kelsay. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990. pp. 79-100.
  Overview: A helpful account of Alfarabi’s various discussions of war and jihād, none of which seems to resemble the other. It presents Alfarabi as highly suspicious of the notion of ‘just war. Description : This timely and scholarly book includes… 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