Editing Al-Farabi (section)

== Biography ==
The existing variations in the basic accounts of al-Farabi's origins and pedigree indicate that they were not recorded during his lifetime or soon thereafter by anyone with concrete information, but were based on hearsay or guesses (as is the case with other contemporaries of al-Farabi). Little is known about his life. Early sources include an autobiographical passage where al-Farabi traces the history of logic and philosophy up to his time, and brief mentions by [[al-Masudi]], [[Ibn al-Nadim]] and [[Ibn Hawqal]]. [[Said al-Andalusi]] wrote a biography of al-Farabi. [[Arabic]] biographers of the 12th–13th centuries thus had few facts to hand, and used invented stories about his life.<ref name=Iranica>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Dimitri |last=Gutas |title=Farabi i. Biography|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |access-date= April 4, 2010 |url= http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/farabi-i }}</ref>

From incidental accounts it is known that he spent significant time (most of his scholarly life) in [[Baghdad]] with Syriac Christian scholars,{{efn-ua|name=Christian}} including the [[Clergy|cleric]] Yuhanna ibn Haylan, [[Yahya ibn Adi]], and Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al-Baghdadi. He later spent time in [[Damascus]] and in Egypt before returning to Damascus where he died in 950–951.{{sfn|Reisman|2005|pp=52–53}}

His name was Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Farabi,<ref name="Iranica"/> sometimes with the family surname al-Tarkhani, i.e., the element [[Tarkhan]] appears in a [[nisbat (onomastics)|nisba]].<ref name="Iranica" /> His grandfather was not known among his contemporaries, but a name Awzalagh,{{efn-ua|name=Awzalagh}} in Arabic, suddenly appears later in the writings of [[Ibn Abi Usaybi'a]], and of his great-grandfather in those of [[Ibn Khallikan]].<ref name="Iranica" />

His birthplace could have been any one of the many places in [[Central Asia]]—then known by the name of [[Khurasan]]. The word {{tlit|fa|farab}} is a Persian term for a locale that is irrigated by effluent springs or flows from a nearby river. Thus, there are many places that carry the name (or various evolutions of that toponym) in that general area, such as Farab ([[Otrar]]) on the Jaxartes ([[Syr Darya]]) in modern [[Kazakhstan]]; Farab, an still-extant village in suburbs of the city of Chaharjuy/Amul (modern [[Türkmenabat]]) on the Oxus [[Amu Darya]] in [[Turkmenistan]], on the [[Silk Road]], connecting [[Merv]] to [[Bukhara]], or [[Faryab Province|Faryab]] in [[Greater Khorasan]] (modern day Afghanistan). The older [[Persian language|Persian]]<ref name="Iranica" /> Parab (in [[Hudud ul-'alam]]) or Faryab (also Paryab), is a common Persian toponym meaning "lands irrigated by diversion of river water".<ref>Daniel Balland, "[https://iranicaonline.org/articles/faryab Fāryāb]" in Encyclopædia Iranica.  excerpt: "Fāryāb (also Pāryāb), common Persian toponym meaning “lands irrigated by diversion of river water"</ref><ref>[http://www.loghatnaameh.com/dehkhodaworddetail-f1f713a319da41dc97d398057889ff2f-fa.html Dehkhoda Dictionary under "Parab"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003184408/http://www.loghatnaameh.com/dehkhodaworddetail-f1f713a319da41dc97d398057889ff2f-fa.html |date=2011-10-03 }} excerpt: "پاراب . (اِ مرکب ) زراعتی که به آب چشمه و کاریز ورودخانه و مانند آن کنند مَسقوی . آبی . مقابل دیم" (translation: "Lands irrigated by diversion of river water, springs and [[qanat]]s.")</ref>

=== Background ===
[[File:Iranian Farabi.jpg|thumb|upright=0.6|left|Iranian stamp with al-Farabi's imagined face]]

While scholars largely agree that his ethnic background is not knowable,<ref name="Iranica" /><ref name="bartholomew.stanford.edu">{{cite web|author=Lessons with Texts by Alfarabi |url=http://bartholomew.stanford.edu/authors/alfarabitext.html |title=D. Gutas, "AlFarabi" in Barthaolomew's World accessed Feb 18, 2010 |publisher=Bartholomew.stanford.edu |access-date=2012-09-19}}</ref>{{sfn|Reisman|2005|p=53}}<ref>F. Abiola Irele/Biodun Jeyifo, "Farabi", in ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Thought'', Vol. 1, p. 379.</ref> Al-Farabi has also been described as being of either Persian or Turkic origin. Medieval [[Arab]] historian [[Ibn Abi Usaibia]] (died in 1270)—one of al-Farabi's oldest biographer—mentions in his Uyun that al-Farabi's father was of [[Persian people|Persian]] descent.<ref name="Iranica"/><ref>Ebn Abi Osaybea, Oyun al-anba fi tabaqat at-atebba, ed. A. Müller, Cairo, 1299/1882.    وكان ابوه قائد جيش وهو فارسي المنتسب</ref> [[Al-Shahrazuri]], who lived around 1288 and has written an early biography, also states that al-Farabi hailed from a Persian family.<ref name="Nasr">[[Seyyed Hossein Nasr]], [[Mehdi Aminrazavi]]. "An Anthology of Philosophy in Persia, Vol. 1: From Zoroaster to Umar Khayyam", I.B. Tauris in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2007. Pg 134: "Ibn Nadim in his al-Fihrist, which is the first work to mention Farabi considers him to be of Persian origin, as does Muhammad Shahrazuri in his ''Tarikh al-hukama'' and Ibn Abi Usaybi'a in his ''Tabaqat al-atibba''. In contrast, Ibn Khallikan in his '"Wafayat al-'ayan considers him to be of Turkish descent. In any case, he was born in Farab in Khurasan of that day around 257/870 in a climate of Persianate culture"</ref><ref>Arabic: و كان من سلاله فارس in J. Mashkur, Farab and Farabi, Tehran,1972. See also [[Dehkhoda Dictionary]] under the entry ''Farabi'' for the same exact Arabic quote.</ref> According to [[Majid Fakhry]], an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at [[Georgetown University]], al-Farabi's father "''was an army captain of Persian extraction.''"{{sfn|Fakhry|2002|p=157}} A Persian origin has been stated by many other sources as well.<ref>P.J. King, ''"One Hundred Philosophers: the life and work of the world's greatest thinkers"'', chapter '' al-Fārābi'', Zebra, 2006. pp 50: "Of Persian stock, al-Farabi (Alfarabius, AbuNaser) was born in Turkestan"
* Henry Thomas, Understanding the Great Philosophers, Doubleday, Published 1962
* T. J. De Boer, "The History of Philosophy in Islam", Forgotten Books, 2008. Excerpt page 98: "His father is said to have been a Persian General". {{ISBN|1-60506-697-4}}
* Sterling M. McMurrin, ''Religion, Reason, and Truth: Historical Essays in the Philosophy of Religion'', University of Utah Press, 1982, {{ISBN|0-87480-203-2}}. page 40.
* Edited by Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen M. Higgins. (2003). From Africa to Zen : an invitation to world philosophy. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 163. {{ISBN|0-7425-1350-5}} "al-Farabi (870–950), a Persian,"
* Thomas F. Glick. (1995). From Muslim fortress to Christian castle : social and cultural change in medieval Spain. Manchester: Manchester University Press. pp. 170. {{ISBN|0-7190-3349-7}} "It was thus that al-Farabi (c. 870–950), a Persian philosopher"
* The World's Greatest Seers and Philosophers.. Gardners Books. 2005. pp. 41. {{ISBN|81-223-0824-4}} "al-Farabi (also known as Abu al-Nasr al-Farabi) was born of Turkish parents in the small village of Wasij near Farab, Turkistan (now in Uzbekistan) in 870 AD. His parents were of Persian descent, but their ancestors had migrated to Turkistan."
* Bryan Bunch with Alexander Hellemans. (2004). The history of science and technology : a browser's guide to the great discoveries, inventions, and the people who made them, from the dawn of time to today. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 108. {{ISBN|0-618-22123-9}} "Persian scholar al-Farabi"
* Olivier Roy, "[https://books.google.com/books?id=FyE9DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA167 The new Central Asia: the creation of nations]", I.B.Tauris, 2000. 1860642799.  pg 167: "Kazakhstan also annexes for the purpose of bank notes Al Farabi (870–950), the Muslim philosopher who was born in the south of present-day Kazakhstan but who presumably spoke Persian, particularly because in that era there were no Kazakhs in the region"
* Majid Khadduri; [foreword by R. K. Ramazani]. The Islamic conception of justice. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, c1984.. pp. 84. {{ISBN|0-8018-6974-9}} "Nasr al-Farabi was born in Farab (a small town in Transoxiana) in 259/870 to a family of mixed parentage — the father, who married a Turkish woman, is said to have been of Persian and Turkish descent — but both professed the Shi'l heterodox faith. He spoke Persian and Turkish fluently and learned the Arabic language before he went to Baghdad. 
* Ḥannā Fākhūrī, Tārīkh al-fikr al-falsafī ʻinda al-ʻArab, al-Duqqī, al-Jīzah : al-Sharikah al-Miṣrīyah al-ʻĀlamīyah lil-Nashr, Lūnjmān, 2002.
* ’Ammar al-Talbi, [http://www.ibe.unesco.org/publications/ThinkersPdf/farabie.pdf al-Farabi], UNESCO: International Bureau of Education, vol. XXIII, no. 1/2, Paris, 1993, p. 353-372
* David Deming,"Science and Technology in World History: The Ancient World and Classical Civilization", McFarland, 2010. pg 94: "Al-Farabi, known in Medieval Europe as Abunaser, was a Persian philosopher who sought to harmonize.."
* [http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/phil/philo/phils/muslim/farabi.html Philosophers: Abu Al-Nasr Al-Farabi] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307121111/http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/phil/philo/phils/muslim/farabi.html |date=2016-03-07 }}, [[Trinity College, Hartford|Trinity College]], 1995–2000</ref> Dimitri Gutas notes that Farabi's works contain references and glosses in [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]], and even [[Greek language|Greek]], but not Turkish.<ref name="Iranica" /><ref>George Fadlo Hourani, Essays on Islamic Philosophy and Science, Suny press, 1975; Kiki Kennedy-Day, ''Books of Definition in Islamic Philosophy: The Limits of Words'', Routledge, 2002, page 32.</ref> [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]] has also been suggested as his native language<ref>Joshua Parens (2006). An Islamic philosophy of virtuous religions : introducing Alfarabi. Albany, NY: State Univ. of New York Press. pp. 3. {{ISBN|0-7914-6689-2}} excerpt: "He was a native speaker of Turkic {{sic}} dialect, Soghdian." [Note: Sogdian was an East Iranian language and not a Turkic dialect]</ref> and the language of the inhabitants of Farab.<ref>Joep Lameer, "Al-Fārābī and Aristotelian syllogistics: Greek theory and Islamic practice", E.J. Brill, 1994. {{ISBN|90-04-09884-4}}   pg 22: "..Islamic world of that time, an area whose inhabitants must have spoken Soghdian or maybe a Turkish dialect..."</ref> Muhammad Javad Mashkoor argues for an Iranian-speaking Central Asian origin.<ref name="GL">مشكور، محمدجواد. “فاراب و فارابي“. دوره14، ش161 (اسفند 54): 15-20- . J.  Mashkur, "Farabi and Farabi" in volume 14, No. 161, pp 15–12, Tehran,1972. [https://web.archive.org/web/20071021043054/http://ichodoc.ir/p-a/CHANGED/161/html/161_15.htm] English translations of the arguments used by J. Mashkur can be found in: G. Lohraspi, "Some remarks on Farabi's background"; a scholarly approach citing [[Clifford Edmund Bosworth|C.E. Bosworth]], [[Bernard Lewis|B. Lewis]], [[Richard Nelson Frye|R. Frye]], D. Gutas, J. Mashkur and partial translation of J.Mashkur's arguments: [[iarchive:SomeRemarksOnFarabisBackgroundIranicsoghdianpersianOraltaic|PDF]].  ولی فارابی فيلسوف تنها متعلق به ايران نبود بلكه
به عالم اسلام تعلق داشت و از بركت قرآن و دين محمد به اين مقام رسيد. از اينجهت هه دانشمندانی كه در اينجا گرد آمده‌اند او را يك دانشمند مسلمان متعلق به عالم انسانيت مي‌دانند و كاری به تركی و فارسی و عربی بودن او ندارند.</ref> According to [[Christoph Baumer]], he was probably a [[Sogdia]]n.<ref name="baumer1">{{cite book|last=Baumer|first=Christoph|author-link=Christoph Baumer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LhiWDwAAQBAJ|title=The History of Central Asia The Age of Islam and the Mongols|page=42|publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]]|year=2016|quote=Abu Nasr Muhammad al-Farabi (ca. 870–950) was a renowned philosopher and scientist with a keen interest in the theory of knowledge. Probably a Sogdian from the great merchant city of Farab, now called Otrar, in southern Kazakhstan|isbn=9781838609405}}</ref> According to Thérèse-Anne Druart, writing in 2020, "Scholars have disputed his ethnic origin. Some claimed he was Turkish but more recent research points to him being a Persian."{{sfn|Druart|2021|loc=Intro}}

[[File:KazakhstanP20-200Tenge-1999-donatedoy f.jpg|thumb|al-Farabi on the currency of the [[Republic of Kazakhstan]]]]

The oldest known reference to a [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] origin is given by the medieval historian [[Ibn Khallikan]] (died in 1282), who in his work ''Wafayat'' (completed in 669/1271) states that al-Farabi was born in the small village of [[Wasij]] near Farab (in what is today [[Otrar]], [[Kazakhstan]]) of Turkic parents. Based on this account, some scholars say he is of Turkic origin.<ref>B.G. Gafurov, ''Central Asia:Pre-Historic to Pre-Modern Times'', (Shipra Publications, 2005), 124; "''Abu Nasr El-Farabi hailed from around ancient Farabi which was situated on the bank of Syr Daria and was the son of a Turk military commander''".</ref><ref>Will Durant, ''The Age of Faith'', (Simon and Schuster, 1950), 253.</ref><ref>Nicholas Rescher, Al-Farabi's Short Commentary on Aristotle's Prior Analytics, University of Pittsburgh Pre, 1963, p.11, [https://books.google.com/books?id=lLV1ssgsNRIC Online Edition].</ref><ref>Antony Black, The History of Islamic Political Thought: From the Prophet to the Present, Routledge, p. 61, [https://books.google.com/books?id=nspmqLKPU-wC Online Edition]</ref><ref>James Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Kessinger Publishing, Vol. 10, p.757, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dA9h8XGtRPQC Online Edition]</ref><ref>Edited by Ted Honderich. (1995). The Oxford companion to philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 269. {{ISBN|0-19-866132-0}} "Of Turki origin, al-Farabi studied under Christian thinkers"
* Edited and translated by Norman Calder, Jawid Mojaddedi and Andrew Rippin. (2003). Classical Islam : a sourcebook of religious literature. New York: Routledge. pp. 170. {{ISBN|0-415-24032-8}} "He was of Turkish origin, was born in Turkestan"
* Ian Richard Netton. (1999). Al-Fārābī and his school. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon. {{ISBN|0-7007-1064-7}} Pg. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Fuk7fN3Jp6sC&pg=RA2-PA5  5]:"He appears to have been born into a military family of Turkish origin in the village of Wasil, Farab, in Turkestan"
* Edited by Henrietta Moore. (1996). The future of anthropological knowledge. London: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-10786-5}} "al-Farabi (873–950), a scholar of Turkish origin."
* Diané Collinson and Robert Wilkinson. (1994). Thirty-Five Oriental Philosophers.. London: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-203-02935-6}} "Al-Farabi is thought to be of Turkish origin. His family name suggests that he came from the vicinity of Farab in Transoxiana."
* Fernand Braudel; translated by Richard Mayne. (1995). A history of civilizations. New York, N.Y.: Penguin. {{ISBN|0-14-012489-6}} "Al-Farabi, born in 870, was of Turkish origin. He lived in Aleppo and died in 950 in Damascus"
* Jaroslav Krejčí; assisted by Anna Krejčová. (1990). Before the European challenge : the great civilizations of Asia and the Middle East. Albany: State University of New York Press. pp. 140. {{ISBN|0-7914-0168-5}} "the Transoxanian Turk al-Farabi (d. circa 950)"
* Hamid Naseem. (2001). Muslim philosophy science and mysticism. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons. pp. 78. {{ISBN|81-7625-230-1}} "Al-Farabi, the first Turkish philosopher"
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=XwOwsOstm4gC&dq=farabi+wasij&pg=PA41 Clifford Sawhney. The World's Greatest Seers and Philosophers, 2005, p. 41]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=Q51plsbFmNcC&q=farabi+wasij Zainal Abidin Ahmad. Negara utama (Madinatuʾl fadilah) Teori kenegaraan dari sardjana Islam al Farabi. 1964, p. 19]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=EQEeAAAAMAAJ&q=farabi+wasij Haroon Khan Sherwani. Studies in Muslim Political Thought and Administration. 1945, p. 63]</ref> [[Dimitri Gutas]], an American Arabist, criticizes this, saying that [[Ibn Khallikan]]'s account is aimed at the earlier historical accounts by [[Ibn Abi Usaybi'a]], and serves the purpose to "prove" a Turkic origin for al-Farabi, for instance by mentioning the additional [[nisbat (onomastics)|nisba]] (surname) ''"al-Turk"'' (arab. "the Turk")—a nisba al-Farabi never had.<ref name="Iranica" /> However, [[Abu al-Feda]], who copied [[Ibn Khallekan]], changed ''al-Torkī'' to the phrase "wa-kana rajolan torkiyan", meaning "he was a Turkish man."<ref name="Iranica" /> In this regard, since works of such supposed Turks lack traces of Turkic nomadic culture, [[Oxford University|Oxford professor]] [[Clifford Edmund Bosworth|C.E. Bosworth]] notes that "great figures [such] as Farabi, [[al-Biruni|Biruni]], and [[Avicenna]] have been attached by over enthusiastic Turkish scholars to their race".<ref name="Bosworth2017">{{cite book|author=C. Edmund Bosworth|title=The Turks in the Early Islamic World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CAokDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT381|date=15 May 2017|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-351-88087-9|page=381}}</ref>

=== Life and education ===
Al-Farabi spent most of his scholarly life in [[Baghdad]]. In the autobiographical passage preserved by [[Ibn Abi Usaybi'a]], al-Farabi stated that he had studied logic, medicine and sociology with Yuhanna ibn Haylan up to and including Aristotle's ''[[Posterior Analytics]]'', i.e., according to the order of the books studied in the curriculum, al-Farabi was claiming that he had studied [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]]'s ''Eisagoge'' and Aristotle's ''Categories'', ''De Interpretatione'', ''Prior and Posterior Analytics''. His teacher, Yuhanna bin Haylan, was a [[Nestorian]] cleric. This period of study was probably in Baghdad, where [[al-Mas'udi]] records that Yuhanna died during the reign of [[al-Muqtadir]] (295-320/908-32). In his ''Appearance of Philosophy'' ({{transliteration|ar|Fī Ẓuhūr al-Falsafa}}), al-Farabi tells us:{{sfn|Reisman|2005|p=55}} <blockquote>Philosophy as an academic subject became widespread in the days of the Ptolemaic kings of the Greeks after the death of Aristotle in Alexandria until the end of the woman’s reign [i.e., Cleopatra’s]. The teaching of it continued unchanged in Alexandria after the death of Aristotle through the reign of thirteen kings ... Thus it went until the coming of Christianity. Then the teaching came to an end in Rome while it continued in Alexandria until the king of the Christians looked into the matter. The bishops assembled and took counsel together on which parts of [philosophy] teaching were to be left in place and which were to be discontinued. They formed the opinion that the books on logic were to be taught up to the end of the assertoric figures [<nowiki/>''[[Prior Analytics]]'', I.7] but not what comes after it, since they thought that would harm Christianity. Teaching the rest [of the logical works] remained private until the coming of Islam when the teaching was transferred from Alexandria to Antioch. There it remained for a long time until only one teacher was left. Two men learned from him, and they left, taking the books with them. One of them was from Harran, the other from Marw. As for the man from Marw, two men learned from him..., Ibrahim al-Marwazi and Yuhanna ibn Haylan. [Al-Farabi then says he studied with Yuhanna ibn Haylan up to the end of the ''[[Posterior Analytics]]''].</blockquote>He was in Baghdad at least until the end of September 942, as recorded in notes in his ''Mabādeʾ ārāʾ ahl al-madīna al-fāżela''.{{efn-ua|name=Virtuous}} He finished the book in Damascus the following year (331), i.e., by September 943). He also lived and taught for some time in [[Aleppo]]. Al-Farabi later visited [[Egypt]], finishing six sections summarizing the book ''Mabādeʾ'',{{efn-ua|name=Mabadi Summary}} in Egypt in 337/July 948 – June 949 when he returned to Syria, where he was supported by [[Sayf al-Dawla]], the [[Hamdanid dynasty|Hamdanid]] ruler. Al-Mas'udi, writing barely five years after the fact (955-6, the date of the composition of the Tanbīh), says that al-Farabi died in [[Damascus]] in Rajab 339 (between 14 December 950 and 12 January 951).<ref name="Iranica" />