Al-Farabi, Founder of Islamic Neoplatonism: His Life, Works and Influence (Great Islamic Thinkers)

This philosophy is based on Plato's Republic. It is worth to read. The writer is impudent Islamic philosopher. Book is ex++++ and inside pages are clean. Thanks.

This is an excellent source on a difficult subject. Islamic neoplatonism is a complex web of ideas made quite accessible by this book. Thankyou for the scholarship it must have taken to present it.

Clear and informative guide to Al-Farabi

"An unexamined life is not worth living and that one who cannot lead a life worthy of humankind will prefer death to life" said the great Greek philosopher Plato. The more worthy a life, higher is its examination as it is not only an examination by the person concerned but by others also. Sometimes an outsider's examination brings the real worth of a person in public space. This beautifully written biography of the 10th century Arab intellectual Abu Nasr al- Farabi highlights the rare contributions of the founder of Islamic Neoplatonism. This biography is perhaps the most detailed account of Al- Farabi's life, his works and influence. Majid Fakhry has written it with immaculate clarity making abstract philosohical thoughts of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle including Al-Farabi's reflections thereof not only understandable but appreciable as well. Ideally divided into ten chapters with specific focus on issues such as Al- Farabi's reflections on Greek Legacy, Classification of Sciences, Theory of Knowledge, Emanation vs creation, Ethical Theory, Political Theory and Al- Farabi as Logician and Musician makes it very interesting. It is also an amazing account of Al-Farabi's intellectual love affair with greek philosophers. But it would also show us as to how an 'ashiq' often commits the same mistakes as does the 'mashooq'. Al- Farabi certainly got swayed by Greek philosophical thought to such an unreasonable extent that he rejected the whole fabric of revelation and substituted five co-eternal principles, the Creator (Bari), the soul, matter, space and time. He also mistakenly believed in 'Eternal Universe model' which again was a contribution of Greek thought but has now been proved wrong in view of the scientific developments in 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. It were these thoughts of Al- Farabi which became the subject of most scathing attacks on him by the great intellectual of Nizamiyya College in the last decade of 11th century and the first decade of the 12th century- Imam Al-Ghazali (R.A.) Undoubtedly, it is now established that this universe has a beginning with the big bang and is continually expanding and will have an end. The theory of 'Grand Design' has completely destroyed many of the powerful Greek notions which continued to dominate the intellectual and scientific thought process across the world for a very long period of time. The readers would find the artistic quality in Al-Farabi very engaging in chapter 9 of this biography. This biography is very informative, analytical, interesting and meaningful examination of one of the greatest intellectuals in history. In short, I may say that it is one of the finest biographies that I have come across.