ALFARABI, ABU NASR

(or Abunaser ) (c. 870–950)

The ‘second teacher’ after Aristotle of Islamic philosophy. Al-Farabi was one of the first philosophers to transmit Aristotelian logic to the Islamic world. He wrote extensively on logic, and expanded Aristotle's description of the intellect. He also exhibits the influence of Neoplatonism : creation is an emanation, and it is the images of the world-soul or anima mundi that become bodies in space. His work The Virtuous City is a version of Plato's Republic, a description of the ideal civic society in which all the virtues flourish.