Alfarabi (870–950)

AbstractUncertainty about Alfarabi's place of birth and the early years of his life notwithstanding, there is general agreement that he was born in about 870 beyond the Oxus River – either in Fārāb, Kazakhstan or Faryāb, Turkestan. His full name is Abū Naṣr Muḥammad Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Ṭarkhān Ibn Awzalagh al‐Fārābī. In the course of his life, Alfarabi resided in Bukhara, Marv, Harran, Baghdad, Aleppo, Cairo, and Damascus – where he died in 950. The son of an army officer in the service of the Samanids, Alfarabi studied Islamic jurisprudence and music in Bukhara. He then journeyed to Marv and began to study Aristotelian logic with Nestorian Christian monks, most notably, Yūḥannā Ibn Ḥaylān.