Die philosophischen Abhandlungen des al-Kindi

his classes of the philosophers: al-Fārābī (the philosopher of the Muslims primarily) studied logic under Jūḥanna ben Ḥailān, who died in Bagdād under the reign of the Caliph el-Muqtadir. He led all believers of Islam to the true understanding of logic by revealing and explaining its secrets, touching upon all those points that al-Kindī had neglected, and teaching the application of analogy to all cases that occurred. He encompassed the entire scientific system in his enumeration and limitation of the sciences. Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī soon made a great name for himself in Bagdād and composed most of his works there; then he traveled to Damascus, without staying there, and to Egypt. He himself tells in his works on the art of government that he began writing works in Bagdād and finished them in Cairo."

According to this, al-Fārābī's study stay in Bagdād falls into the beginning of the tenth century. 1 However, it is difficult to assume that he personally knew al-Kindī in Bagdād during this period, for the latter died probably around the year 873. Nevertheless, al-Kindī, "the most excellent of his time and the only one of his century," might still have exerted a great influence during the time of al-Fārābī's stay in Bagdād. We may assume as certain that he maintained lively contact with the Christian translators proficient in Greek, in whose work he himself took a significant part. 2 And like his students Aḥmad ben Mu‘taṣim bi’llāh—one of the sons of the Caliph, to whom he seems to have been especially attached, as the writings repeatedly addressed to him prove—and those cited in the Fihrist, Ḥamawaih, Nuftamawaih, Salamawaih, and Aḥmad al-Ṭabarī, so too were the Christian teachers of Fārābī continuators of his speculations. His name lived on in the various translation and commentary works.

1) Jūnus died under the caliphate of al-Rāḍi (934—940), Ḥailān under Muqtadir (908—932).

2) Flügel, p. 5. Cf. title no. 289, to Jūḥannā ben Māsawīah.