Die philosophischen Abhandlungen des al-Kindi (1897) - Page 18

This relates to the lines of the aforementioned Abū'l qāsim of Cordova, who explains the progress achieved through al-Fārābī's merit compared to the al-Kindīan works. al-Kindī can be considered in several respects as the true precursor of al-Fārābī, which emerges not only from the similarity of several titles of writings by the latter, 2 but also from the comparison of parallel passages in the treatises de intellectu on the intellect by al-Kindī and al-Fārābī; from which it is simultaneously clarified that several thoughts previously attributed to al-Fārābī are in fact to be vindicated for al-Kindī.

In this sense, al-Fārābī can be viewed indirectly as a student of al-Kindī, specifically as one who later surpassed his teacher and displaced the teacher's writings. 3

If therefore the "Liber introductorius" Introductory book is a book that originated in Bagdād during al-Fārābī's youth, under the influence of the al-Kindīan works, and—perhaps later in Cairo—compiled, then it would likely be an (initial) piece from al-Fārābī's commentary de demonstratione on demonstration, which ibn-Ruśd 4 considered unfinished and which Albertus Magnus 5 cites—a testimony that, as may be remarked here in passing, should simultaneously be evidence

1) Hauréau, Histoire de la philosophie scolastique, Part II, Vol. I, p. 19: it is mainly to these commentaries that he owed his great renown. However, they were much less read in the schools of Spain at the end of the 12th century than they had been in the 9th at the school of Bagdād.

2) Steinschneider, Alfarabi, pp. 61, 70, 74, 76, 80—82, 112, 123, 124, 133, 243.

3) Munk, Mélanges, p. 341. Compare however Steinschneider, Alfarabi, p. 8.

4) Averroes, Quaes. in Post. Resolut. (in Arist. Opp. latine. Venetiis 1552) f. 212 v. A; f. 376 v. B: "All this signifies that the book of Abunazar De demonstratione has not yet been completed..."; f. 374 v. B.

5) Albertus Magnus, Analyt. post. B. II, Ch. 2 (in Opp. ed. Lugdun. 1651) p. 517 A: "And these things which have been said are excerpts from the sciences of the Arabs, whose commentary on this posterior work came to us from the opinion of Alfarabi the Arab."