bu Nasr Muhammed Al Farabi was one of the most outstanding and renowned Muslim philosophers, and became known as the "Second Teacher," the first being the Greek philosopher, Aristotle.

We know very little about Farabi's life. He left no autobiography nor do we have any report of his contemporaries. We do know that Al Farabi was of Turkish origin, and born in Turkistan at Wasdj a district of the city of Al Farab, and said to have died at the age of 80. In 339/950, in Damascus. His father, described as an officer, may have belonged to the Turkish bodyguard of the Caliph, and Al Farabi may have arrived in Baghdad with him, early in life. He seemed to live a quiet life there and did not belong to the society of the court.

When he turned 40, he started studying philosophy and came to be influenced by the well known scholar Abu Bashir Matta Ibn Younes al Hakim, who taught him the principles of logic. To extend his study of logic, he moved to Houran to study with Youhanna bin Hilan. On his return to Baghdad, he was influenced by the Greek philosophical school of Alexandria that had somewhat continued to exist after the Arab conquest, and who's ideas had spread to Baghdad. These ideas led him to start writing and commenting on the words of Aristotle.

For reasons unknown, he accepted in 330/942 an invitation from Sheikh Al Hamdai, to join his entourage, and lived the rest of his life mainly in Aleppo with other men of letters, until his death. Despite Sheikh Al Hamdi's generosity, Al Farabi lived his life in austerity, not having a home of his own or even marrying - it was said he lived on four dirhams a day.

For him, the pleasures of life resided in thought and quiet contemplation.

Al Farabi was sharp minded, and brilliantly intelligent, highly educated and considered to be one of Islam's leading intellectuals. He had an open and enquiring mind that led him to write on all branches of science and philosophy. He was also an outstanding linguist, who read and translated the Greek commentaries on Aristotle, and added to them himself. It was his work incorporating and aligning new platonic thoughts in Islam, that Al Farabi became known as the second teacher after Aristotle.

Besides his interest in Aristotelian thoughts, Al Farabi was also strongly attached by Plato's ideas in political science, as set out in the Republic. Despite his admiration for these two giants of philosophy, he maintained his own authenticity, and influenced in his turn, further generations of thinkers.

Al Farabi published over 100 works of varying size over his life time, all of which are enriched by Al Farabi's experiences and observations, resulting in a philosophy that is neither completely Greek, nor completely Islamic. Al Farabi had unique ideas on religion and philosophy.

It is worth noting that Al Farabi was the first philosopher to separate philosophy and theology, and it is difficult to find a scholar either Islamic or Christian from the Middle Ages onwards, who has not beein influenced by his views. Both religions have been influenced by his thought. The more we study Al Farabi's works, the more we see that he was not only a source of inspiration for intellectuals of the Middle Ages but also one of their greatest teachers. It is true, that Al Farabi's thoughts have been controversial, but his influence is now so strong that it is difficult to see where Islamic philosophy would be today without him.