Al Farabi: A Great Scientist of Muslim World

on Friday, September 13, 2013

When we have a look on the list of Muslim scholars, we come to know that it is full of great names. The inventions and innovations that had been introduced by these Muslim scientists are still worth appraising. In this list, the name of Al-Farabi is very eminent no doubt.

When we talk about Al-Farabi, we come to know that his full name was Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn Muhammad Farabi, and in the western world, he is known as Alpharabius. He is regarded as “The Second Teacher” of the Muslim Intellectual world and the true successor of Aristotle who is known as “The First Teacher”. He was born in Faryab in the very big city of Khorasan, a place that is known as the modern Afghanistan these days.

Al-farabi was not only a philosopher, but also he was a political scientist and logician. The most important thing is that his work for the musical thought was amazing. Every time when you will look at the Arabic history, you will notice that his contribution for the sake of musical thought is matchless. It was Al-Farabi who revolutionized the history of Arabic music, and he introduced some major developments in it. He wrote a book with the name of Kitab al-Musiqi al-Kabir, which means in English “Book of Great Music”. In it, he discusses a variety of ideas regarding music. He also explained the effects that can be caused by the music on the soul of a human being. In this book, he introduced a lot of philosophical principles that proved quite handy in understanding the Arabic music.

Al-farabi did not only write “The Book of Great Music”, he also invented a lot of musical instruments. He was fond of music himself, and it is said that he was a great and master performer himself undoubtedly. His musical instrument inventions involve the rebab, the qanun and the five-stringed oud. His contributions for technical musical writings are matchless because he explored some basics in his writing like modes, tetra chords, rhythms, tunings, etc. He was a man who provided a new soul to the musical philosophy. He said that music can be used as a therapeutic tool, and he had some strong belief that there was a strong connection between the intangible human spirit and music.

In addition to the musical contributions, he was a man who showed his abilities in other disciplines too. His work and findings in physics are eminent. He discovered that the volume of air can be expanded to fill the space.

Philosophy, psychology, logic, Alchemy were some other fields of interest in which he worked a lot, and exposed his inventions to the common people.

In short, he was a legend of Muslim world that worked hard and rendered great service. His inventions and scientific work are worth mentioning. The people who have read about his personality, they will agree that he was blessed with extraordinary skills, and he had a spark to do something different.



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