Political Writings

Alfarabi, E. Butterworth Charles

Description

Butterworth richly deserves to be congratulated for providing advanced students and scholars with authoritative, reliable, and readable translations of Alfarabi's important political writings. ChoiceAlfarabi (ca. 870950) founded the great tradition of Aristotelian/Platonic political philosophy in medieval Islamic and Arabic culture. In this second volume of political writings, Charles E. Butterworth presents translations of Alfarabi's Political Regime and Summary of Plato's Laws, accompanied by introductions that discuss the background for each work and explore its teaching.In addition, the texts are carefully annotated to aid the reader in following Alfarabi's argument. An Arabic-English/English-Arabic glossary allows interested readers to verify the way particular words are translated. Throughout, Butterworth's method is to translate consistently the same Arabic word by the same English word, rendering Alfarabi's style in an unusually faithful and yet approachable manner.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Philosophy

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 25 novembre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801456329
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Alfarabi The Political Writings, Volume II

a v o l u m e i n t h e s e r i e s Ag or a Edi t ions

General Editor: Thomas L. Pangle

Founding Editor: Allan Bloom

A list of titles in this series is available at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

A L FA R A B I The Political Writings v o l u m e i i

“POLITICAL REGIME” and “SUMMARY OF PLATO’S LAWS”

t r a n s l a t e d , a n n o t a t e d , a n d w i t h i n t r o d u c t i o n s b y

C h a r l e s E . B u t t e r w o r t h

Cornell University Press

ithaca and london

Copyright ©2015by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House,512East State Street, Ithaca, New York14850.

First published2015by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

The ïrst volume ofAlfarabi, The Political Writingsis cataloged as follows:

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Farabi.  [Selections. English.2001]  Alfarabi, the political writings :Selected Aphorismsand other texts / translated and annotated by Charles E. Butterworth.  p. cm.—(Agora editions)  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN0-8014-3857-8(alk.) 1. Philosophy, Islamic—Early works to1800Butterworth, Charles E.. I. II. Title. III. Agora editions (Cornell University Press)  B753.F43E52001 181'.6—dc21 00-012887

The paperback edition was published in2004with the ISBN978-0-8014-8913-6(pbk. : alk. paper).

This volume has the ISBN978-0-8014-5380-9(cloth : alk. paper).

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood ïbers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth printing

10987654321

For Muhsin S. Mahdi, who taught by showing what could be done

v

Contents

Preface ix

Political Regime

Introduction 3

The Text 27

Summary of Plato’s Laws

Introduction 97

The Text 129

Appendix A 175

Appendix B 177

Glossary A: Arabic–English 183

vii

viii

Contents

Glossary B: English–Arabic 189

Bibliography 195

Index 201

Preface

Uncertainty about Alfarabi’s place of birth and the early years of his life 1 notwithstanding, it is generally agreed that he was born in about870/256 beyond the Oxus River—either in Farab, Kazakhstan, or Faryab, Turke- stan. In the course of his life, Abū Naṣr Muḥammad Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Tarkhān Ibn Awzalagh al-Fārābī moved often and thus resided in Bukhara, Marv, Haran, Baghdad, Constantinople, Aleppo, Cairo, and Damascus. The son of an army ocer in the service of the Samanids, Alfarabi studied Islamic jurisprudence and music in Bukhara. He then journeyed to Marv where he studied Aristotelian logic with Nestorian Christian monks, most notably, Yūḥannā Ibn Ḥaylān. While in his early twenties, he left Marv for Baghdad, where he contin- ued to study logic with Ibn Ḥaylān. It is said that he began to study phi- losophy there by following the courses of the famous Nestorian Christian translator and student of Aristotle, Mattā Ibn Yūnus. At the same time, he improved his grasp of Arabic by studying with the prominent philologist Ibn al-Sarrāj. Around905/293 or910/298 , Alfarabi traveled from Baghdad to Byz- antium (perhaps reaching Constantinople) to study Greek sciences and philosophy. He remained there for about eight years and then returned to Baghdad where he busied himself with teaching and writing. In about 942/330 , political upheavals prompted him to leave Baghdad for Damas- cus. While in Damascus, he visited Aleppo. A few years later, political

1. That is,870of the Common Era and256of the Anno Hejirae (the year622CE, when Muhammad and his followers ed from Mecca to Medina, which marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar).

ix