Supplement to the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica/Alfarabius

ALFARABIUS, a celebrated Eastern philosopher of the tenth century, was born, in what year is not known, at Farab, a city of Asia Minor, now called Othrar. He studied for sometime at Bagdad, then the chief seat of learning; and afterwards travelled, in order to form an acquaintance with the learned of other countries.

A great revolution of sentiment in regard to letters, had taken place, in the preceding century, among the followers of Mahomet. The Commanders of the Faithful had become the patrons and cultivators, instead of the scourgers and contemners, of science and literature. Knowledge found her only sanctuary under the successors of those rulers who had sought to extinguish every ray of intelectual light, by means of the destruction of the libraries of Alexandria. Instead of proscribing every book as useless but the Koran, some of these rulers carried their zeal in the cause of learning so far, as to make the acquisition of Greek manuscripts an object of negotiation, in their treaties with the Emperors of Constantinople. Under the Caliphs of the house of Abbas, men of learning were raised to a degree of favour and consequence, which has never been enjoyed by that class, under the sovereigns of any other country, in any age of the world. The munificence which shone forth with so much lustre in the supreme depositaries of power, was widely emulated among the inferior rulers and governors; and “this emulation,” to use the words of Gibbon, “diffused the taste and the rewards of science, from Samarcand and Bochara, to Fez and Cordova.” Every little court had its circle of men of letters, who were always admitted to the society of the Prince, and for the most part liberally supported by his bounty. Thus, when Alfarabius, after he had finished his travels, came to settle at Damas, he was received with open arms by its sovereign, who bestowed upon him a pension, which he continued to enjoy till his death, in the year 950.

But to gain the notice of princes, or to acquire wealth, formed none of the aims of this philosopher. He is said to have led a very retired and ascetic life, rather contemning than seeking after the good things of the world. “He constantly slept, even during winter, upon straw; his countenance was always sorrowful, and he found no consolation in any thing but philosophy.” (Enfield’s Hist. of Philosophy, B. v. c. 1.) His works were numerous, and very various in their subjects; his speculations seem, indeed, from the list of his writings, to have embraced the whole circle of the sciences. He is particularly deserving of notice, as having been perhaps the first compiler of an Encyclopædia. Such is the title of one of his works, of which there is a copy in manuscript, in the library of the Escurial. It contains, according to the brief notice of it given in Casiri’s valuable account of the Arabic Manuscripts in that collection, a clear and comprehensive definition and compendium of all the Arts and Sciences; and it appears to have been regarded in the East as the most valuable of Alfarabius’s compositions. It would have been agreeable to the lovers of literary history to have possessed some more detailed view of the extent, plan, and contents of an Encyclopædia, written by an Arabian, so many centuries before any work of that description was thought of in Europe.

Next to this in estimation appears to have been his treatise on Music; in which he is said to have applied the principles of physics to correct the errors of musical theorists, and to regulate the construction of musical instruments. (Biog. Universelle, Tom. I.) Casiri gives a complete list of his writings; but it is too long to be copied in this place. (See Bibl. Arabico-Hispana Escurialensis, Tom. I.) Some of his pieces were published, in the Latin tongue, at Paris, in 1638, under the title of Opuscula Varia Alfarabii.