Al-Farabi should be heeded as the quintessential philosopher of civilization, built under the aegis of truth, virtue and compassion.
The life and thought of al-Farabi is the absolute opposite of the twisted concept of “clash of civilizations” – which may have been constructed with help from al-Farabi’s philosophy and politics, but then has been exploited by the usual suspects with the aim of turning post-modernity into a bloodbath.
TURKISTAN – As geopolitical insanity zooms off the charts at the end of 2023, let us seek solace in a brief Silk Road magic carpet ride.
This comes to you from a northern strand of the Ancient Silk Roads in Kazakhstan, from the Ili valley in Western China through the Dzungarian Gate all the way to the gorgeous Zailiysky Alatau mountains, spurs of the great Tian Shan range so close to Almaty.
This Silk Road strand then followed the Chu valley and branched out southwest to Samarkand (in today’s Uzbekistan), via Shymkent and Otrar (both in Kazakhstan).
The first settlers of all these vast latitudes were essentially nomadic Scythians. Their kurgans (circular burial mounds) are still dotting the countryside of southeast Kazakhstan and northern Kyrgyzstan.
The Scythians were followed by assorted, migrating Turkic tribes. By the end of the early 10th century, cities such as Otrar (the ancient Farab) and Turkistan (the ancient Yasy, a key trade center in the Great Silk Road) were blossoming.
Otrar/Farab introduces us to its most famous son, Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Turhan ibn Uzlug al-Farabi – Islamic scientist and philosopher (872-950) but also mathematician and musical theorist. Al-Farabi lived right at the start of the golden age of Islamic civilization.
The medieval Latin world knew him as Magister Secundus: the second greatest teacher of philosophy after Aristotle. Today he is revered as a symbol of the Turkic world, and an established leader of philosophic thought across the lands of Islam.
Al-Farabi was one of the very few philosophers who woke up the West from its scholastic slumber. He was not only a pioneer of philosophy of civilization – as mirrored in books such as On the Philosophy of Politics and Virtuous City, the apex in terms of studying Greek and Islamic concepts of ethics and political order; he was also one of the founding fathers of political science.
He was a descendant of Turkmen, a Turkic people (not exactly Turkish), born and raised along the path of Silk Road caravans carrying key strands of civilization. The history of the Turks starts with the Turkish khaganate in the 6th century. The golden cradle of Turkic civilization stretched from the Altai mountains to the steppes of Central Asia.
A philosopher-sage, al-Farabi excelled in theology, metaphysics, ontology, logic, ethic, political philosophy, physics, astronomy, psychology, music theory, always relaying priceless knowledge from Antiquity to the medieval era and modernity.
A game-changer to the classical system
Turkistan/Yasy, only 60 km north of Otrar/Farab, on the fringes of the Kyzylkum desert, is a university town doubling down as home to the most important Islamic landmark, monument and pilgrimage site in Kazakhstan: the mesmerizing 14th century Timurid tomb of the Sufi master, poet and scholar Khoja Ahmed Yassawi.
Ancient Central Asian Muslims believed that three pilgrimages to Turkistan were the spiritual equivalent of going to the Hajj; badass conqueror Timur was so impressed that he ordered the building of a mausoleum on the site of Khoja Ahmed Yassawi’s original tomb.
Be seeing you
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