Al-Farabi: The Emergence of Arabicized Greek Logic

Abu Nasr al-Farabi (d. 339 AH/AD 950–951), the second failasuf, was particularly gifted in the field of logic. The great cataloger of Islamic humanities, Ibn al-Nadim, considered him as ranking with the foremost of the logicians. ¹ Al-Farabi’s other field was political philosophy – analyzing the relations of citizens in the state. In his book Kitab al-huruf (The Book of Letters), al-Farabi gives what is a philosophy of language approach to philosophy. He considered that people of other nations using all languages pursued logic and philosophy, in their own languages. ² Al-Farabi argues that expressions in Arabic such as al-mawjud had their logical equivalents in other languages including Sogdian, Greek, and Persian. In Persian the expression is “yaft” and in Sogdian “viyrd.” ³ In the same vein, he says that these words appear in Greek, Syriac, and other languages as well, although he does not give examples taken from any other languages.