UDK 28-534.3
Author
Golamhossein Ebrahimi Dinani
Summary
Most Ebu Nasr’s (Farabi) works have disappeared, due to his distancing from what he wrote about, caused probably in the grandeur of his spirit. Despite that, a number of his books and epistles was mentioned in Tabaqāt al-atebbā and Tārīx al-hokemā. Most of these works are published and very well known and recognized in philosophical cirles. Amongst all succint and compact Farabi’s works, my attention was captured by the smallest one in volume – Invocation of a philosopher (Niyāyeš-e fīlsūf), and it is mentioned under the title of The exhaulted prayer of Ebu Nasr al-Farabi (Do‘ā-e ‘azīm li Abī Nasr al-Fārābī), in the first text of the collection of Sehid Ali Pasa. This collection is found in the Suleymaniye library of Istanbul, under number 537. In the list of Farabi’s works this prayer is not mentioned because it is not in a usual form of a book or epistle, but it is an address of a philosopher that is not included in his written works. However, Ibn Ebi Asib’e quotes this prayer from Farabi, and Safadi, also quotes it from Ibn Ebi Asib’e by analyzing the content of this prayer which is said in a particular philosophical utterance and style permeated with philosophical terms, one can fathom Farabi’s style of thinking and his view of the world, as well as thoroughly analyze his intellectual system, that is, his unique world.
Key words
URL: https://www.ibn-sina.net/en/invocation-of-a-philosopher/