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FAQĪR DEHLAVĪ, MĪR ŠAMS-AL-DĪN (also called Maftūn), Persian poet from the Indian sub-continent (fl. 12th/18th century). He was born in 1115/1703 at Delhi and traced his origin, on the father’s side, to an uncle of the Prophet Moḥammad, ʿAbbās b. ʿAbd-al-Moṭṭaleb. On his mother’s side he was a sayyed, which…

FĀRĀB (Pārāb, Bārāb; Ḥodūd al-ʿālam, ed. Sotūda, p. 117, tr. Minorsky, p. 118; Eṣṭaḵrī, p. 346, tr. pp. 307, 360; Moqaddasī/Maqdesī, pp. 26, 48), a small district on the middle Syr Darya (Nahr al-Šāš, Sayḥūn) in Transoxania, at the confluence of that river with its right-bank tributary, the Arys, which…

FĀRĀBĪ, ABŪ NAṢR, Muslim philosopher of the 4th/10th century. i. Biography ii. Logic iii. Metaphysics iv. Fārābī and Greek Philosophy v. Music vi. Political Philosophy

FĀRĀBĪ i. Biography The sources for the life of Fārābī are such as to make the reconstruction of his biography beyond a mere outline nearly impossible. The earliest and more reliable sources, i. e., those composed before the 6th/12th century, that are extant today are so few as to indicate…

FĀRĀBĪ ii. Logic Most of Fārābī’s extant writings deal with logic and the philosophy of language. Many of these writings take the form of commentaries on, or summaries of, the Aristotelian Organon, which, following the tradition of the Alexandrian commentators of late antiquity, included Porphyry’s Isagoge as well as Aristotle’s…

FĀRĀBĪ iii. Metaphysics The question of determining the subject matter of metaphysics has always been a matter of dispute. Aristotle’s Metaphysics, with which metaphysics as a discipline originates, exhibits ambiguities and oscillates between two main projects: (1) a study of what is common to all beings, i.e., being as such…

FĀRĀBĪ iv. Fārābī and Greek Philosophy Fārābī’s philosophical moorings and direct affiliation lie in the Greek neo-Aristotelian school of Ammonius in Alexandria, in the form in which it survived and was revived after the Islamic conquest among Syriac Christian clerics and intellectuals in the centers of Eastern Christianity in the…

FĀRĀBĪ v. Music In the history of Middle Eastern music Fārābī remains unequalled as a theorist, but this aspect of his manifold achievements has been obscured by his more widely known writings on philosophy. Scholars of medieval European music are seldom aware of Fārābī’s importance for music theory or the…

FĀRĀBĪ vi. Political Philosophy The central theme of Fārābī’s political writings is the virtuous regime, the political order whose guiding principle is the realization of human excellence by virtue. Fārābī conceives of human or political science as the inquiry into man insofar as he is distinguished from other natural beings…

FARĀH (Farah in early Islamic sources), a town and province in southwestern Afghanistan. City. The city is located at 730 m above sea-level on both banks of the Farāhrūd river (q.v.). The old town, now in ruins, stood on the right bank at a strategic point commanding the northern entrance…

FARAḤĀBĀD, common place name throughout Persia, without any cultural or historical significance. The three best-known Faraḥābāds are the following. City quarter of Tehran. This Faraḥābād is located 5 km east of the city wall of Tehran. At the foot of Dušān Tappa, on which perches a ruined fortress-like palace of…

FARĀHĀN, a district (baḵš) in Tafreš subprovince (šahrestān) of the Central (Markazī) province. The Farmahīn River traverses the district and drains into the Mīqān salt lake. Due to an abundancy of subterranean water, many perennial qanāts operate in the district which, together with its fertile soil, make possible both irrigated…

FARĀHĀNĪ, MĪRZĀ MOḤAMMAD-ḤOSAYN, Persian diplomat and author of a Safar-nāma (born in Farāhān in 1264/1847; died 1331/1913; Figure 1). Farāhānī began his education under the supervision of his father, Moḥammad-Mahdī, who was chief secretary to the governor-general of Azerbaijan and a famous calligrapher. At the age of 12, Farāhānī moved…