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Redefining the Muslim Community
Redefining the Muslim Community
Ethnicity, Religion, and Politics in the Thought of Alfarabi
Alexander Orwin
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
PHILADELPHIA
Copyright © 2017 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
ISBN 978-0-8122-4904-0
Contents
A Note on Citations and Abbreviations
Introduction. Alfarabi and the Question of the Umma (Nation)
Chapter 1. The Nation in Plato and Aristotle: An Obstacle to Virtuous Rule
Chapter 2. From Speechlessness to Civilization: The Evolution of the Umma
Chapter 3. Philosophy and the Umma: An Uneasy Coexistence
Chapter 4. Another Kind of Umma: The Origin of the Islamic Umma
Chapter 5. The Mission of the Virtuous Umma: Ethnic Accommodation Within Islam
Chapter 6. Between City and Empire: The Political Significance of the Umma
Chapter 7. The Umma Among the Ignorant Associations: Nationalism and the Threat of War
Conclusion. The Intermediate Association
A Note on Citations and Abbreviations
I have cited every work in both Arabic and, if available, English, or in one case French. In some cases, a dual English-Arabic edition or conscious decision by the translator to follow the numbers of the original Arabic means that the same citation applies to both languages. When this is not the case, I have cited the English followed by the Arabic, with the latter marked “Ar.” I decided not to cite Alfarabi’s works according to the accidental date of the publication of an edition, since that would not help the reader immediately identify the work. Instead, I have included abbreviated titles of the works, as follows.
| AH | Attainment of Happiness |
| BD | Book of Demonstration |
| BDi | Book of Dialectic |
| BL | Book of Letters |
| BM | Great Book of Music |
| BO | Book of One and Unity |
| BR | Book of Religion |
| BRh | Book of Rhetoric |
| CA | Commentary and Short Treatise on Aristotle’s “De interpretatione” |
| DA | Didascalia in Rethoricam Aristotelis ex glosa Alpharabi |
| EH | Epistle Indicating the Way to Happiness |
| EI | Epistle on the Intellect |
| EP | Epistle on the Canons of Poetry |
| ES | Enumeration of the Sciences |
| FL | Alfarabi on Logic |
| HS | Harmonization of the Two Opinions of the Divine Sages |
| PA | Philosophy of Aristotle |
| PP | Philosophy of Plato |
| SA | Selected Aphorisms |
| SL | Summary of Plato’s “Laws” |
| SP | Short Commentary on the “Poetics” |
| SS | Short Book on the Syllogism |
| VC | Opinions of the Inhabitants of the Virtuous City |
Redefining the Muslim Community
Introduction. Alfarabi and the Question of the Umma (Nation)
The overarching theme of this book is Alfarabi’s