N.A. Tustikbaev,
Lecturer in the Department of Physical Education
Taraz State Pedagogical University
Taraz, Republic of Kazakhstan
Annotation.
The scientific article examines the scientific, especially the geographical views of the Great Scientist of the East, his contribution to the development of astronomy, mathematics, logic, music, medicine, natural history, philosophy, poetry, the study of languages of different nations.
In the works «
Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn The Origin of Science», «Enumeration of Sciences» the thinker paid specialattention to issues of natural science, thoughts about natural science are based onmathematical calculations.
Key words: toponym, fortification, potters quarter, brick-burning workshop, mosque, palace.
Muhammad ibn Tarkhan ibn Uzlag Al-Farabi, known in the medieval Muslim East as the “Second Teacher” (that is, the second after Aristotle) was born in the city of Farab, located on the Syrdarya River at the confluence of the river. Arys (which corresponds to the Shaulder district of the South Kazakhstan region of modern Kazakhstan). He comes from privileged strata of the Türks, as evidenced by the word «Tarkhan» as part of his full name, in 870 in a Turkic family. The Syr Darya basin is the cradle of ancient civilization, which played the same role in the history of Kazakhstan as the Nile for Egypt, the Tiger and the Euphrates for Mesopotamia [1, p.15].
Farab, according to the author of the X century. Al-Mukaddasi, was a large city with a population of about 70 thousand male souls, with a cathedral mosque, a citadel and a bazaar. The city was located in the Otrar oasis, which, together with the surrounding areas, was the oldest center of settled, irrigation agriculture and urban civilization of Kazakhstan. Later, Mr. Farab became known as Otrar. As an urban-type settlement, Otrar arose in the last centuries BC.
The scale of the economic and cultural development of the oasis is evidenced by the ruins of more than 60 settlements, castles, fortresses and cities, traces of a powerful and widely branched irrigation system dating back to different historical periods from the early to late Middle Ages. A.N. Bernshtam noted that «Otrar attracted the attention of medieval Arab and Iranian-speaking authors as the most important nodal point of caravan roads.
It was at the junction of various geographical landscapes, occupying an advantageous position in terms of irrigation of fertile lands.» A.N. Bernshtam therefore saw in the Otrar oasis the key to decoupling the most important issues of the relationship between the nomadic steppe and the sedentary population — the distant ancestors of the Kazakh people. As a result of the resettlement of Sogdians, who had extensive experience in the field of agricultural labor and the ancient traditions of urban planning, a peculiar urban civilization developed in Southern Kazakhstan. Various beliefs were widely spread here — shamanism, Zoroastrianism, Nestorianism, Manichaeism, Buddhism. From the 8th century, when South Kazakhstan became part of the Arab caliphate, the widespread spread of Islam [2, p.164].
Otrar was the most important nodal point of caravan routes on the Silk Road. Here, representatives of various cultural ethnic groups crossed, merchants and travelers from nearby and remote regions and countries — from Egypt, India and the Far East. Perhaps it was this practically tangible cultural interaction that allowed al-Farabi to adopt the methodology of a free and equal combination in the minds of various worldview systems, which subsequently determined the synthetics and encyclopedicity inherent in his thinking.
Al-Farabi left his native land as a mature man, and naturally, he was attached to the spiritual values of his native land.
The worldview of each person is a system of spiritual and practical mastering of reality, within which knowledge and beliefs, moral ideals, a psychological and aesthetic attitude to the world are represented. Turkic culture, of which al-Farabi is a representative by birth, like any other, had its worldviews and primary categories, principles of being, and conscious values of the universe. These values are, as it were, absorbed into the blood of a person from childhood, in many respects determining his formation as a person. Based on the essential foundations of socialization, the work of al-Farabi has one of the prerequisites for the achievements of the Turkic nomadic culture, which was characterized by the ability to combine traditional and innovative, to synthesize many foreign cultural traditions of spirituality and process them in accordance with their own needs and fundamental values.
A distinctive feature of the traditional Turkic worldview is worldview syncretism as a combination of elemental views, views and ideas about the world and man’s place in it, embracing all types of folk thinking and not belonging to either religious or philosophical forms of consciousness, including moments of both materialistic and religious — idealistic worldview systems, which is the initial compromise between various worldviews and is in the minds of people in Orme common sense, reason, folk wisdom.
The traditional worldview of the Turks, in particular during the Al-Farabi era, was a syncretic alloy of Islam with rituals of ancient beliefs and cults. This syncretism of thought rested on ritual complexes, which filled the everyday life of the Turks. Such ideological ideals opposed the complete domination of foreign teachings, on the one hand, and on the other hand, facilitated the interaction of different points of view and constant spiritual renewal. Al-Farabi’s creativity is precisely the proof of such a synthesis of cultural phenomena [3, p. 67].
Guided by a thirst for knowledge, al-Farabi sets off on a journey. He spends many years in Baghdad, the political and cultural center of the Caliphate. Here he thoroughly replenishes his knowledge, comes into contact with prominent scientists, and thanks to erudition, the power of thought and the greatness of character, he quickly takes a leading position among them. But dogmatic minded theologians have a personal dislike of him, mixed with envy, and most importantly — the opposition to the whole system of his thoughts, focused on the knowledge of real things and the search for happiness in earthly life.
In the end, al-Farabi was forced to leave this «city of peace.» Baghdad and its role in the spiritual formation of al-Farabi should be emphasized. First of all, it was a center of intense cultural life. It was in him that the intersection of various cultural traditions and influences was most pronounced. Pagan beliefs, Judaism, Christianity (represented by the Nestorians and Monophysites), Islam, and cultures of different nations created an impetus for the clash of thoughts, their polishing, elevation over local ethnic narrowness. It is to Baghdad that Al-Farabi speaks of a collective city: “This city is the most delightful and happy of ignorant cities and its appearance resembles a colorful and colorful robe and, therefore, turns out to be everyone’s favorite shelter, for any person in this city can satisfy your desires and aspirations.
For some reason, people flock to this city and settle there. Its dimensions are growing immensely. People of different kinds are born in it, marriages and sexual relations of various kinds take place, here children of a very different kind, upbringing and origin are born. This city consists of diverse, interconnected associations with distinct parts, in which the alien does not stand out from the local population and in which all desires and all actions are combined.
Therefore, it is very possible that over time the most worthy people can grow in it, sages, orators, poets of all kinds can coexist there. But, accordingly, the contrasts of good and evil are stronger than anywhere else. Baghdad was Mecca for intellectuals of that time, they tried their hand at it, created schools, entered into rivalry, achieved success, exile, exaltation and humiliation. It was here that the famous school of translators worked, in which the Nestorians played a significant role. These were works by Plato, Aristotle, Galen, Euclid. There was a parallel process of mastering the cultural achievements of India. Such work also stimulated independent creative activity.
Al-Farabi’s mentors in Baghdad were Juhanna Ibn Hailan and the famous translator of ancient Arabic texts Abu Bishr Matta. Al-Farabi talked about Johann ibn Hailan, according to Useibia, as a person who has been associated with the living tradition of transmitting Aristotle’s heritage from teacher to students through a number of generations. Abu Bishr Matta taught logic. But, as medieval sources say, the student quickly surpassed the teacher. One circumstance should be noted from the years of Al-Farabi’s teachings in Baghdad: he got the opportunity to familiarize himself with Aristotle’s “Second Analytics”, which the theologically-minded Nestorians tried to “cover up”, since there developed cognitive theoretical views that did not leave room for religious revelation [4, p.69].
During his life in Baghdad, al-Farabi makes a trip to the city of Harran with the special purpose of learning some special techniques of logic from the Christian thinker Juhanna bin Hailan, whom he became famous in the Muslim world. Returning to Baghdad, al-Farabi delves into the study of the heritage of Aristotle, he finds the ease of perception of ideas and the totality of tasks and problems posed by the great Greek. About the laboriousness of assimilating Aristotle’s legacy by Arabic-speaking thinkers is at least the phrase that Al-Farabi wrote on a copy of Aristotle’s treatise «On the Soul»: «I read this treatise two hundred times.»
The matter, apparently, does not lie in patience (“He must have had a very good stomach,” Hegel did not fail to quail), which was shown by Arabic-speaking thinkers in studying the ancient heritage, but in the specificity that philosophical creativity acquired in this period, mainly expressed in a detailed commentary on all the works of ancient authors, which required literal knowledge and memorization of the text. It is clear that this phrase calls for a constant, multiple return to the same sources, and this, apparently, is one of the most important principles of teaching philosophy of that time. In the end, al-Farabi is forced to leave Baghdad [10, p. 365].
He goes to Damascus, but does not stop there; his path lies in Egypt. In his book entitled Civil Policy, he mentions that he began it in Baghdad and ended up in Cairo (Misr). After a long journey, al-Farabi returns to Damascus, where he lived until the end of his days, leading a solitary lifestyle in it. Despite the patronage of Saif al-Daul bin Hamdani, who ruled in Damascus at that time, he avoids court life, rarely attends receptions. He usually spends most of the day at the edge of the pool or in the shady garden, where he writes books and talks with students. He writes his compositions on separate sheets (therefore, almost everything he created took the form of separate chapters and notes, some of them were preserved only in fragments, many were not finished).
Al-Farabi was a very unpretentious person. His necessities of life were limited to the sum of four dirhams, which he received daily from the treasury of Sayf al-Daul. He died at the age of eighty and was buried outside the walls of Damascus at the Small Gate. It is reported that the ruler himself read the prayer on it on four papyrus [5, p. 48].
The above biography shows the character traits inherent in true thinkers: self-esteem, selflessness, love of science. Very valuable in the guise of al-Farabi is his desire to practically translate knowledge, in this regard, he says that «a philosopher cannot have a virtue of thought without a practical virtue.» The legacy of al-Farabi, incorporating a variety of cultural traditions, indicates the failure of Eurocentrism and Asiancentrism, because in the development between different cultures there is not just an analogy, but borrowing, influence, continuity, struggle, etc. Contacts were not only multilateral, but — more importantly — mutually stimulating, mutually enriching [6, p. 58].
List of sources used
1. Farabi and spiritual heritage / Materials of the International scientific-theoretical conference «Al-Farabi in the history of science and culture of the peoples of the East.» — Almaty, 1994
2. Rosenthal F. The triumph of knowledge. M., 1978.
3.Khayrullaev M.M. Farabi. Age and doctrine. Tashkent, 1975.
4.Nysanbaev A.N. Al-Farabi and the development of Eastern philosophy. — Astana, 2005.
5. Nazarbayev N.A. The legacy of al-Farabi. // Science and Higher School of Kazakhstan, November 15, 2003.
6. Al-Farabi philosophy and Islamic spirituality. Team of authors. — Almaty, 2005
