(I) Although few facts about his life are known,
al-Farabi's influence on Arabic thought has been widely
accepted. (II) Most of his written commentaries
concerned the writings of Aristotle and, to a lesser
degree, Plato. (III) Al-Farabi is considered the foremost
music scholar in history. (IV) His own philosophy was a
version of Neoplatonism, which he presented in such
works as Tahsil al-Sa'adah (The Attainment of
Happiness). (V) In al-Farabi's view, the world flows from
God in the form of ideas or 'intelligences', from which
levels of existence flow until the material world is
created.