Alfarabi and the Foundation of Islamic Political Philosophy

Muhsin S. Mahdi (1926-2007) was the James R. Jewett Professor Emeritus of Arabic in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University. He published the critical Arabic editions of many of Alfarabi's works, as well as the definitive edition of the Thousand and One Nights and a pathbreaking study of Ibn Khaldun's philosophy of history.

"This is the magisterial work of an extraordinary scholar. Muhsin Mahdi has spent a lifetime editing, translating, and interpreting Alfarabi. In Mahdi's presentation, Alfarabi becomes one of the greatest minds of the Middle Ages, whose original ideas on philosophy and religion, on theology and jurisprudence, are relevant to contemporary discussions." - Joel L. Kraemer, University of Chicago.