Muhsin Mahdi is James Richard Jewett Professor of Arabic, Emeritus, in the Harvard University Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization. Charles E. Butterworth is Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland. Thomas L. Pangle is the Joe R. Long Chair in Democratic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

"Alfarabi is now considered to be the founder of Muslim philosophy, and proves to be not simply the bridge for carrying over the thought of Aristotle and Plato into Western thought but a man of great originality. . . . Muhsin Mahdi makes clear that Alfarabi is not a popularizer but a man of great subtlety of thought and one who discerns the significance of Plato unmixed with Neo-Platonic philosophy."—Choice