Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
BILIMNAME, cilt.0, sa.3, ss.365-379, 2020 (ESCI)
In the Middle Ages the Islamic world was quite advanced both in science and philosophy. The science and philosophy produced by Muslims conveyed into Christian and the Jewish world by means of translations since XI. Century. Many Christian and Jewish thinkers such as Aquinas (d. 1274), Albertus Magnus (1280), Duns Scotus ( d. 1308) Gaon ( d. 942), Pakuda (d. 1120), Yehuda Halevi (d. 1144), Maimonides (d. 1204) and Gersonides (d. 1344) grew up. These thinkers, besides their owe their intellectual accumulation to Muslim thinkers such as al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, al-Ghazali and Ibn Rushd. There are some reasons for this: First, Maimonides directly refers the name of alFarabi as Abu Nasr in in his most important work, Dalalat al-hairin. Secondly, he praises of al-Farabi in the letter written to his student. Finally, he makes lots of similar statements. This study tries to show how Maimonides, known as the Second Moses, feeds from al-Farabi, known as al-muallim al-sani in the context Dalalat al-hairin. The fact that the Islamic world was at an advanced level in terms of both science and thought in the Middle Ages played an important role in the transfer of the works produced from the Islamic world into other languages. In this context, many works written in Arabic, both astronomy, medicine, and philosophical / theological, have been translated into other languages such as Hebrew and Latin and presented for the use of scientists who speak that language. Ibn Sina's al-Shifa, al-Ghazali's Makasid al-falasifa, Ibn Rushd's commentaries on Aristotle's works, al-Bitruci's work on astronomy were translated into both Latin and Hebrew. Likewise, many works written by al-Farabi (339/950), known as the second teacher (al-muallim al-sani), were transferred to both Hebrew and Latin languages in the Middle Ages. It is an accepted fact that Jewish thought in the Middle Ages was significantly fed by Islamic thought. Many Jewish thinkers have written their works within the framework of works and problems written in the Islamic tradition. For example Saadia Gaon (d. 942), one of the important figures of medieval Jewish thought. He was influenced by the Muslim theology school Mutazila on many issues. He also attempts to prove the principles of Jewish theology through reason and to refute the evidence against it through reason. According to him, the mind is at the service of religion and the truths reached through it are also valid. That is, when the teachings of the mind are understood in a real sense, it will be seen that they are compatible with the teachings of Judaism. Similarly, Maimonides, who was born in Cordoba, nourished from Islamic tradition and like other Jewish thinkers, he wrote his works in Judeo-Arabic style. Maimonides wrote Dalalat al-hairin in the 1190s. This work consists of letters sent to his student Yosef ben Yehuda Ibn Simon. In this famous work, he dealt with philosophical/theological issues. Maimonides refers to alFarabi (d. 950) with the name of Abu Nasr, to Ibn Bacce (d. 1138) under the name of Abu Bakr as-Saigh and to the doctor Zakariya al-Razi (d. 925) by his name. In addition, he refers al-Kabisi (d. 990), known as Alcabitius in the Western world, and the Muslim astronomer Jabir. He also refers by name to Ibn Eflah al-Isbili (d. 1150) and gives their views on the subject he has dealt with. As can be seen, Muslim theologians and thinkers were influential in Maimonides's thought system. It can be said that al-Farabi has an important influence among these thinkers. The fact that Maimonides makes direct quotations from al-Farabi's works and strongly recommends to students to read his works. Rading Maimonides's Dalalat al-hairin al-Farabi's influence can be seen. Lets give some examples: al-Farabi says in al-madinat al-fadila "In him intellect, intellection and intellected are the same meaning, the same person and the same undivided essence. His omniscience also like this. To know something He is not need another thing from himself. His knowledge about himself is nothing but his essence." In a similar context Maimonides says "Consequently God exists without possessing the attribute of existence. Similarly He lives, without possessing the attribute of life; knows, without possessing the attribute of knowledge; is omnipotent without possessing the attribute of omnipotence; is wise, without possessing the attribute of wisdom; all this reduces itself to one and the same entity; there is no plurality in Him, as will be shown. (The Guide, I/57) al-Farabi says: "Therefore, philosophers call the perfect being (al-wujud alkamil) the quiddity, which is the nature of perfect being. When the philosophers say " what is the quiddity of the thing" they mean the most perfect being of the thing, which is its nature." Maimonides says: "After this introduction, I would observe that, -as has already been shown -God's existence is absolute, that it includes no composition, as will be proved, and that we comprehend only the fact that He exists, not His essence. Consequently it is a false assumption to hold that He has any positive attribute: for He does not possess existence in addition to His essence: it therefore cannot be said that the one may be described as an attribute [ of the other]; much less has He [ in addition to His existence] a compound essence, consisting of two constituent elements to which the attribute could refer: still less has He accidents, which could be described by an attribute.(The Guide, I/58) Based on these examples, it is possible to argue that Maimondes thanks to his reading of al-Farabi in many respects.