Al-Farabi

Al-Farabi, working in Baghdad, was so revered for his mastery of logic and philosophy that he was called 'the Second Teacher' — second only to Aristotle himself. He laboured to show the deep harmony of Plato and Aristotle, and built a grand Neoplatonic system in which all things flow by emanation from the First, the One, through a hierarchy of cosmic Intellects down to our world.

Following Plato's Republic, he described the Virtuous City ruled by a philosopher-prophet, uniting wisdom and revelation. His synthesis laid the foundation for all later Islamic philosophy and, through it, for the Latin scholastics; his greatest heir was Avicenna.