al-Fārābī’s portrait on a Kazakh banknote (Public Domain)
Abu Nasr al-Fārābī is known as ‘the second teacher’, after Aristotle. The philosopher from Thurkestan is one of the first thinkers to synthesize Aristotle and Plato with Islamic theology. Thanks to al-Fārābī, ancient Western philosophy becomes a vital part of the Islamic world for the next three centuries.