Redefining the Muslim Community: Ethnicity, Religion, and Politics in the Thought of Alfarabi by Alexander Orwin

Abstract

Reviewed by: Redefining the Muslim Community: Ethnicity, Religion, and Politics in the Thought of Alfarabi by Alexander Orwin Rebecca Hill Alexander Orwin, Redefining the Muslim Community: Ethnicity, Religion, and Politics in the Thought of Alfarabi ( Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2017) 264 pp. In an age of increasingly nationalistic tendencies in global geopolitics, Alexander Orwin's book entitled Redefining the Muslim Community: Ethnicity, Religion, and Politics in the Thought of Alfarabi addresses one of the founding political philosophers of the Islamic world and his idealization of the Muslim state, nation, or community—the 'umma, which defies direct translation in English and perhaps in the Western political mind in general. Culling political passages from Al-Farabi's impressively large body of philosophical works, [End Page 260] Orwin seeks to distill a singular philosophy about the 'umma that he feels will remedy the current rifts within the Muslim world and its neighbors. Al-Farabi's characterizations of the 'umma, of course, are informed by the going theories of his time, including the influence of geography and climate on political disposition. His influences must begin, of course, with Plato (The Republic) and Aristotle (Politics), the sources from which Al-Farabi draws, to the best of our knowledge. Whether or not Plato and Aristotle distinguished their ideal states as ethnically homogenous is of great importance to the author (see the alternation of "ethnos" and "genos" on page 19). Neither Plato nor Aristotle strictly advocated for a monoethnic nation, despite what their later commentators would say. That said, Plato flavored his description of the state with quintessentially Greek markers of culture: theatre, music, poetry, choruses, etc. When discussing Plato, Al-Farabi, himself from the Outremer, distant from the seat of Islam, as it were, focuses on Plato's suggestion that the barbarians were just as likely—if not more likely—to effectively carry out the establishment of the Republic. For example, Plato bemoaned the fact that in the present Greek republic, it is not customary to see women (like men) exercising in the nude; in the ideal republic, there would be no such discrimination. While it is unlikely Al-Farabi would advocate for such a liberal policy, he draws this comparison to Plato: the 'umma he describes is not the 'umma that is yet at hand. These ancient exempla are ideals; they did not exist in the real world, and their lack of establishment during the lifetime of the Greeks is blamed on the citizens not being ready for progressive philosophy. The right philosopher king would return the city to a "pristine blankness" (28) necessary for the state to thrive. Socrates' Republic, though, cannot get out from underneath his shadow, particularly in the Myth of Er book. Al-Farabi, a multiculturalist, skips over the final myth and instead insists that the 'umma will come about when philosophers respect the inertia of culture. According to Al-Farabi, the 'umma will require "gradual reform" (35) rather than seismic change, and to this end, education will play a significant role in gathering the people accordingly. Likewise, Al-Farabi does not agree with Aristotle's claim that the city was paramount to the ethnos, which could not be governed like a city regardless. However, Al-Farabi does feel that cooperation and happiness would be natural consequences of a well-organized polis. According to Orwin, Al-Farabi looks to language to bind people of Islamic persuasion. Different language groups are a problem, even among ethnic relatives. It is the basic impulse of the soul, Al-Farabi argues, to learn, develop speech, and communicate to form a larger social organism beyond natural order: "Every 'umma is formed by nature but consummated only by custom, so that by the end of its development the natural elements seem almost to have disappeared" (49). Although he unsurprisingly draws upon Qur'anic verses to support his definition of 'umma, Al-Farabi concedes that other great 'ummas have existed before Islam—in ancient India, Egypt, Ethiopia, Syria, and the like. Rather than attributing their strength to a great ruler, regime, or even religion, Al-Farabi emphasizes the role of language in uniting a people and, as a natural consequence, national stories. As an extension, all expressions...