caa a22 4500 386350841 CHVBK 20180307111829.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e198904 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0035869X00109220 doi S0035869X00109220 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0035869X00109220 Alon Ilai Fārābī's funny flora: al-Nawābit as "opposition” [Elektronische Daten] [Ilai Alon] In his description of the excellent city (Kitāb al-siyāsat al-madaniyah and 'Ārā ahl al-madīnah al-fāḍilah), al-Fārābī mentions those citizens who are not philosophers, but rather the opponents of the principles of their community. To these groups, of which several are enumerated al-Fārābī refers either as "the rest” (al-Bāqūn), or, "al-Nawābit”. It is this group, and in particular this name, that is intriguing, for although on the face of it it carries no politico-religious significance at all, some conclusions that touch upon these fields may be drawn by scrutinizing it. I would like to show that al-Fārābī abstracted the private name of the Nawābit and gave it the meaning of "opposition”. In order to do this I will analyze his use of the name along the following lines: first a short survey of the lexical usage of the root nbt; then I will show that the Nawābit were regarded by al-Fārābī as oppositional; then that they belong to the excellent cities; that their description entails all areas of political activity; that al-Fārābī was aware of the meaning of the name; that he used it in an abstract manner and the reasons for his choosing this particular name for "opposition”. Secondly I will show the earlier use of the name by a real historical group, and finally its later use by Ibn Bājjah Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1989 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland Cambridge University Press 121/2(1989-04), 222-251 0035-869X 121:2<222 1989 121 JRA https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00109220 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00109220 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Alon Ilai NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland Cambridge University Press 121/2(1989-04), 222-251 0035-869X 121:2<222 1989 121 JRA CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge