The members of the Polis, in other words citystate, consist of polites, namely the citizens; and the citizens of the polis consist of free Greek men among which foreigners, women, and slaves are not included. The citizenship status was not given to those who were foreigners, women, and slaves in ancient polis of Greece.

Agora, gymnasium, and theatre all together were institutions of ideological re-production of the society since they served for helping people to realise that they lived in a society.

The stratum of Perioikos was more crowded than the stratum composed by Spartans. They were living at the outside lands of Sparta. They were entitled to hold their own lands but had to pay a fee for that. They did not have a political right for joining in administrative duties of the state. They were sometimes used as soldiers, but as a separate unit of army from the Spartans.

Free population of Athens had four strata: Eupatrides, geomores, demiurgus, and thetes -the nobles, small farmers, craftsmen, and poor peasants, respectively. Both inter-class and intra-class struggles between these groups had led to different types of administrations such as Aristocracy, oligarchy, plutocracy, and democracy.

One of the main separations of Sophists from the traditional Greek philosophy was the aim of their investigation. Till to Sophists, the Greek philosophy was a search for the objective reality. However, the aim of the Sophists was not contemplative, but practical. Hence, they became an educational movement in Greek polis. They were teaching the art of life and how to control it to the youth.

It can be noticed that this philosophy had nothing to do with society. It was a kind of internal transcendentalism and a form of monkhood. However, it is still a crucial cornerstone in terms of development of the modern egalitarian political thoughts. This is because of the fact that human beings first time in the course of human history demonstrated a collective uprising with the Cynics achievement of raising awareness against to the non-egalitarian life style.

Plato’s general philosophy can be considered as an introduction for his political thoughts. It always should be kept in mind that the Platonic philosophy is based on a non-egalitarian belief. His philosophy usually starts with underlining the importance of reason (logos). Therefore, he splits the being into object (material) and idea (thought). The human being has material and ideal sides. The ideal side .should govern the material side, namely the body

It has to be kept in mind that ideal state of Plato is not a historical one. It has not become concrete in any period of history. It is timeless. Four elements affect the degeneration of the states: disappearance of internal harmony of society, violation of division of labour within the society, emergence of economical class conflicts, and finally, moral corruption and destruction of unity of the rulers.
"A) The need of mass for social knowledge" is one of the reasons for the birth of sophist thought in Athens.

Since the formation can be understood as a material form gaining process, we can comprehend a formation through influencing factors: material causes, formal causes, effective causes, and target oriented causes. Aristotle said that target-oriented (teleological) causes were the ones that provide a competent form to the formation. Thus, if we reveal the targets of formations, then we can achieve a true comprehension. That is to say, in order to understand the things, one should consider the form, rather than the material. For instance, target of an acorn is to be an oak tree.

For Aristotle, stability of the regimes should be ensured. He was against to the revolutionary movements. He considered revolutions as a disease. Then, the disease should be cured.

The members of the Polis, in other words citystate, consist of polites, namely the citizens; and the citizens of the polis consist of free Greek men among which foreigners, women, and slaves are not included.

In Sparta, another political institution was Apella, something similar to the popular assembly. The drafts, prepared by Gerousia were approved by Apella. The members of the Apella were Spartans who were over thirty-years old and they were not allowed to debate about the drafts.

Free population of Athens had four strata: Eupatrides, geomores, demiurgus, and thetes-the nobles, small farmers, craftsmen, and poor peasants, respectively. Both inter-class and intra-class struggles between these groups had led to different types of administrations such as Aristocracy, oligarchy, plutocracy, and democracy. Contrary to the Sparta, political debates and competition were very vivid in Athens and participants were also large in numbers. The reason behind the prosperous philosophical and political tradition of the ancient Greece is demonstrated in association with this background that someway illustrates a form of what we call today as democracy.

Not only the object and the content, but also methods of investigation changed with Sophists. Previously, methodological understanding of philosophers of nature was based on the method of deduction.

According to Socrates,virtue was a form of knowledge and thus something that could be taught to people.

It always should be kept in mind that the Platonic philosophy is based on a non-egalitarian belief.

The scheme presented by Plato portrays a static societal structure. Indeed, he was aware of the fact that ordinary states cannot achieve all these virtues and thus turn into a just organisation.

According to Aristotle, the structure of the being cannot be understood just by considering the external appearance. Rather, internal relations and connections should be revealed and the substance or cause of the being must be comprehended metaphysically.

Contrary to idealist philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, a materialist contribution to social philosophy was important.

Cicero’s main aim was to turn back to old aristocratic days. According to Cicero, public and republic -state- were the same. When people united within a stable order, a need for administration occurred. Society was a result of sense of community and state was a result of political differentiation. State was a unity, in which people were united with a common objective and connected to each other with legal bonds

Ancient Greek civilization is well-known for its specific political, social, economic, and cultural habitat that is known as “polis”. Polis is both the name of a social milieu and its political institution. This in fact underlines an important initial point that political administration is not something detached from the social life. On the contrary, it is an indispensable part of it in ancient Greece.

Sparta was a city on the south of Peloponnesus peninsula and consists of few villages.

Free population of Athens had four strata: Eupatrides, geomores, demiurgus, and thetes - the nobles, small farmers, craftsmen, and poor peasants, respectively (Ağaoğulları, 2011, p.36). Both inter-class and intra-class struggles between these groups had led to different types of administrations such as Aristocracy, oligarchy, plutocracy, and democracy. Perioikos (strata of Sparta)

Finally, there were also some philosophers, such as Democritus and Epicurus, who tried to understand the transformation of the universe and the movement of cosmos. These early investigations only partly aimed to deal with the social life.

The first celebrity of Greek philosophers, obviously, is Socrates who gained his fame through help of his students, namely through Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle. Unfortunately, each of these philosophers presents a different picture of Socrates. According to Xenophon, Socrates was seeking nothing more than being a good human as well as a citizen. He was not interested in dealing with logic or metaphysics. On the other hand, the portrait of Socrates, as presented by Plato, was a high-level metaphysician and founder of the transcendental philosophy. Aristotle also presented Socrates as a philosopher dealing with theoretical issues, but not in a manner that Plato offers.
Socrates is a philosopher dealing with theoretical issues
Socrates was seeking being a good human (Xenophon)
Socrates was seeking being a good citizen (Xenophon)
Socrates was not interested in dealing with logic (Xenophon)
Socrates was a high-level metaphysician (Plato)

Looking at the successors of Socrates, we can see an important ancient school of political thought that is usually pointed out as one of the oldest versions of egalitarianism: Cynicism. The word cynic, in fact, is from an ancient word used to imply dog. Cynics’ primitive life style was resembled to life of a dog and, therefore, the name of “cynic” was given them by their political opponents. Cynicism was a reactive movement against to the highly non-egalitarian society. The members of the movement were the lowest part of the society who was supported by the foreigners and exiles who were not given a right to citizenship. However, their egalitarian reaction to stratified society was not considerably successful in spreading among the poor. Cynics were a group that pursued happiness and, according to them, only virtuous people could be happy. Socrates was a good example for that. He was living simply and only trying to be virtuous, nothing else.

Plato was from an aristocratic family whose roots were believed to lie down to the God Poseidon. He was a successful Olympic sports player and also a poet. When he met with Socrates, he gave up sports and poem. He devoted his entire career to pursue of a good governance for Greece. But instead of going into politics, in 390 B.C. -when he was thirty-seven-, went to a trip for South Italy and Egypt. He also went to Syracuse based on the invitation of the King. He was the founder of Academia -the first academic institution of Europe-, where he taught his philosophy and political views. The institution was sponsored by some rich friends of Plato himself.

Aristotle classified the governmental types on two dimensions: The first dimension was the rightness and aim of the states. According to this measure, states were classified as being right or wrong. The second dimension was the number of people who possesses the power. There can be only one single person, there can be a minority, or there can be a majority. Thus there occur six different types: The right single person, or minority, or majority regimes and the wrong single person, or minority, or majority regimes. These types can be listed as follows (Coleman, 2000, p. 214):

• The government of a single person who aims the common good: Monarchy


• The government of a minority group who aims the common good: Aristocracy


• The government of the majority of the people which aims the common good: Politeia


• The government of a single person who targets the interests of single person: Tyranny


• The government of

Aristotle classified the governmental types on two dimensions: The first dimension was the rightness and aim of the states. According to this measure, states were classified as being right or wrong. The second dimension was the number of people who possesses the power. There can be only one single person, there can be a minority, or there can be a majority. Thus there occur six different types: The right single person, or minority, or majority regimes and the wrong single person, or minority, or majority regimes. These types can be listed as follows (Coleman, 2000, p. 214):

• The government of a single person who aims the common good: Monarchy


• The government of a minority group who aims the common good: Aristocracy


• The government of the majority of the people which aims the common good: Politeia


• The government of a single person who targets the interests of single person: Tyranny


• The government of a minority group who aims the interests of the rich: Oligarchy


• The government of the majority of the people aiming the interests of the poor: Democracy

Epicurus developed his philosophy based on four different sources: Platonic lecturers of Athens, atomist doctrine of Democritus, septic views of Pyrrhus, and hedonist philosophy of Aristippus. Even though he was affected by all these philosophers, he was a strong critic of them. Unfortunately, he taught his ideas like dogmas and his school gained almost a semi-religious character. Thus, while the further contributions were restrained by this feature, the Epicurean philosophy became easy to be studied. Investigating only Epicurus’ personal philosophy is adequate for understanding the general conception of Epicurean school indeed.

Greek political thought linked to Roman politics through Polybius. He was a Greek, educated in Greece and thus tried to explain the Roman institutions and political developments by the conceptions of Greek political thinking.

A comprehensive understanding of the western political thought requires a careful reading of the early Greek and Roman tradition in this field. Political institutions in ancient Greece started with the birth of polis that is today literally known as city. However, the polis, beyond various concrete structures, represented a particular social organization where a vivid and secure atmosphere for social, political, and cultural opportunities as well as discussions about them were being provided to residents.

Considering existing archival information, it is not possible to specify a precise date for the birth of the polis. We already know that there were settlements on the Greek geography starting from the 2nd Millennium B.C. On the other hand, polis, as a social settlement with its ideological and political institutions, appears at the 5th Century B.C., at the middle of the classical age.

Homer is the name ascribed by the ancient Greeks to the legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey that are two epic poems which are the central works of ancient Greek literature. The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek Kingdoms. It focuses on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles lasting a few weeks during the last year of the war. The Odyssey focuses on the journey to home of Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, after the fall of Troy.

The first celebrity of Greek philosophers is Socrates who gained his fame through help of his students, namely through Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle. According to Socrates, virtue is a form of knowledge and thus something that could be taught to people. Only the virtues citizens should hold is the power of ruling. He was not interested in dealing with logic, nor chemistry and physics. Socrates was an admirer of knowledge and wisdom. According to him, everyday life of society should not be governed by ordinary citizens, who do not have adequate wisdom and knowledge.

Looking at the successors of Socrates, we can see an important ancient school of political thought that is usually pointed out as one of the oldest versions of egalitarianism: Cynicism. The word cynic, in fact, is from an ancient word used to imply dog. Cynics’ primitive life style was resembled to life of a dog and, therefore, the name of “cynic” was given them by their political opponents. Cynicism was a reactive movement against to the highly non-egalitarian society. The members of the movement were the lowest part of the society who was supported by the foreigners and exiles who were not given a right to citizenship. However, their egalitarian reaction to stratified society was not considerably successful in spreading among the poor.

Plato was the founder of Academia -the first academic institution of Europe-, where he taught his philosophy and political views. The institution was sponsored by some rich friends of Plato himself.

Plato was not favourable for democracy. He accepted democracy as a degenerated form and chaotic way of rule.

Six different types of modes of governing can be pointed out in Ancient Greece political thought:
1. The government of a single person who aims the common good: Monarchy
2. The government of a minority group who aims the common good: Aristocracy
3. The government of the majority of the people which aims the common good: Politeia
4. The government of a single person whotargets the interests of single person:Tyranny
5. The government of a minority group whoaims the interests of the rich: Oligarchy
6. The government of the majority of the people aiming the interests of the poor: Democracy

Epicurus developed his philosophy based on four different sources: Platonic lecturers of Athens, atomist doctrine of Democritus, septic views of Pyrrhus, and hedonist philosophy of Aristippus. Even though he was affected by all these philosophers, he was a strong critic of them. Unfortunately, he taught his ideas like dogmas and his school gained almost a semi-religious character. Thus, while the further contributions were restrained by this feature, the Epicurean philosophy became easy to be studied. Investigating only Epicurus’ personal philosophy is adequate for understanding the general conception of Epicurean school indeed.

Augustine believed that the universe was created by the God from nothing. According to him, the God created everything from nothing only in six days. His motto was “God and spirit. That is all I would like to know. Nothing else is needed”. This was a strong negation of reason and philosophy. He thought knowledge was impossible for human being. Human beings were deficient and transgressor. The only way of reaching knowledge would be faith and the scare of God. According to Augustine, justice was a relationship between the God and people.

For Socrates, virtue was the most important value human beings should possess because virtue was a form of knowledge. And only those who are the most virtuous should be in power of ruling.

Administration is an occupation, not a virtue.

According to Plato, Four elements affect the degeneration of the states: 1. disappearance of internal harmony of society, 2. violation of division of labor within the society, 3. emergence of economical class conflicts, and finally, 4. moral corruption and destruction of unity of the rulers. Democracy, however, is a chaotic atmosphere, for Plato; rather than being an order.

According to Aristotle,
Monarchy is the government of a single person who aims the common good
Aristocracy is the government of a minority group who aims the common good
Tyranny is the government of a single person who targets the interests of single person
Oligarchy is the government of a minority group who aims the interests of the rich
Politeia is the government of the majority of the people which aims the common good

The originality of Polybius’ theory depended on his conception about the power relations of politics behind the scene. His claim for a mixed constitution, foresaw a check and balance system for the conflicting powers. According to him, the success of Roman constitution was to ensure this check and balance system. Polybius built his constitutional understanding on not the social classes but political forces and institutional balance. It can be said that he pointed out the way for the modern constitutional separation of powers system.

Epicurus was a materialist philosopher, who followed Democritus. He developed an ethical philosophy, consistent with the materialist philosophy of nature.

All are true for Polybius.

All are true of Cicero except D. He argued that egoism was against nature, therefore he was against the Epicurean views, which suggested giving up with social issues and searching for individual happiness.

Mercifulness is mentioned in the Roman stoicism. It is suggested that a monarch should be merciful to his subjects. Otherwise his kingdom might be short.

Augustine was the scholar who located the universality of Christianity instead of universality of the Roman Empire.

Avicenna is considered to be a descendant of Alfarabi as he continued the Neoplatoic emanationist scheme of existence. In contrast with the classical Muslim theologians, and argued that cosmos has no beginning but is a natural logical product of the divine One; which would later be attacked by Al-Ghazâlî. The superabundant, pure Good- i.e. the One cannot fail to produce an ordered and good cosmos that does not succeed him in time. The cosmos succeeds God merely in logical order and in existence (Rizvi, n.d.).

In the middle ages, the strong relation between jurisprudence and politics was much emphasized by Abu’l-Hassan al-Mâwardi, who could be claimed to be the first Islamic political scientist.

Fuqaha is the plural form of faqih. Faqih is the person who either is specialized in the Islamic science of law (ilm al-fıqh) or the execution of law.

The fundamental aspect which makes room for the existence of the organization of state-or mulk, according to Ibn Khaldûn- is asabiyyah. The following signify the determining role of asabiyyah on ‘umrân: 1. States-especially the great ones- depend upon ruling through lineage and/or alliance; 2. The great state is the one in which rulers succeed one another in a long period of time; this is the fundamental rule in sovereignty and applies until the decay; 3. The rightful ownership is taken from the hands of those who lost it through the asabiyyah possessed.

The state/mulk, according to Ibn Khaldûn, is a necessary being for providing the comfort for human societies, who by nature tend towards welfare and comfort.

The responsibility of the ruler(s), for the materialization of justice, is making ethical codes set forth through fıqh applicable in public space, via incentive and deterrent executions of law (Ibn Khaldûn, 1958-I:262-263).

When we quickly look through the history of thought in the Islamic world after the death of Averroës (1198), we see that the Islamic civilization, in terms of flourishing philosophical thought and/or originality/productivity, has started to vanish.

Averroës, different from Al-Fârâbî, evaluates the relationship between philosophers and nonphilosophers as static.

Al-Mâwardi’s requirements for being a caliph: The caliph, on his view, must be:
1.Just,
2. Possessing full knowledge of the shari‘ah to be skilled in independent interpretation (ijtihâd),
3. Good in overall health-especially in terms of
sight, hearing and speech,
4. Physically sound and not disabled from movement,
5. Good in administration,
6. Brave and courageous enough to declare war and fight against enemies,
7. In relation with (a descendant of) the family of Quraish (ibid).

Related with the social side of religion, Avicenna added a fourth tract to practical philosophy (in addition to ethics, household management, and politics), which he called “the discipline of legislating”.

His direct resources of inspiration included Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Plato’s Republic, and Aristotle’s Politics. Thus, the correct answer is E.

According to Farabi, requirements of common knowledge among the members of the perfect state include the material existents-including the active intellect, the celestial substances, the first ruler, the first cause and all its qualities, but the balance between man and animal. Thus, the correct answer is A.

“In the Latin West, his metaphysics and theory of the soul had a profound influence on scholastic arguments, ın the Islamic East, too, he was the basis for considerable debate and argument. Even the philosopher-theologian Al-Ghazali, in his attack (The Incoherence of Philosophers) admitted that no serious Muslim thinker could ignore him. In general, Avicenna could be claimed to be the principal representative of philosophy in Islam.” Thus, the correct answer is B.

In the middle ages, this strong relation between jurisprudence and politics was much emphasized by Al-Mawardi, who could be claimed to be the first Islamic poitical scientist. Thus, the correct answer is E.

Fasl al-Maqal is the work where Averroes’s fundamental assumption on the relation between philosophy and religion is expressed clearly. Thus, the correct answer is D

The three methods of persuasion are demonstrative, dialectical, and rhetorical-applying to different groups in the society: the first, to philosophers; the second, to theologians; and the third, to large masses. Thus, the correct answer is C.

Asabiyyah is a fundamental factor which puts human beings into wars against one another for sovereignty and for founding dynasties and states. Thus, the correct answer is A.

According to Ibn Khaldun, mulk is the necessary condition for the establishment of social lives in towns and cities. Thus, the correct answer is C

In The Muqaddimah, the term ‘umran’ bears several meanings such as to settle down, building up a construction, visiting a location, and taking care of a given place, but not evacuating a location. Thus, the correct answer is D.

According to The Muqaddimah, the power of muk is materialized only through the execution of law, development cannot be achieved without justice, wealth cannot be acquired without development, the major criterion Allah will evaluate humans is justice, and people cannot survive without acquiring wealth. So, the correct answer is A.

Recommended Correction
There are two correct answers in the options in the question 7 on the page 69. The question might be asked in this form:
Method of persuasion Group Applied

1. Demonstrative Philosophers


2. Dialectical Philosophers


3. Demonstrative Theologians


4. Rhetorical Theologians


5. Rhetorical Large masses

Which of the matches above is/are correct as regards Averroës’ thought?
A) Only I
B) I and II
C) I and V
D) II and V
E) III and IV
Al-Fârâbî’s written works on politics-as well as his other works on philosophy- appear to have a familiarity with Plato and Aristotle. However, when political philosophy is the case, his direct resources of inspiration are as follows:

• Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics;


• Plato’s Republic;


• Aristotle’s Politics, which was only partially available in Arabic.

However, his major works The Perfect State, The Political Regime or The Principles of Beings begin with a metaphysical part presented as a descendant of Neo-Platonic legacy followed by a second part dealing with the organization of the city or state and do not treat of being and unity as the most universal notions. The hierarchical structure of the ideal state reflects purely the hierarchical emanationist structure presented in the first part. As is also understood from the information given, the correct answer is C. When political philosophy is the case, “Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics”, “Plato’s Republic” and “Aristotle’s Politics” are his direct resources of inspiration. “The Perfect State” The Political Regime” and The Principles of Beings are his major works.

Recommended Correction
Page 61
The Aristotelian literature, i.e., a variety of Aristotle’s major works had become known in Europe fthrough the translations from Greek into Arabic…
The Aristotelian literature, i.e., a variety of Aristotle’s major works had become known in Europe through the translations from Greek into Arabic…
Al-Fârâbî argues directly that true philosophy “was handed down to us from the Greeks from Plato and Aristotle alone”. According to Al-Fârâbî, human beings collaborate as societies “in order to preserve [themselves] and to attain [their] highest perfections”. Without this, he emphasizes, “man cannot attain the perfection, for the sake of which his inborn nature [fitra] has been given to him”. In function of their size, associations can or cannot furnish the basis for a “perfect [kâmil] society”.
This way of perfection attributes a goal to society, namely, true felicity (sa‘âdah). On Al-Fârâbî’s view, a city “… in which people aim through association at cooperating for the things by which felicity in its real and true sense can be attained, is the virtuous city [madina fâdıla], and the society in which there is a cooperation to acquire felicity is the virtuous society [ijtima‘ fâdıl]”.
Al-Fârâbî also shares with Aristotle the claim that attaining the highest possible degree of perfection entails happiness; moreover, happiness is one of the key concepts of his thought. Al-Fârâbî’s conception of happiness is rather different from that of Aristotle’s notion of eudaimonia, because ultimate happiness, for Al-Fârâbî, is a state associated with the afterlife, when, the soul has separated from the body-regarding his conception of the soul. But how is ultimate happiness attained? Al-Fârâbî proposes an answer in line with the Ancient Greek thought; pointing out to a faculty which provides human beings with provision on one hand, and, basically formats reason on the other.
As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is D. According to Al-Fârâbî, human beings collaborate as societies “in order to preserve [themselves] and to attain [their] highest perfections. On Al-Fârâbî’s view, the society in which there is a cooperation to acquire felicity is the virtuous society. Al-Fârâbî also shares with Aristotle the claim that attaining the highest possible degree of perfection entails happiness but Al-Fârâbî’s conception of happiness is rather different from that of Aristotle’s notion of eudaimonia, because ultimate happiness, for Al-Fârâbî, is a state associated with the afterlife, when, the soul has separated from the body-regarding his conception of the soul.

In political thought, as well as in metaphysics, Avicenna followed the path built by his predecessor, Al-Fârâbî. For Al-Fârâbî, the conditions for ideal rule are mostly related with the functions of the soul and the intellect. Avicenna thoroughly studied the soul in its totality and in all its functions, whether rational, animal, or vegetative. He charted the operations of all the senses in detail, including the five external senses and especially the five internal senses located in the brain-namely, common sense, imagery (where the forms of things are stored), imagination, estimation (judging/guessing the imperceptible significance or connotations for us of sensed objects, like friendship and enmity, which also includes instinctive sensing), and memory-and how they could help or prevent or slow down the intellect in finding out the middle term and perceiving intelligibles more generally.
As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is E. Avicenna charted the operations of all the senses in detail, including the five external senses and especially the five internal senses located in brain-namely, common sense, imagery, imagination, estimation and memory.

Related with the social side of religion, Avicenna added a fourth tract to practical philosophy (in addition to ethics, household management, and politics), which he called “the discipline of legislating”. As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is C. The discipline of legislating was added by Avicenna as a fourth tract to practical philosophy.

The political writings of Al-Mâwardi may be seen as the sum of two distinct styles: 1. The format focusing on the individual ruler as a social figure, as well as his ideal characteristics and lessons learned from the preceding generations, the “Mirrors for Princes” format, which has an important role in the advising tradition in Islam (nasîhatnâmah); 2. The format in which the theory of the caliphate (imâmah) is put forward, which is more complicated in structure and focused on issues of government. Within the context of the first style, it is convenient to count The Advice to Kings (Nasîhat Al-Muluk); and within the second, Al-Ahkâm As-Sultâniyyah. Al- Mawardi’s main political thought is embodied in his Al-Ahkam As-Sultâniyyah. Only a small part of the work seems to be on political theory, while the rest is a discussion on the details of public administration and rules of government (Sharif, n.d.). But his small portion is extremely important because it is the first attempt in Muslim history to evolve a comprehensive theory of the State and because it has left an enduring influence on the course of Muslim political thought up to our own day. As also be understood from the information given, the correct answer is B.
“The Incoherence of the Philosophers” was written by Al-Ghazâlî. Kitab-al Shifa is a book written by Avicenna (Ebu Ali Husayn Ibn Abdullah Ibn Sînâ). Fasl al-Maqâl was written by Averroës (Ibn Rushd).

Averroës was conscious of the fact that what he just said would be impossible when shari‘ah is understood fully literally. He-following the line of thought in Plato and Al-Fârâbî- had drawn attention to the significance of the “difference in human nature”-i.e., difference between philosophers and non-philosophers, but was aware that shari‘ah was addressed to all Muslims, and not only to the philosophers of the community. As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is B. Averroës drew attention to the significance of the “difference in human nature”.

Apart from reconciling the Ancient Greek legacy with the allegorical interpretation of the shari‘ah, Averroës is worthy of attention in his analysis of the degeneration of state (as he idealized). While doing so, he was most commonly in line with the Platonic thought; but he didn’t neglect adding examples from his own history either, as later would be done by Ibn Khaldûn. As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is B. Averroës is worthy of attention in his analysis of the degeneration of state.

The Muqaddimah is the sum of the Foreword, the Introduction and the First Book of Kitâba’l-Ibar, which Ibn Khaldûn intended as a comprehensive history of world civilizations. However, the analyses and the visionary thoughts on politics, civilization and history have overshadowed what were written in the remaining of Kitâba’l-Ibar; moreover, the studies on Ibn Khaldûn’s thought after his death (1406) have focused more on The Muqaddimah. In the Introduction of The Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldûn started with setting forth his evaluation on the science of history; and in the First Book, with elaborating the following subjects and the reasons underlying them in general: the nature of ‘umrân in the world, and the rural life without the nomadic-settled distinction (bedâwah), sedentary culture and urban life (khadârah), taghallub (sovereignty over winning wars/battles), income, making a living, sciences and education, crafts, etc. This general content was separated into six chapters afterwards; and each subject, was elaborated and discussed in ‘encyclopedical’ details, so to speak.
The first chapter consists of a description-in general framework- of the human civilization, its classes and the places occupied by those civilizations on earth. In the second chapter, the rural societies and their civilizations, i.e. the lives of the societies making a living on agriculture and stockbreeding in rather primitive ways, regardless of the fact that they are nomads or settled as villages, are taken up (In Ibn Khaldûn’s words, ‘badawî ‘umrân’). The third chapter-which also could be read as Ibn Khaldûn’s political theory/philosophy- is an analysis of the idea(s) of state, dynasties, caliphate, rulership and the stages in the organization of state as well as positions in bureaucracy and their duties. The fourth chapter reflects Ibn Khaldûn’s elaboration of the urban societies and their civilizations -i.e. ‘khadarî ‘umrân’, as well as cities and sedentary cultures. The fifth chapter briefly outlines Ibn Khaldûn’s theory of economics; and the majority of the chapter consists of the ways of making a living, in both stages of ‘umrân. The sixth and the last chapter covers an analysis of the sciences, how they are acquired, and transferred to posterity through education.
As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is E.

The fundamental aspect which makes room for the existence of the organization of state-or mulk, according to Ibn Khaldûn- is asabiyyah. The correct answer is B.
In The Muqaddimah, ‘umrân bears the following meanings:

• To settle down/live at a given place


• Visiting a location


• Building up a construction (‘imar’)


• To be settled with, as humans and animals with regard to the place itself, to be frequently visited, be held in good condition


• To take care of a given place, cultivate

Bedâwah means the rural life without the nomadic-settled distinction. Khadârah means sedentary culture and urban life. Taghallub means sovereignty over winning wars/battles.

Ibn Khaldûn, in the beginning of the fourth chapter of The Muqaddimah, uses dynasty, ‘mulk’ and ‘state’ as standing for one another. The correct answer is C.
The state/mulk, according to Ibn Khaldûn, is a necessary being for providing the comfort for human societies, who by nature tend towards welfare and comfort. The ground for this, in other words, what enables mulk to do what it is supposed to do, is found in ‘umrân.
The fundamental aspect which makes room for the existence of the organization of state-or mulk, according to Ibn Khaldûn- is asabiyyah. The following signify the determining role of asabiyyah on ‘umrân:

• States-especially the great ones- depend upon ruling through lineage and/or alliance
• The great state is the one in which rulers succeed one another in a long period of time; this is the fundamental rule in sovereignty and applies until the decay
• The rightful ownership is taken from the hands of those who lost it through the asabiyyah possessed

A, C and E are works of Aristoteles. Republic is a work of Platon. The Perfect State is a work of Al-Farabi.

Politics is a work by Aristoteles.

Al-Fârâbî’s written works on politics-as well as his other works on philosophy- appear to have a familiarity with Plato and Aristotle.

Religion is suited to direct the members of society towards human perfection and thus to contribute simultaneously to the attainment of individual happiness and the well-being of the city: “… the first ruler of the excellent city must already have thorough cognizance of theoretical philosophy; for he cannot understand anything pertaining to God’s, may He be exalted, governance of the world so as to follow it except from that source. It is clear, in addition, that all of this is impossible unless there is a common religion in the cities that brings together their opinions, beliefs, and actions; that renders their divisions harmonious, linked together, and well ordered; and at that point they will support one another in their actions and assist one another to reach the purpose that is sought after, namely, ultimate happiness…” (Book of Religion 27: 113).

The imperative to know, and to know rationally for which the prophet is an extreme model- is based on Aristotle’s concept of happiness as the activity which differentiates humans from all other organic life: “the activity of the intellect is thought to be distinguished by hard work (spoud., ijtih.d), since it employs theory, and it does not desire to have any other end at all except itself; and it has its proper pleasure …. Complete happiness (eudaimonia, sa ‘.da) is this (Nicomachean Ethics, 1177b19-25)”.