Al-Farabi

About Al-Farabi

Al-Farabi, who lived from 872 to 951 CE, was a towering intellectual figure of the Islamic Golden Age, earning him the #502 ranking in historical importance from MIT's Pantheon project. Known as the "Second Teacher" after Aristotle, he was a profound philosopher, logician, and scientist whose synthesized Neoplatonic thought with Islamic theology. His work significantly influenced later scholastic traditions in both the Islamic world and Europe, establishing foundations for various disciplines that persisted for centuries.

Despite this deep historical significance, Al-Farabi garners relatively modest modern internet attention. In 2025, his Wikipedia pages registered 197K annualized views. This places him in a relatively balanced position with an Attention Gap near 1x, suggesting his online profile roughly matches his historical rank. However, a direct comparison highlights a potential disparity: the Greek philosopher Plutarch, ranked only slightly lower at #605 importance, captured 462K views in the same year, more than double Al-Farabi’s traffic.

The trend data shows a slight decrease in contemporary interest, with a -3.2% year-over-year change in views and a -8% drop in momentum between the first and third quarters of 2025, indicating that the online visibility for this pivotal medieval scholar is currently waning.