The Importance of the Intellect in Al-Farrabi's Cosmology

The lowest separate intellect is arguably the most important and interesting entity in Al-Farrabi's entire system. It has responsibility for our world down here, below the heavens. When elemental matter is suitably mixed together so that it is prepared to be a baby giraffe, for instance, the intellect emanates the form of giraffe onto the matter. This idea was extremely influential on Avasana and others. In Arabic philosophical literature, the intellect is often honored with the phrase Wahib Asuwar, which came into Latin as Datoa formatum,.