Dr. Reza Mahouzi, the Scientific Deputy of The First World Congress on “Farabi and Islamic Culture and Civilization” stated that those who are interested in participating can submit abstracts of their papers by the end of August 2022 and the original articles by the end of December 2022 through the congress website at https://farabicongress.ir
Reza Mahouzi, the Scientific Deputy of the first World Congress on Farabi and Islamic Culture and Civilization at the special press conference of the congress pointed out that the congress will be held with the collaboration between the Institute of Cultural and Social Studies and the Secretariat of the Farabi International Festival and continued: “Farabi is one of the brightest figures of human rationality and wisdom that flourished in Islamic civilization and is the symbol of intercultural dialogues and peace of the wisdom, and he is founder of problem-oriented knowledge in the Islamic world that is called Islamic wisdom.
He continued: “The importance of Farabi for us is not only from the historical and civilization aspect, which is very valuable, but far from that, in terms of the topics, words and lessons that it can have for the contemporary world. Farabi has presented his coherent political and social theory in the context of a larger and more coherent metaphysical theory that includes anthropological, cosmological and theological issues.”
Mahouzi stated: “His political and social thesis is not a one-dimensional or even a multi-dimensional thesis, but a network thesis that every intellectual and every thinker, while studying and meditating on it, can see its reciprocal relationships with a multitude of epistemological and existential subjects and issues. This statement is also true for his other ideas regarding linguistics, ethics, management, aesthetics and art, mathematics and geometry, etc. This feature raises Farabi’s thoughts as a model of knowledge and wisdom that is very informative for the contemporary world and contains serious and significant themes.
He added: “Dozens and hundreds of specialized but separate and fragmented issues of human life, which are studied under the title of humanities of our time in the departments and colleges and higher education circles of the world, can enter into deep dialogue with Farabi’s thought. Just as Farabi himself had a conversation with his predecessors in different cultures, languages, and religions, and genuinely introduced himself as a philosopher of dialogue, culture, and peace in his works, thoughts, and practical life.
Referring to the organization of Farabi Congress, Mahouzi stated: “In the first World Congress of Farabi and Islamic Culture and Civilization, while rereading the thoughts of this pious and sage in the true sense of the word, we are attempting to look at the issues and problems of the contemporary world, especially the questions raised in the academic fields of humanities, we will engage Farabi with the problems of our time and have meaningful and scholarly dialogue with him. Indeed, these dialogues are the fulfillment of Farabi’s desire and character in the context of Khorasani civilization and cultural Iran.
Mahouzi added: “Farabi aged in the context of Khorasan’s dialogue-oriented civilization and flourished and grew in the same civilization. He is the true son of great Khorasan and the most obvious symbol and indicator of Khorasan culture and the standard carrier of scientific and cultural dialogues. His journey from Merv to Egypt and discussing Greek, Egyptian, Iranian, Indian, Buddhist, Islamic, and other ideas is the method that we should consider in our academic character today; dialogue between the old and the new, interdisciplinary dialogues and peace-oriented dialogues in a friendly and intellectual environment.
The Scientific Deputy of the World Farabi Congress invited all domestic and foreign Farabi scholars to cooperate in the organization of this congress and said: “We want these people, many of whom will cooperate in the scientific committee of the Congress, to help us realize the goals and intentions of the wise Farabi. We know him as the second teacher of dialogue and wisdom; we want the collaboration of all interested scholars through sending their research papers with the aim of realizing the desired intentions of this congress.”
Referring to the goals of the World Congress, Mahouzi said: comparative reading of Farabi’s philosophical and social thoughts, establishment of academic links between Farabi scholars of the world, revival of Persian-Islamic cultural and civilizational ideas and heritage and interdisciplinary feasibility of examining Farabi’s thoughts with contemporary humanities and the c0ntemporary topics and issues constitute the main objectives of the Congress.
He went on to introduce the scientific task groups of the Congress and stated: These task groups include “Farabi and the history of philosophy”, “metaphysics and theoretical wisdom”, “practical wisdom”, “sciences and their branches”, “language and identity”, “dialogues between cultures”, “religion and art”, and “Farabi and Islamic civilization”.
Referring to the deadline for submitting abstracts and the full text of papers to the Farabi Congress, Mahouzi said: “this congress will be held in March 2023 with the participation of universities and international Farabi research centers, and those interested in participating can submit their abstracts by the end of August 2022 and the original Submit the articles by the end of December through the Congress website at https://farabicongress.ir .
At the end of his report, he stated that specialized meetings will be held before the congress and said: We will use the capacities of 15 groups of the internal section of the Farabi International Festival for academic discussions under the title of “Farabi and Old and New Dialogues”.
Hojjat al-Islam Dr. Hamid Parsania, the director of the scientific council of the Congress, also said in the continuation of this meeting where he was present online: “Farabi was placed in an important historical and geographical position because in the era when human rationality had matured in a different way what was in the Islamic world at the beginning of the third and fourth centuries. He had seen great professors in Baghdad and had learned intellectual and rhetorical sciences and philosophy from them. He has also witnessed scientific and epistemological debates between different currents of thought and has created his works according to these observations.
Pointing out that Farabi is a great writer, he added: “some of his works have created turning points in the history of thought and he had a comprehensive outlook at the models of rationality and the relationships of sciences with each other. He has commented on the Quranic verses and traditional narrations as well as on the intellectual heritage of human history.
Parsania stated that the Islamic world today is in dire need of paying attention to its historical heritage and people like Farabi who were exposed to different intellectual currents, and continued: “Farabi’s outstanding characteristic is his creativity, while with his scientific knowledge, intellect, rationality, he accepts revelation and intuition and innovates in relation to these matters within the intellectual knowledge.”
He called metaphysics and ontology as the pinnacle of Farabi’s knowledge and added: “Farabi, in addition to considering the place of reason and scientific knowledge, considers jurisprudence to be the main human science. His courage, tact, knowledge and mastery of knowledge fields are not issues that can be easily passed over.”
Stating that Farabi is not just an individual, but is placed along the history of human thought and the Islamic world, the director of the scientific council of the Congress said: “Farabi’s successors in the philosophical and intellectual flow of the Islamic world include such figures as Avicenna, Sheikh Eshragh, Sadr al-Moteallehin, and Allameh Tabatabaee.
He considered Farabi as occupying an important and identity-making position in the geography of the Islamic world and Iran and said: “Although there have been other intellectual currents parallel to Farabi, the fusion and unity that exists between reason and narration in Farabi’s thought is very unique to him. Farabi has many contributions in the field of social sciences and humanities. He is a great writer, but his most detailed works are in the field of cultural and social issues, such as his great work, “The Ideas of the People of the City of Utopia”.