As part of the First International Forum "Abu Nasr al-Farabi: Dialogue of time," dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Kazakh National University, we interviewed the director of the Institute of Language and Art named after M.Auezov, corresponding member of the NSA RK, Honored figure of Kazakhstan,  Ph.D. in philology, Professor Ualikhan Kalizhan.

“History is created by individuals. The history of state that left its mark is created by individuals. Through many centuries al-Farabi again returned to Kazakhs. His name called with respect among the great personalities that have emerged from Otrar. Al-Farabi considered as the second teacher after Aristotle” — says Ualihan Kalizhanov.

Al-Farabi takes a special place among the Eastern personalities of that time. His civil politics, way to happiness, theology, ideas of interrelationship of science, books about music it’s not only priceless heritage of nation. No matter how much time has passed, the heritage of the great philosopher remains contemporary and relevant for all of us. No matter how much time passes, the legacy of a great thinker remains contemporary and relevant for all of us.

Cotemporary science awarded al-Farabi with the title of the Doctor of Philosophy, and philology is known as the collection of all sciences.

“If classify the heritage of al-Farabi, it would be said that he is the founder of theory of literature” – says U. Kalizhanov.  In his book “The classification of sciences” there is a section about poetics, where theory of literature divided into three areas. First, describes the simple and complicated poem, types and sizes that being affected by “sabab” and “uatad” the Arabic terminology or “style” and “foot” in Greek.  Also al-Farabi touched the poem and hemistich, their number and length of syllables, describes what their fundamental difference is. Second, he examines the rhythm of poems. Al-Farabi paid attention to which poems rhythm was saved from the beginning to end and how many of the sound it includes. Third, he interpreted the words that make up the poem, but he does not analyze so-called edifying words.

Al-Farabis’ conclusions were used by scientist in Europe. Russian scientist V. Zhirmynskii, relying on “Classification” wrote the theory of literature. Scientist-linguist such as Kazhym Zhumaliyev and Zeinolla Kabdolov, in his writings about theory of literature took the heritage of al-Farabi as the basis.

Hosting the Farabi’s reading dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Kazakh National University is the beginning of national modernization, says U. Kalizhan.

“We are going to build an “Eternal country”, for this reason we need to know the history, says Professor. If I am not mistaken, 14 years ago, the President wrote the book “In the flow of history”. In this book written: “I am the head of the state, so I need to know the history of five centuries at least”. Describing the history of the nation, N. Nazarbayev expressed a variety of fresh weighty thoughts. Today, after 14 years, these thoughts are modernized with the program “People in the flow of history”. Farabi’s reading is the part of this program.

Olzhas Berkinbayev