SOURCE: Colmo, Christopher. “Alfarabi on the Prudence of Founders.” The Review of Politics 60, no. 4 (fall 1998): 719-41.

In the following essay, Colmo examines al-Fārābī's advice to rulers in the Book of Religion, comparing and contrasting it with the advice given by Nicolo Machiavelli in The Prince.

Introduction

The founder of a religious community can use religion to bind the community together, uniting it towards a single goal.¹ To affirm this truth while placing prudent limitations on the universal claims of religion is Alfarabi's intention in the Book of Religion.² Machiavelli's teaching on prudence and political founders, while not primarily concerned with the founding of religious communities, is in important ways anticipated by Alfarabi. It is, then, convenient to use Machiavelli as a helpful bridge to the unfamiliar territory of the Book of Religion.

Readers of the Prince will be aware that Machiavelli saw the consistent practice...