THE GOVERNER OF THE BEST CITY BASED ON A CLASSICAL MASTER PIECE ON MANAGEMENT AND POLITICS: AN ANALYSIS OF EL-MEDINET'UL-FAZILA

Abstract

El-Medînetu’l-Fâzila was written between 940-942 by Farabi. It is one of the most important classical piece in the fields of politics and administration. It explains the Farabi’s approaches on city and society. In El-Medinetu’l Fazila the work of Farabi (870-950), who is a well-known scholar in politics and philosophy, the concepts of virtue and happiness are based on ethics. According to him, the ultimate goal of the state should be to establish virtue and happiness. In this context, Farabi argues that a leader’s competency must be based on physical, personal and moral qualities. Farabi attributes 12 qualifications to the first leader and governor of the virtuous city. On the other hand, it is unlikely for someone to embody all these qualities in one person. If the successors of the first leader should pursue the established system and laws if they are not possess required capabilities. It was an important guiding source on the central and local governments. This study is a theoretical research based on the reladed literature. While ElMedinetu’l Fazila is the primary data source for the discussions, the research also uses secondary sources on this master piece to strengthen the arguments of the study.