Civil Friendship and the Forms of City

Civil friendship is one of most important category in Farabi's political philosophy. The question of this paper is that "what is the relationship between civil friendship and the kind of city in Farabi's thought?" Based on this question and with the method of philosophical content analysis of Farabi's political philosophy, it would be clear that civil friendship is the binding matter of members of city. Civil friendship shapes the form of cities, too. In fact, the knowledge which determines the happiness, would appear in a friendly matter that shapes all civil affairs and cooperation. Accordingly, the most important finding of this paper is that depending to the excellent matter to be followed by people as the members of city, the excellent city will shaped and based on matters as like pleasure, joy, power, and so, the opponent of excellent city (or ignorant cities) will appeared. So, based on the civil friendship, the different kinds of excellent and non-excellent cities will shaped and each city requires the certain relations between its members.