 Al-Fārābī’s tale of the origins of language runs on into a tale of how language makes it possible to handle concepts in new ways. For al-Fārābī one key difference between language and concepts is that language is public and allows communication between people. Hence many of the new uses of concepts have to do with social interaction. In each case he is interested in the development of new skills for handling concepts. Skills involve instruments and rules for handling these instruments; so the appearance of a new skill involves an acceptance of the rules (qawānīn, singular qānūn) for handling its instruments. A bundle of associated skills and their rules is called an “art” (ṣinā‘a). 