 (a) Regarding al-Farabi: In what follows we will focus more on al-Farabi than on Avicenna and Averroes since al-Farabi is a thinker for whom Maimonides expresses strong respect (citing him in the Guide more than any other Islamic thinker; Rudavsky 2010, 7), but also because al-Farabi, as the earliest of these thinkers, exerted influence on many of the ideas in Avicenna, Averroes, and other Islamic philosophers.