FAN VAULT

fan vault, in architecture, a method of vaulting used in the perpendicular style, of which the earliest example is found in the cloisters of gloucester cathedral, built towards the close of the 14th century. the ribs are all of one curve and equidistant, and their divergency, resembling that of an open fan, has suggested the name. one of the finest examples, though of later date (1640), is the vault over the staircase of christ church, oxford. for the origin of its development see vault. farabi [abu nasr muhammad ibn tarkhan ul-farabi] (ca. 870-950), arabian philosopher, was born of turkish stock at farab in turkestan, where also he spent his youth. thence he journeyed to bagdad, where he learned arabic and gave himself to the study of mathematics, medicine and philosophy, especially the works of aristotle. later he went to the court of the hamdanid saif addaula, from whom he received a warm welcome and a small pension. here he lived a quiet if not an ascetic life. he died in damascus, whither he had gone with his patron. his works are very clear in style, though aphoristic rather than systematic in the treatment of subjects. unfortunately the success of avicenna seems to have led to the neglect of much of his work. in europe his compendium of aristotle's _rhetoric_ was published at venice, 1484. two of his smaller works appear in _alpharabii opera omnia_ (paris, 1638), and two are translated in f.a. schmolders' _documcnta philosophiae arabum_ (bonn, 1836). more recently fr. dieterici has published at leiden: _alfarabi's philosophische abhandlungen_ (1890; german trans. 1892); _alfarabi's abhandlung des musterstaats_ (1895; german trans. with an essay "uber den zusammenhang der arabischen und griechischen philosophie," 1900); _die staatsleitung von alfarabi_ in german, with an essay on "das wesen der arabischen philosophie" (1904). for farabi's life see mcg. de slane's translation of ibn khallikan (vol. 3, pp. 307 ff.); and for further information as to his works m. steinschneider's article in the _memoires de l'academie_ (st petersburg, serie 7, tom. 13, no. 4, 1869); and c. brockelmann's _gesch. der arab. litteratur_, vol. i. (weimar, 1898), pp. 210-213. (g. w. t.)