A021 - Ibn Khaldun

 Ibn Khaldun, ‘Abd al-Rahman

Ibn Khaldun, ‘Abd al-Rahman (‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Khaldun) (Abu Zayd Abd-ar-Rahman ibn Khaldun) (‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Khaldun) (Ibn Khaldoun) (Abū Zayd ‘Abdu r-Raḥman bin Muḥammad bin Khaldūn al-Hadrami) (May 27, 1332 - March 17, 1406).  Historian, sociologist and philosopher of Tunis.  He is one of the greatest intellects in the history of mankind.. 

Born on May 27, 1332, in Tunis (now in Tunisia), of a Spanish-Arab family, Ibn Khaldun held court positions in what are today Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and in Granada, Spain, and was twice imprisoned. Carefully educated, and having escaped the Black Death, he went to Fez in 1350, then the most brilliant capital of the Muslim West.  He was put in prison for two years for having changed his loyalty in the turbulent political situation of the day (around 1360).  His friendship with the vizier Ibn al-Khatib ensured him an honorable reception in Granada in 1362, from where he also came in contact with the Christian world. 

Abu ‘Abd Allah, the amir of Bougie (in Arabic, Bijaya), meanwhile had regained his amirate and appointed Ibn Khaldun as his chamberlain.  After the death on the battlefield of the amir, Ibn Khaldun handed over the town to the conqueror, Abu ‘Abd Allah’s cousin Abu‘l-‘Abbas, amir of Constantine, and entered his service.  But, in time, he resigned and went to Biskra where he attempted to lead the life of a man of letters.  However, not able to resist intrigue, he was continuously on the move, trying to back the winner although there was no winner in the Muslim West of the fourteenth century.  Over time, he came to be regarded with mixed feelings never entirely free from suspicion.  He left for Tlemcen, where the sultan once again wanted his services.  Pretending to accept, he fled to live in the castle of Ibn Salama (1375-1379), near the present-day Frenda in Algeria.

In 1375, he went into seclusion near modern Frenda, Algeria, taking four years to compose his monumental Muqaddimah, the introductory volume to his Kitab al-Ibar (Universal History). Ibn Khaldun’s fame rests primarily on his Muqaddimah -- his Introduction.  It was the author’s intention to write an introduction to the historian’s craft and present it as an encyclopedic synthesis of the methodological and cultural knowledge necessary to produce a truly scientific work.  The central point is the study of the symptoms of, and the nature of, the ills from which civilizations die.  His Moralistic Examples (from History) is important for the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, especially for the Muslim West and particularly for the Berbers.

The Kitab al-Ibar is a valuable guide to the history of Muslim North Africa and the Berbers.  Its six history volumes, however, are overshadowed by the immense significance of the Muqaddimah.  In it, Ibn Khaldun outlined a philosophy of history and theory of society that are unprecedented in ancient and medieval writing and that are closely reflected in modern sociology.  Societies, Ibn Khaldun believed, are held together by the power of social cohesiveness, which can be augmented by the unifying force of religion.  Social change and the rise and fall of societies follow laws that can be empirically discovered and that reflect climate and economic activity as well as other realities. 

In 1379, Ibn Khaldun returned to Tunis where he lived as a teacher and scholar.  However, enmity from Ibn ‘Arafa, the representative of the Maliki school in Hafsid Tunisia, made Ibn Khaldun decide to leave the Muslim West.  The sultan granted him permission for the pilgrimage, and in 1382, he left for Cairo.

In 1382, on pilgrimage to Mecca, Ibn Khaldun was offered a chair at the famous Islamic university of al-Azhar by the sultan of Cairo, who also appointed him judge (qadi) of the Maliki rite of Islam.   In Cairo, Ibn Khaldun taught at al-Azhar and was appointed Maliki chief judge, but intrigues forced him to resign.  After his pilgrimage, he was placed at the head of the khanqah of Baybars, the most important Sufi convent in Egypt. 

Appointed judge again, and dismissed after a year, in 1400, he was obliged to accompany the Burji Mameluke al-Nasir Faraj on his expedition to relieve Damascus, which was threatened by Timur.  Left in the besieged town, he played a role in its surrender to the feared conqueror.  Having witnessed the horrors of the burning and sacking of Damascus, he returned to Cairo where he was well received.  He died during his sixth office as judge.   He died on March 17, 1406.

Ibn Khaldun  is universally recognized as the founder and father of sociology and sciences of history.  He is best known for his famous Muqaddimah (Prolegomena).  Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad, generally known as Ibn Khaldun after a remote ancestor, was born in Tunis in 1332 to an upper class family that had migrated from Seville in Muslim Spain.  His ancestors were Yemenite Arabs who settled in Spain at the very beginning of Muslim rule in the eighth century.

During his formative years, Ibn Khaldun experienced his family’s active participation in the intellectual life of the city, and to a lesser degree, its political life.  He was accustomed to frequent visits to his family by the political and intellectual leaders of western Islamic states (i.e., North Africa and Spain), many of whom took refuge there.  Ibn Khaldun was educated at Tunis and Fez, and studied the Qur‘an, the Prophet Muhammad’s hadith and other branches of Islamic studies such as Dialectical theology and the shari‘a (Islamic Law of Jurisprudence, according to the Maliki School).  He also studied Arabic literature, philosophy, mathematics and astronomy.  While still in his teens, Ibn Khaldun entered the service of the Egyptian ruler Sultan Barquq.

Ibn Khaldun led a very active political life before he finally settled down to write his well-known masterpiece of history.  He worked for rulers in Tunis and Fez (in Morocco), Granada (in Muslim Spain) and Biaja (in North Africa).  In 1375, Ibn Khaldun crossed over to Muslim Spain (Granada) as a tired and embittered man solely for the reasons of escaping the turmoil in North Africa.  Unfortunately, because of his political past, the ruler of Granada expelled him.  He then went back to Algeria to spend four years in seclusion in Qalat ibn Salama, a small village.  It was in Qalat that he wrote  the Muqaddimah, the first volume of his world history that won him an immortal place among historians, sociologists and philosophers.  The uncertainty of his career continued because of unrest in North Africa.  Finally, he settled in Egypt where he spent his last twenty-four years.  Theere he lived a life of fame and respect, marked by his appointment as the Chief Malakite Judge.  He also lectured at the Al-Azhar University.

Ibn Khaldun had to move from one court to another, sometimes at his own will, but often forced to do so by plotting rivals or despotic rulers.  He learned much from his encounters with rulers, ambassadors, politicians and scholars from North Africa, Muslim Spain, Egypt and other parts of the Muslim world. 

Ibn Khaldun’s fame rests on the Muqaddimah which forms the first systematic treatise on the philosophy of history.   The Muqaddimah (Introduction) is a masterpiece in literature on philosophy of history and sociology.  In the Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun sees man as social animal, conditioned by his surroundings and the climate he lives in.   Man starts as a nomad of pure and simple manners, loyal to his tribe and eventually settles down to an urbanized, sedentary life.  This is both an advance and a regression, for although the arts and sciences can flourish only in urban communities, the townsman loses the virtues of the nomad, and his tribal spirit turns into national patriotism.  Nations become corrupted by luxury, and are eventually swept away by a ruder, more vigorous people.  As more and more men are contained within city walls, its ruler has to devote more and more attention to keeping the peace and maintaining justice; as his realm grows greater, it needs more and more the unifying force of religion. 

Events in North African history gave Ibn Khaldun the theory that a dynasty normally lasts four generations.  Ibn Khaldun concludes his Muqaddimah with an account of the various Muslim systems of government, and a short survey of the arts and sciences, of education, magic and literature, which constitutes a summary of the extent of knowledge at that time.

The main theme of the The Book of Examples, and the Muqaddimah, seeks to identify psychological, economic, environmental and social facts that contribute to the advancement of human civilization and the currents of history.  Ibn Khaldun analyzed the dynamics of group relationships and showed how group feelings, al-‘Asabiyya, produce the ascent of a new civilization and political power.  He identified an almost rhythmic repetition of the rise and fall in human civilization, and analyzed factors contributing to it. 

Ibn Khaldun’s revolutionary views have attracted the attention of Muslim scholars as well as many Western thinkers.  In his study of history, Ibn Khaldun was a pioneer in subjecting historical reports to the two basic criteria of reason and social and physical laws.  He pointed out the following four essential points in the study and analysis of historical reports: (1) relating events to each other through cause and effect, (2) drawing analogy between past and present, (3) taking into consideration the effect of the environment, and (4) taking into consideration the effect of inherited and economic conditions.

Ibn Khaldun pioneered the critical study of history.  He provided an analytical study of human civilization, its beginning, factors contributing to its development and the causes of decline.  Thus, he founded a new science: the science of social development or sociology, as we call it today.  Ibn Khaldun writes, “I have written on history a book in which I discussed the causes and effects of the development of states and civilizations, and I followed in arranging the material of the book an unfamiliar method, and I followed in writing it a strange and innovative way.”  By selecting his particular method of analysis, he created two new sciences: historiology and sociology simultaneously.

Ibn Khaldun argued that history is subject to universal laws and states the criterion for historical truth: The rule for distinguishing what is true from what is false in history is based on its possibility or impossibility: That is to say, we must examine human society and discriminate between the characteristics which are essential and inherent in its nature and those which are accidental and need not be taken into account, recognizing further those which cannot possibly belong to it.  If we do this, we have a rule for separating historical truth from error by means of demonstrative methods that admits of no doubt.  It is a genuine touchstone by which historians may verify whatever they relate. 

Ibn Khaldun remarked that the role of religion is in unifying the Arabs and bringing progress and development to their society.  He pointed out that injustice, despotism, and tyranny are clear signs of the downfall of the state.  Ibn Khaldun points out that metaphysical philosophy has one advantage only, which is to sharpen one’s wits.  He states that the knowledge of the metaphysical world particularly in matters of belief can only be derived from revelation.

Ibn Khaldun remarked that the role of religion is in unifying the Arabs and bringing progress and development to their society.  He pointed out that injustice, despotism, and tyranny are clear signs of the downfall of the state.  Ibn Khaldun points out that metaphysical philosophy has one advantage only, which is to sharpen one’s wits.  He states that the knowledge of the metaphysical world particularly in matters of belief can only be derived from revelation.

Ibn Khaldun was a pioneer in education.  He remarked that suppression and use of force are enemies to learning, and that they lead to laziness, lying and hypocrisy.  He also pointed out to the necessity of good models and practice for the command of good linguistic habits.  Ibn Khaldun lived in the beginning period of the decline of Muslim civilization.  This experience prompted him to spend most of his efforts on collecting, summarizing and memorization of the body of knowledge left by the ancestors.  He vehemently attacked those unhealthy practices that created stagnation and stifling of creativity by Muslim scholars. 

Ibn Khaldun emphasized the necessity of subjecting both social and historical phenomena to scientific and objective analysis.  He noted that those phenomena were not the outcome of chance, but were controlled by laws of their own, laws that had to be discovered and applied in the study of society, civilization and history.  He remarked that historians have committed errors in their study of historical events, due to three major factors: (1) Their ignorance of the natures of civilization and people; (2) their bias and prejudice; and (3) their blind acceptance of reports given by others.

Ibn Khaldun pointed out that true progress and development comes through correct understanding of history, and correct understanding can only be achieved by observing the following three main points.  First, a historian should not be in any way prejudiced for or against any one or any idea.  Second, he needs to conform and scrutinize the reported information.  One should learn all one could about the historians whose reports one hears or reads, and one should check their morals and trustworthiness before accepting their reports.  Finally, one should not limit history to the study of political and military news or to news about rulers and states.  For history should include the study of all social, religious, and economic conditions. 

The Muqaddimah was already recognized as an important work during the lifetime of Ibn Khaldun.  His other volumes on world history Kitab al-I‘bar deal with the history of Arabs, contemporary Muslim rulers, contemporary European rulers, ancient history of Arabs, Jews, Greeks, Romans, Persians, Islamic History, Egyptian history and North African history, especially that of Berbers and tribes living in the adjoining areas.  The last volume deals largely with the events of his own life and is known as Al-Tasrif.  As with his other books, it was also written from an analytical perspective and initiated a new tradition in the art of writing autobiography.  He also wrote a book on mathematics which is not extant.

Ibn Khaldun’s influence on the subject of history, philosophy of history, sociology, political science and education has remained paramount down to our times.  He is also recognized as the leader in the art of autobiography, a renovator in the fields of education and educational psychology and in Arabic writing stylistics.  His books have been translated into many languages, both in the East and the West, and have inspired subsequent development of these sciences.  Indeed, some commentators consider Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah as superior in scholarship to Machiavelli’s The Prince, a Renaissance classic written a century later.


'Abd al-Rahman ibn Khaldun see Ibn Khaldun, ‘Abd al-Rahman
Abu Zayd Abd-ar-Rahman ibn Khaldun see Ibn Khaldun, ‘Abd al-Rahman
'Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Khaldun see Ibn Khaldun, ‘Abd al-Rahman
Ibn Khaldoun see Ibn Khaldun, ‘Abd al-Rahman
Abū Zayd ‘Abdu r-Raḥman bin Muḥammad bin Khaldūn Al-Hadrami see Ibn Khaldun, ‘Abd al-Rahman
Haldrami, Abū Zayd ‘Abdu r-Raḥman bin Muḥammad bin Khaldūn al- see Ibn Khaldun, ‘Abd al-Rahman