Ibn Khaldun[a] (27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732–808AH) was anArab[12]Islamic scholar, historian, philosopher, and sociologist.[13][14][15][16] He is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of theMiddle Ages,[17] and considered by a number of scholars to be a major forerunner of historiography, sociology, economics, and demography studies.[18][note 1][note 2]
His best-known book is theMuqaddimah orProlegomena ("Introduction"), which he wrote in six months as he states in his autobiography.[19] It later influenced 17th-century and 19th-century Ottoman historians such asKâtip Çelebi,Mustafa Naima andAhmed Cevdet Pasha, who used its theories to analyze the growth and decline of theOttoman Empire.[20] Ibn Khaldun interacted withTamerlane, the founder of theTimurid Empire.
Ibn Khaldun – Life-size bronze bust sculpture of Ibn Khaldun that is part of the collection at the Arab American National Museum (Catalog Number 2010.02). Commissioned by The Tunisian Community Center and Created by Patrick Morelli of Albany, New York, in 2009. It was inspired by the statue of Ibn Khaldun erected at the Avenue Habib Bourguiba inTunis.[24]
Ibn Khaldun's life is relatively well-documented, as he wrote anautobiography (التعريف بابن خلدون ورحلته غربا وشرقا,at-Taʻrīf bi-ibn Khaldūn wa-Riḥlatih Gharban wa-Sharqan;[25]Presenting Ibn Khaldun and his Journey West and East) in which numerous documents regarding his life are quoted word-for-word.
Abū Zayd 'Abdu r-Rahman bin Muhammad bin Khaldūn Al-Hadrami, generally known as "Ibn Khaldūn" after a remote ancestor, was born inTunis in AD 1332 (732AH) into an upper-classAndalusian family of Arab descent;[13][14] the family's ancestor was aHadhrami who shared kinship withWa'il ibn Hujr, a companion of theIslamic prophet,Muhammad. His family, which held many high offices inal-Andalus, had emigrated toTunisia after thefall of Seville to theReconquista in 1248. Although some of his family members had held political office in the TunisianHafsid dynasty, his father and grandfather later withdrew from political life and joined amystical order. His brother,Yahya ibn Khaldun, was also ahistorian who wrote a book on theAbdalwadid dynasty and was assassinated by a rival for being the officialhistoriographer of the court.[26]
In his autobiography, Khaldun traces his descent back to the time of Prophet Muhammad through an Arab tribe from the south of theArabian Peninsula, specifically theHadhramaut, which came to theIberian Peninsula in the 8th century, at the beginning of the Islamic conquest: "And our ancestry is from Hadhramaut, from the Arabs of Arabian Peninsula, via Wa'il ibn Hujr also known asHujr ibn 'Adi, from the best of the Arabs, well-known and respected." (p. 2429, Al-Waraq's edition).
Ibn Khaldun's insistence and attachment to his claim of Arab ancestry at a time of Berber dynasties domination is a valid reason to believe his claim of Arab descent.[27][28]
Following family tradition, he strove for a political career. In the face of a tumultuous political situation in North Africa, that required a high degree of skill in developing and dropping alliances prudently to avoid falling with the short-lived regimes of the time.[31] Ibn Khaldūn's autobiography is the story of an adventure, in which he spends time in prison, reaches the highest offices and falls again into exile.
Birth home of Ibn Khaldun atTunisThe mosque in which Ibn Khaldun studied
At the age of 20, he began his political career in the chancellery of the Tunisian ruler Ibn Tafrakin with the position ofKātib al-'Alāmah (seal-bearer),[32] which consisted of writing in finecalligraphy the typical introductory notes of official documents. In 1352, Abū Ziad, the sultan ofConstantine, marched on Tunis and defeated it. Ibn Khaldūn, in any case unhappy with his respected but politically meaningless position, followed his teacher Abili toFez. There, theMarinid sultan, Abū Inan Fares I, appointed him as a writer of royal proclamations, but Ibn Khaldūn still schemed against his employer, which, in 1357, got the 25-year-old a 22-month prison sentence. Upon the death of Abū Inan in 1358, Vizier al-Hasān ibn-Umar granted him freedom and reinstated him to his rank and offices. Ibn Khaldūn then schemed against Abū Inan's successor, Abū Salem Ibrahim III, with Abū Salem's exiled uncle, Abū Salem. When Abū Salem came to power, he gave Ibn Khaldūn a ministerial position, the first position to correspond with Ibn Khaldūn's ambitions.
The treatment that Ibn Khaldun received after the fall of Abū Salem through Ibn-Amar ʻAbdullah, a friend of Ibn Khaldūn's, was not to his liking, as he received no significant official position. At the same time, Amar successfully prevented Ibn Khaldūn, whose political skills he knew well, from allying with theAbd al-Wadids in Tlemcen. Ibn Khaldūn, therefore, decided to move toGranada. He could be sure of a positive welcome there since at Fez, he had helped the Sultan of Granada, theNasridMuhammad V, regain power from his temporary exile. In 1364, Muhammad entrusted him with a diplomatic mission to the king ofCastile,Pedro the Cruel, to endorse a peace treaty. Ibn Khaldūn successfully carried out this mission and politely declined Pedro's offer to remain at his court and have his family's Spanish possessions returned to him.
In Granada, Ibn Khaldūn quickly came into competition with Muhammad's vizier,Ibn al-Khatib, who viewed the close relationship between Muhammad and Ibn Khaldūn with increasing mistrust. Ibn Khaldūn tried to shape the young Muhammad into his ideal of a wise ruler, an enterprise that Ibn al-Khatib thought foolish and a danger to peace in the country. As a result of al-Khatib's influence, Ibn Khaldūn was eventually sent back to North Africa. Al-Khatib himself was later accused by Muhammad of having unorthodox philosophical views and murdered despite an attempt by Ibn Khaldūn to intercede on behalf of his old rival.
In his autobiography, Ibn Khaldūn tells little about his conflict with Ibn al-Khatib and the reasons for his departure. OrientalistMuhsin Mahdi interprets that as showing that Ibn Khaldūn later realised that he had completely misjudged Muhammad V.
Back inIfriqiya, theHafsid sultan ofBéjaïa, Abū ʻAbdallāh, who had been his companion in prison, received him with great enthusiasm and made Ibn Khaldūn his prime minister. Ibn Khaldūn carried out a daring mission to collect taxes among the local Berber tribes. After the death of Abū ʻAbdallāh in 1366, Ibn Khaldūn changed sides once again and allied himself with theSultan of Tlemcen, Abū l-Abbas. A few years later, he was taken prisoner byAbu Faris Abdul Aziz, who had defeated the sultan of Tlemcen and seized the throne. He then entered a monastic establishment and occupied himself with scholastic duties until 1370. In that year, he was sent for to Tlemcen by the new sultan. After the death of ʻAbdu l-Azīz, he resided at Fez, enjoying the patronage and confidence of the regent.
Ibn Khaldūn's political skills and, above all, his good relationship with the wild Berber tribes were in high demand among the North African rulers, but he had begun to tire of politics and constantly switching allegiances. In 1375, he was sent byAbū Hammu, the Abd al-Wadid Sultan of Tlemcen, on a mission to the Dawadida Arabs tribes of Biskra. After his return to the West, Ibn Khaldūn sought refuge with one of the Berber tribes in the west ofAlgeria, in the town ofQalat Ibn Salama. He lived there for over three years under their protection, taking advantage of his seclusion to write theMuqaddimah "Prolegomena", the introduction to his planned history of the world. In Ibn Salama, however, he lacked the necessary texts to complete the work.[33] Therefore, in 1378, he returned to his native Tunis, which had meanwhile been conquered by Abū l-Abbas, who took Ibn Khaldūn back into his service. There, he devoted himself almost exclusively to his studies and completed his history of the world. His relationship with Abū l-Abbas remained strained, as the latter questioned his loyalty. That was brought into sharp contrast after Ibn Khaldūn presented him with a copy of the completed history that omitted the usualpanegyric to the ruler. Under pretence of going on theHajj toMecca, something for which a Muslim ruler could not simply refuse permission, Ibn Khaldūn was able to leave Tunis and to sail toAlexandria.
Ibn Khaldun said ofEgypt, "He who has not seen it does not know the power of Islam."[34] While other Islamic regions had to cope with border wars and inner strife,Mamluk Egypt enjoyed prosperity and high culture. In 1384, the Egyptian Sultan, al-Malik udh-DhahirBarquq, made Khaldun professor of theQamhiyyahMadrasah and appointed him as the Grandqadi of theMaliki school offiqh (one of four schools, the Maliki school was widespread primarily inWestern Africa). His efforts at reform encountered resistance, however, and within a year, he had to resign his judgeship. Also in 1384, a ship carrying Khaldun's wife and children sank off ofAlexandria.
After his return from apilgrimage to Mecca in May 1388, Ibn Khaldūn concentrated on teaching at various Cairo madrasas. At the Mamluk court he fell from favor because during revolts against Barquq, he had, apparently under duress, with other Cairo jurists, issued afatwa against Barquq. Later relations with Barquq returned to normal, and he was once again named the Malikiqadi. Altogether, he was called six times to that high office, which, for various reasons, he never held long.
In 1401, under Barquq's successor, his sonFaraj, Ibn Khaldūn took part in a military campaign against theMongol conqueror,Timur, whobesieged Damascus in 1400. Ibn Khaldūn cast doubt upon the viability of the venture and really wanted to stay in Egypt. His doubts were vindicated, as the young and inexperienced Faraj, concerned about a revolt in Egypt, left his army to its own devices inSyria and hurried home. Ibn Khaldūn remained at the besieged city for seven weeks, being lowered over the city wall by ropes to negotiate with Timur, in a historic series of meetings that he reported extensively in his autobiography.[35] Timur questioned him in detail about conditions in the lands of the Maghreb. At his request, Ibn Khaldūn even wrote a long report about it. As he recognized Timur's intentions, he did not hesitate, on his return to Egypt, to compose an equally-extensive report on the history of theTatars, together with a character study of Timur, sending them to the Merinid rulers inFez.
Ibn Khaldūn spent the next five years in Cairo completing his autobiography and his history of the world and acting as teacher and judge. Meanwhile, he was alleged to have joined an underground party,Rijal Hawa Rijal, whosereform-oriented ideals attracted the attention of local political authorities. The elderly Ibn Khaldun was placed under arrest. He died on 17 March 1406, one month after his sixth selection for the office of the Malikiqadi (Judge).
Kitāb al-ʻIbar, (full title:Kitāb al-ʻIbar wa-Dīwān al-Mubtadaʼ wa-l-Khabar fī Taʼrīkh al-ʻArab wa-l-Barbar wa-Man ʻĀṣarahum min Dhawī ash-Shaʼn al-Akbār "Book of Lessons, Record of Beginnings and Events in the History of the Arabs and the Berbers and Their Powerful Contemporaries"); begun as a history of theBerbers and expanded to auniversal history in seven books.[36][37]
Book 1;Al-Muqaddima ('The Introduction'), a socio-economic-geographical universal history of empires, and the best known of his works.[38]
Books 2–5;World History up to the author's own time.
Books 6–7; Historiography of theBerbers and the Maghreb. Khaldun departs from the classical style of Arab historians[note 3] by synthesising multiple, sometimes contradictory, sources without citations.[39] He reproduces some errors originating probably from his 14th-centuryFez source, the workRawḍ al-Qirṭās byIbn Abi Zar, yetAl-'Ibar remains an invaluable source ofBerber history.
Businesses owned by responsible and organized merchants shall eventually surpass those owned by wealthy rulers.[40]
Concerning the discipline ofsociology, he described the dichotomy of sedentary life versus nomadic life as well as the inevitable loss of power that occurs when warriors conquer a city. According to the Arab scholarSati' al-Husri, theMuqaddimah may be read as a sociological work. The work is based around Ibn Khaldun's central concept ofaṣabiyyah, translated as "group cohesiveness" or "solidarity".[41] This social cohesion arises spontaneously in tribes and other small kinship groups; it can be intensified and enlarged by a religious ideology. Ibn Khaldun's analysis looks at how this cohesion carries groups to power but contains within itself the seeds – psychological, sociological, economic, political – of the group's downfall, to be replaced by a new group, dynasty or empire bound by a stronger (or at least younger and more vigorous) cohesion. Some of Ibn Khaldun's views, particularly those concerning theZanj people of sub-Saharan Africa,[42] have been cited asracist.[43] According to the scholar Abdelmajid Hannoum, Ibn Khaldun's description of the distinctions betweenBerbers and Arabs were misinterpreted by the translatorWilliam McGuckin de Slane, who wrongly inserted a "racial ideology that sets Arabs and Berbers apart and in opposition" into his translation of part of`Ibar translated under the title Histoire des Berbères.[44]
Perhaps the most frequently cited observation drawn from Ibn Khaldūn's work is the notion that when a society becomes a great civilization, its high point is followed by a period of decay. This means that the next cohesive group that conquers the diminished civilization is, by comparison, a group ofbarbarians. Once the barbarians solidify their control over the conquered society, however, they become attracted to its more refined aspects, such as literacy and arts, and either assimilate into or appropriate such cultural practices. Then, eventually, the former barbarians will be conquered by a new set of barbarians, who will repeat the process.
Georgetown University ProfessorIbrahim Oweiss, an economist and historian, argues that Ibn Khaldun was a major forerunner of modern economists and, in particular, originated thelabor theory of value long before better known proponents such asAdam Smith andDavid Ricardo, although Khaldun did not refer to it as either a labor theory of value or theory.[45]
Ibn Khaldun also called for the creation of a science to explain society and went on to outline these ideas in his major work, theMuqaddimah, which states that “Civilization and its well-being, as well as business prosperity, depend on productivity and people’s efforts in all directions in their own interest and profit”.[46]
Ibn Khaldun diverged from norms that Muslim historians followed and rejected their focus on the credibility of the transmitter and focused instead on the validity of the stories and encouraged critical thinking.[47]
Ibn Khaldun also outlines early theories of division of labor, taxes, scarcity, and economic growth.[48]
He argued that poverty was a result of the destruction of morality and human values. He also looked at what factors contribute to wealth, such as consumption, government, and investment. Khaldun also argued that poverty was not necessarily a result of poor financial decision-making but of external consequences and therefore the government should be involved in alleviating poverty. Researchers from Malaysia's Insaniah University College and Indonesia's Tazkia University College of Islamic Economics created adynamics model based upon Ibn Khaldun's writings to measure poverty in the Muslim nations of South Asia and Southeast Asia.[49]
Ibn Khaldun also believed that the currency of an Islamic monetary system should haveintrinsic value and therefore be made ofgold andsilver (such as thedirham). He emphasized that the weight and purity of these coins should be strictly followed: the weight of one dinar should be onemithqal (the weight of 72 grains ofbarley, roughly 4.25 grams) and the weight of 7 dinar should be equal to weight of 10 dirhams (7/10 of amithqal or 2.96 grams).[50]
Ibn Khaldun's writings regarding the division of labor are often compared to Adam Smith's writings on the topic.
The individual being cannot by himself obtain all the necessities of life. All human beings must co-operate to that end in their civilization. But what is obtained by the cooperation of a group of human beings satisfies the need of a number many times greater than themselves. For instance, no one by himself can obtain the share of the wheat he needs for food. But when six or ten persons, including a smith and a carpenter to make the tools, and others who are in charge of the oxen, the ploughing of, the harvesting of the ripe grain, and all other agricultural activities, undertake to obtain their food and work toward that purpose eitherseparately or collectively and thus obtain through their labour a certain amount of food, that amount will be food for a number of people many times their own. The combined labour produces more than the needs and necessities of the workers (Ibn Khaldun 1958, vol. II 271–272)[51]
In every other art and manufacture, the effects of the division of labour are similar to what they are in this very trifling one [pin production]; though, in many of them, the labour can either be so much subdivided, nor reduced to so great a simplicity of operation. The division of labour, however, so far as it can be introduced, occasions, in every art, a proportionable increase of the productive powers of labour (Smith 1976a, vol. I, 13–24)[51]
Both Ibn Khaldun and Smith shared the idea that the division of labor is fundamental to economic growth, however, the motivations and context for such division differed between them. For Ibn Khaldun,asabiyyah or social solidarity was the underlying motive and context behind the division of labor; for Smith it was self-interest and the market economy.[51]
Ibn Khaldun's epistemology attempted to reconcile mysticism with theology by dividing science into two different categories, the religious science that regards the sciences of the Qur'an and the non-religious science. He further classified the non-religious sciences into intellectual sciences such as logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, etc. and auxiliary sciences such as language, literature, poetry, etc. He also suggested that possibly more divisions will appear in the future with different societies. He tried to adapt to all possible societies’ cultural behavior and influence in education, economics and politics. Nonetheless, he didn't think that laws were chosen by just one leader or a small group of individual but mostly by the majority of the individuals of a society.[52]
To Ibn Khaldun, the state was a necessity of human society to restrain injustice within the society, but the state means is force, thus itself an injustice. All societies must have a state governing them in order to establish a society. He attempted to standardize the history of societies by identifying ubiquitous phenomena present in all societies. To him, civilization was a phenomenon that will be present as long as humans exist. He characterized the fulfillment of basic needs as the beginning of civilization. At the beginning, people will look for different ways of increasing productivity of basic needs and expansion will occur. Later the society starts becoming more sedentary and focuses more on crafting, arts and the more refined characteristics. By the end of a society, it will weaken, allowing another small group of individuals to come into control. The conquering group is described as an unsatisfied group within the society itself or a group of desert bandits that constantly attack other weaker or weakened societies.
In the Muqaddimah, his most important work, he discusses an introduction of philosophy to history in a general manner, based on observable patterns within a theoretical framework of known historical events of his time. He described the beginnings, development, cultural trends and the fall of all societies, leading to the rise of a new society which would then follow the same trends in a continuous cycle. Also, he recommended the best political approaches to develop a society according to his knowledge of history. He heavily emphasized that a good society would be one in which a tradition of education is deeply rooted in its culture.[32]Ibn Khaldun (1987) introduced the wordasabiya (solidarity, group feeling, or group consciousness), to explain tribalism. The concept of asabiya has been translated as "social cohesion," "group solidarity," or "tribalism." This social cohesion arises spontaneously in tribes and other small kinship groups (Rashed,2017).
Ibn Khaldun believed that too much bureaucracy, such as taxes and legislations, would lead to the decline of a society, since it would constrain the development of more specialized labor (increase in scholars and development of different services). He believed that bureaucrats cannot understand the world of commerce and do not possess the same motivation as a businessman.[32]
In his work the Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun emphasizes human beings' faculty to think (fikr) as what determines human behavior and ubiquitous patterns. This faculty is also what inspires human beings to form into a social structure to co-operate in division of labor and organization. According to Zaid Ahmand inEpistemology and the Human Dimension in Urban Studies, thefikr faculty is the supporting pillar for all philosophical aspects of Ibn Khaldun's theory related to human beings’ spiritual, intellectual, physical, social and political tendencies.
Another important concept he emphasizes in his work is the mastery of crafts, habits and skills. This takes place after a society is established and according to Ibn Khaldun the level of achievement of a society can be determined by just analyzing these three concepts. A society in its earliest stages is nomadic and primarily concerned with survival, while a society at a later stage is sedentary, with greater achievement in crafts. A society with a sedentary culture and stable politics would be expected to have greater achievements in crafts and technology.[32]
Ibn Khaldun also emphasized in his epistemology the important aspect that educational tradition plays to ensure the new generations of a civilization continuously improve in the sciences and develop culture. Ibn Khaldun argued that without the strong establishment of an educational tradition, it would be very difficult for the new generations to maintain the achievements of the earlier generations, let alone improve them.
Another way to distinguish the achievement of a society would be the language of a society, since for him the most important element of a society would not be land, but the language spoken. He was surprised that many non-Arabs were really successful in the Arabic society, had good jobs and were well received by the community. "These people were non-Arab by descent, but they grew up among the Arabs who possessed the habit of Arabic," Ibn Khaldun once recalled, "[b]ecause of this, they were able to master Arabic so well that they cannot be surpassed."[53] He believed that the reason why non-Arabs were accepted as part of Arab society was due to their mastery of the Arabic language.
Advancements in literary works such as poems and prose were another way to distinguish the achievement of a civilization, but Ibn Khaldun believed that whenever the literary facet of a society reaches its highest levels it ceases to indicate societal achievements anymore, but is an embellishment of life. For logical sciences he established knowledge at its highest level as an increase of scholars and the quality of knowledge. For him the highest level of literary productions would be the manifestation of prose, poems and the artistic enrichment of a society.[54]
Ibn Khaldun believes that communication between the tangible and intangible world is the basis of everyreligion, and the credit for its occurrence is the human spirit, as it is the mediator between God and humans. It is immortal by nature and does not perish, and has characteristics that enable it to communicate with God. However, most souls have lost their hidden ability and are connected to the sensory world only. A small number of them still maintain their full ability to communicate with God. These are the ones God chose and they becameprophets, so their souls leave the sensory world to receive from God. Their souls abandon the sensory world in order to receive from God what they should convey to humans. Religions arise only from this connection. He believes that religions that rely on institutions of prediction and reconnaissance are false, but they partly contain some truth. A person’s concentration on a specific thing for a long period makes him forget everything and become attached to what he focused on. Only, this focus makes him see the non-sensory world very quickly and in a very imperfect way, and these arepagan religions.[55]
Ibn Khaldun agrees withSufism and believes that if a person maintains his good faith and is stripped of the desire to create a new religion and strives to separate himself from the sensory world, he will be able to approach the divine essence and the ideas of scholars will appear to him clearly. But if he strives in this detachment andmysticism out of a desire to excel over others, he will not communicate with God, but withdemons. Also, the human spirit is able to see some things of the future through vision, but on the condition that this spirit be completely upright and very pious and pure, otherwise the vision will come from the devils.[55]
ALaffer Curve with a maximum revenue point at around a 70%, as estimated by Trabandt and Uhlig (2009).[56]Laffer cites Ibn Khaldun's observation that "at the beginning of the dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the dynasty, taxation yields a small revenue from large assessments."[57][58]
Ibn Khaldun's historical method had very few precedents or followers in his time. While Ibn Khaldun is known to have been a successful lecturer on jurisprudence within religious sciences, only very few of his students were aware of, and influenced by, his Muqaddimah.[59] One such student,Al-Maqrizi, praised the Muqaddimah, although some scholars have found his praise, and that of others, to be generally empty and lacking understanding of Ibn Khaldun's methods.[59]
Ibn Khaldun also faced primarily criticism from his contemporaries, particularlyIbn Hajar al-`Asqalani. These criticisms included accusations of inadequate historical knowledge, an inaccurate title, disorganization, and a style resembling that of the prolific Arab literature writer,Al-Jahiz. Al-Asqalani also noted that Ibn Khaldun was not well-liked in Egypt because he opposed many respected traditions, including the traditional judicial dress, and suggested that this may have contributed to the reception of Ibn Khaldun's historical works.[59] The notable exception to this consensus wasIbn al-Azraq, a jurist who lived shortly after Ibn Khaldun and quoted heavily from the first and fourth books of the Kitab al-‘Ibar, in developing a work of mirrors for princes.[59]
Ibn Khaldun's work found some recognition withOttoman intellectuals in the 17th century. The first references to Ibn Khaldun inOttoman writings appeared in the middle of the 17th century, with historians such asKâtip Çelebi naming him as a great influence, while another Turkish Ottoman historian,Mustafa Naima, attempted to use Ibn Khaldun's cyclical theory of the rise and fall of empires to describe the Ottoman Empire.[59] Increasing perceptions of the decline of the Ottoman Empire also caused similar ideas to appear independently of Ibn Khaldun in the 16th century, and may explain some of the influence of his works.[59]
In Europe, Ibn Khaldun was first brought to the attention of theWestern world in 1697, when a biography of him appeared inBarthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville'sBibliothèque Orientale. However, some scholars believe that Ibn Khaldun's work may have first been introduced to Europe via Ibn Arabshah's biography of Tamerlane, translated to Latin, which covers a meeting between Ibn Khaldun and Tamerlane.[60] According to Ibn Arabshah, during this meeting, Ibn Khaldun and Tamerlane discussed the Maghrib in depth, as well as Tamerlane's genealogy and place in history.[61] Ibn Khaldun began gaining more attention from 1806, whenSilvestre de Sacy'sChrestomathie Arabe included his biography together with a translation of parts of theMuqaddimah as theProlegomena.[62] In 1816, de Sacy again published a biography with a more detailed description on theProlegomena.[63] More details on and partial translations of theProlegomena emerged over the years until the complete Arabic edition was published in 1858. Since then, the work of Ibn Khaldun has been extensively studied in the Western world with special interest.[64]Reynold A. Nicholson praised Ibn Khaldun as a uniquely brilliant Muslim sociologist, but discounted Khaldun's influence.[60] Spanish PhilosopherJosé Ortega y Gasset viewed the conflicts of North Africa as a problem that stemmed from a lack of African thought, and praised Ibn Khaldun for making sense of the conflict by simplifying it to the relationship between the nomadic and sedentary modes of life.[60]
British historianArnold J. Toynbee has called Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah "the greatest work of its kind."[65]Ernest Gellner, once a professor of philosophy and logic at theLondon School of Economics, considered Khaldun's definition of government[note 4] the best in the history of political theory.[66]
More moderate views on the scope of Ibn Khaldun's contributions have also emerged.
Arthur Laffer, for whom theLaffer curve is named, acknowledged that Ibn Khaldun's ideas, as well as others, precede his own work on that curve.[67]
EconomistPaul Krugman described Ibn Khaldun as "a 14th-century Islamic philosopher who basically invented what we would now call the social sciences".[68]
19th century Scottish theologian and philosopherRobert Flint praised him strongly, "as atheorist of history he had no equal in any age or country untilVico appeared, more than three hundred years later.Plato,Aristotle, andAugustine were not his peers, and all others were unworthy of being even mentioned along with him". Ibn Khaldun's work on evolution of societies also influencedEgon Orowan, who introduced the concept ofsocionomy.[69] While Ibn Khaldun's record-keeping is usually passed over in favor of recognizing his contributions to the science of history, Abderrahmane Lakhsassi wrote "No historian of the Maghreb since and particularly of theBerbers can do without his historical contribution."[70]
Public recognition of Ibn Khaldun has increased in recent years. In 2004, theTunisian Community Center launched the first Ibn Khaldun Award to recognize a Tunisian/American high achiever whose work reflects Ibn Khaldun's ideas of kinship and solidarity. The Award was named after Ibn Khaldun for the convergence of his ideas with the organization's objectives and programs. In 2006, theAtlas Economic Research Foundation launched an annual essay contest[71] for students named in Ibn Khaldun's honor. The theme of the contest is "how individuals, think tanks, universities and entrepreneurs can influence government policies to allow the free market to flourish and improve the lives of its citizens based on Islamic teachings and traditions."[71] In 2006, Spain commemorated the 600th anniversary of the death of Ibn Khaldun by orchestrating an exhibit titled "Encounter of Civilizations: Ibn Khaldun."[72]
In 2007,İbn Haldun Üniversitesi has opened inIstanbul,Turkey to commemorate his name. The university promotes a policy of trilingualism. The languages in question are English, Modern Turkish, and Arabic and its emphasis is on teaching social sciences.
In 1981 U.S. PresidentRonald Reagan cited Ibn Khaldun as an influence on hissupply-side economic policies, also known asReaganomics. He paraphrased Ibn Khaldun, who said that "in the beginning of the dynasty, great tax revenues were gained from small assessments," and that "at the end of the dynasty, small tax revenues were gained from large assessments." Reagan said his goal is "trying to get down to the small assessments and the great revenues."[73]
Ibn Khaldun. 1951 التعريف بإبن خلدون ورحلته غربا وشرقاAl-Taʻrīf bi Ibn-Khaldūn wa Riħlatuhu Għarbān wa Sharqān. Published by Muħammad ibn-Tāwīt at-Tanjī. Cairo (Autobiography in Arabic).
Ibn Khaldūn. 1958The Muqaddimah : An introduction to history. Translated from the Arabic byFranz Rosenthal. 3 vols. New York: Princeton.
Ibn Khaldūn. 1967The Muqaddimah : An introduction to history. Trans. Franz Rosenthal, ed. N.J. Dawood. (Abridged).
"...regarded by some Westerners as the true father of historiography and sociology".[74]
"Ibn Khaldun has been claimed the forerunner of a great number of European thinkers, mostly sociologists, historians, and philosophers".(Boulakia 1971)
"This grand scheme to find a new science of society makes him the forerunner of many of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries system-builders such as Vico, Comte and Marx." "As one of the early founders of the social sciences...".[76]
"He is considered by some as a father of modern economics, or at least a major forerunner. The Western world recognizes Khaldun as the father of sociology but hesitates in recognizing him as a great economist who laid its very foundations. He was the first to systematically analyze the functioning of an economy, the importance of technology, specialization and foreign trade in economic surplus and the role of government and its stabilization policies to increase output and employment. Moreover, he dealt with the problem of optimum taxation, minimum government services, incentives, institutional framework, law and order, expectations, production, and the theory of value".Cosma, Sorinel (2009). "Ibn Khaldun's Economic Thinking". Ovidius University Annals of Economics (Ovidius University Press) XIV:52–57
^abcdehttps://themaydan.com/2017/11/myth-intellectual-decline-response-shaykh-hamza-yusuf/ "Ibn Khaldun on Philosophy:After clarifying what was meant precisely by philosophy in the Islamic tradition, namely the various schools of peripatetic philosophy represented either by Ibn Rushd or Ibn Sina, it should be clear why Ibn Khaldun was opposed to them. His critique of philosophy is an Ash’ari critique, completely in line with the Ash’aris before him, including Ghazali and Fakhr al-din al-Razi, both of whom Ibn Khaldun recommends for those who wish to learn how to refute the philosophers"
^Shah, Muhammad Sultan. "Pre-Darwinian Muslim Scholars’ Views on Evolution." (2017).
^In al-Muqaddima, Ibn Khaldun cites him as a pioneer in sociology
^Ayub, Zulfiqar (2015).The Biographies of the Elite Lives of the Scholars, Imams & Hadith Masters. Zulfiqar Ayub Publications. p. 200.[ISBN missing]
^Hajji, Mohamed (2002). "Ibn al-Sakkak, Muhammad ibn Abi Ghalib". InToufiq, Ahmed; Hajji, Mohamed (eds.).Ma'lamat al-Maghrib (Encyclopedia of Morocco) (in Arabic). Vol. 15. al-Jamī‘a al-Maghribiyya li-l-Ta’līf wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Nashr. p. 5028.
Savant, Sarah Bowen (2014).Genealogy and Knowledge in Muslim Societies: Understanding the Past. Edinburgh University Press. p. 77.ISBN978-0-7486-4497-1.Banu Khaldun al-Hadrami (Yemen, but not Qahtan), to which belonged the famous historian Ibn Khaldun. The family's ancestor was 'Uthman ibn Bakr ibn Khalid, called Khaldun, a Yemeni Arab among the conquerors who shared kinship with the Prophet's Companian Wa'il ibn Hujr and who settled first in Carmona and then in Seville.
The Historical Muhammad, Irving M. Zeitlin, (Polity Press, 2007), p. 21; "It is, of course, Ibn Khaldun as an Arab here speaking, for he claims Arab descent through the male line.".
The Arab World: Society, Culture, and State, Halim Barakat (University of California Press, 1993), p. 48;"The renowned Arab sociologist-historian Ibn Khaldun first interpreted Arab history in terms of badu versus hadar conflicts and struggles for power."
Ibn Khaldun, M. Talbi,The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. III, ed. B. Lewis, V.L. Menage, C. Pellat, J. Schacht, (Brill, 1986), 825; "Ibn Khaldun was born in Tunis, on I Ramadan 732/27 May 1332, in an Arab family which came originally from the Hadramawt and had been settled at Seville since the beginning of the Muslim conquest...."
Issawi, Charles. "Ibn Khaldūn".Encyclopedia Britannica, 13 March 2021; "the greatest Arab historian", "the family claimed descent from Khaldūn, who was of South Arabian stock, and had come to Spain in the early years of the Arab conquest and settled in Carmona."
Cheddadi, Abdesselam,“Ibn Khaldūn, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān”,Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE; "was one of the greatest Arab historians, a philosopher, and a sociologist."
^abBarakat, Halim (1993).The Arab World: Society, Culture, and State. University of California Press. p. 48.ISBN9780520914421.The renowned Arab sociologist-historian Ibn Khaldun first interpreted Arab history in terms of badu versus hadar conflicts and struggles for power.
^Bernard Lewis: "Ibn Khaldun in Turkey", in:Ibn Khaldun: The Mediterranean in the 14th Century: Rise and Fall of Empires, Foundation El Legado Andalusí, 2006,ISBN978-84-96556-34-8, pp. 376–380 (376) S.M. Deen (2007)Science under Islam: rise, decline and revival. p. 157.ISBN1-84799-942-5
^Ali Zaidi,Islam, Modernity, and the Human Sciences, Springer, 2011, p. 84
^Lewis, Bernard (1986). "Ibn Khaldūn in Turkey". In Ayalon, David; Sharon, Moshe (eds.).Studies in Islamic history and civilization: in honour of Professor David Ayalon. Brill. pp. 527–530.ISBN978-965-264-014-7.
^Ibn Khaldun the Muqaddimah. An Introduction to History. Translated from the Arabic by Franz Rosenthal. In Three Volumes. First Volume. 606 pages.Bollingen Foundation Series xliii. Princeton University Press. 1958. Prof. Dr. Darcy Carvalho. Feausp. Sao Paulo. Brazil. 2016
^Kevin Reilly; Stephen Kaufman; Angela Bodino, eds. (2003).Racism: A Global Reader. M.E. Sharpe. p. 123.ISBN978-0-7656-1059-1.
^Hannoum, Abdelmajid (2003). "Translation and the Colonial Imaginary: Ibn Khaldûn Orientalist".History and Theory.42 (1):77–80.doi:10.1111/1468-2303.00230.JSTOR3590803.
^Oweiss, Ibrahim M. “Ibn Khaldun, the Father of Economics.” Georgetown University, State University of New York Press, 1988, faculty.georgetown.edu/imo3/ibn.htm.
^Khaldun, Ibn, et al. Muqaddimah – an Introduction to History. Princeton University Press, 2015.
^Irwin, Robert. Ibn Khaldun: an Intellectual Biography. Princeton University Press., 2018.
^Affandi, Akhmad, and Dewi Puji Astuti. “Dynamic Model of Ibn Khaldun Theory on Poverty.” Humanomics, vol. 30, no. 2, 2014, pp. 136–161.
^"index". 30 October 2020. Archived from the original on 30 October 2020. Retrieved14 May 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^abcLabor in an Islamic setting : theory and practice. New York. 2017. pp. 40–41.ISBN978-1-315-59127-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Brederode, Robert F. van (2009).Systems of general sales taxation : theory, policy and practice. Austin [Tex.]: Wolters Kluwer Law & Business. p. 117.ISBN978-90-411-2832-4.
^abcdefSimon, Robert (2002).Ibn Khaldun: History as Science and the Patrimonial Empire. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. pp. 18–20,22–24.ISBN978-963-05-7934-6.
^abcAlatas, Syed Farid (2013).Ibn Khaldun. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. pp. 106–109.ISBN978-0-19-809045-8.
^Fischel, Walter (1952).Ibn Khaldun and Tamerlane: Their Historic Meeting in Damascus, A.D. 1401 (A.H. 803). Los Angeles: University of California Press.
^Enan, Muhammed Abdullah (2007).Ibn Khaldun: His Life and Works. The Other Press. p. 118.ISBN978-983-9541-53-3.
^Enan, Muhammed Abdullah (2007).Ibn Khaldun: His Life and Works. The Other Press. pp. 118–119.ISBN978-983-9541-53-3.
^Enan, Muhammed Abdullah (2007).Ibn Khaldun: His Life and Works. The Other Press. pp. 119–120.ISBN978-983-9541-53-3.
^Gates, Warren E. (1967). "The Spread of Ibn Khaldûn's Ideas on Climate and Culture".Journal of the History of Ideas.28 (3):415–422.doi:10.2307/2708627.JSTOR2708627.
^Haddad, L. (1 May 1977). "A Fourteenth-Century Theory of Economic Growth And Development".Kyklos.30 (2):195–213.doi:10.1111/j.1467-6435.1977.tb02006.x.
Fuad Baali. 2005The science of human social organization : Conflicting views on Ibn Khaldun's (1332–1406) Ilm al-umran. Mellen studies in sociology. Lewiston/NY: Edwin Mellen Press.
Walter Fischel. 1967Ibn Khaldun in Egypt : His public functions and his historical research, 1382–1406; a study in Islamic historiography. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Allen Fromherz. 2010 "Ibn Khaldun : Life and Times". Edinburgh University Press, 2010.
Ana Maria C. Minecan, 2012 "El vínculo comunitario y el poder en Ibn Jaldún" in José-Miguel Marinas (Ed.),Pensar lo político: Ensayos sobre comunidad y conflicto, Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid, 2012.
Mahmoud Rabi'. 1967The political theory of Ibn Khaldun. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Róbert Simon. 2002Ibn Khaldūn : History as science and the patrimonial empire. Translated by Klára Pogátsa. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. Original edition, 1999.
Malise Ruthven, "The Otherworldliness of Ibn Khaldun" (review ofRobert Irwin,Ibn Khaldun: An Intellectual Biography, Princeton University Press, 2018,ISBN978-0691174662, 243 pp.),The New York Review of Books, vol. LXVI, no. 2 (7 February 2019), pp. 23–24, 26. "More than six centuries after Ibn Khaldun's death the modern world has much to learn from studying him. After theMuqaddima itself, Irwin's intellectual biography... is an excellent place to begin."
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