Ibn Khaldūn (full name, Arabic: أبو زيد عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن خلدون
الحضرمي, Abū Zayd ‘Abdu r-Raḥmān bin Muḥammad bin Khaldūn Al-Ḥaḍrami;
May 27, 1332 CE – March 19, 1406 CE was a Tunisian ArabMuslim
historiographer and historian, regarded to be among the founding fathers
of modern sociology, historiography and economics.
He is best known for his book The Muqaddimah (known as Prolegomena in
Greek). The book influenced 17th-centuryOttoman historians like Ḥajjī
Khalīfa andMustafa Naima who used the theories in the book to analyze
the growth and decline of the Ottoman Empire. 19th-century European
scholars also acknowledged the significance of the book and considered
Ibn Khaldun as one of the greatest philosophers to come out of the
Muslim world.
Ibn Khaldun's life is relatively well-documented, as he wrote an
autobiography (التعريف بابن خلدون ورحلته غربا وشرقا, at-Taʻrīf bi-ibn
Khaldūn wa-Riḥlatuhu Gharban wa-Sharqan) in which numerous documents
regarding his life are quoted word-for-word.
Generally known as "Ibn Khaldūn" after a remote ancestor, he was born in
Tunis in AD 1332 (732 A.H.) into an upper-classAndalusian family of
Arab descent, the Banū Khaldūn. His family, which held many high offices
in Andalusia, had emigrated to Tunisia after the fall of Sevilleto the
Reconquista in AD 1248 . Under the Tunisian Hafsid dynasty some of his
family held political office; Ibn Khaldūn's father and grandfather
however withdrew from political life and joined a mystical order. His
brother, Yahya Khaldun, was also ahistorian who wrote a book on
theAbdalwadid dynasty, and who was assassinated by a rival for being the
officialhistoriographer of the court.
In his autobiography, Khaldun traces his descent back to the time of
Muhammadthrough an Arab tribe from Yemen, specifically the Hadhramaut,
which came to Spain in the eighth century at the beginning of the
Islamic conquest. In his own words: "And our ancestry is from
Hadhramaut, from the Arabs of Yemen, via Wa'il ibn Hajar, from the best
of the Arabs, well-known and respected." (p. 2429, Al-Wara edition).
However, the biographer Mohammad Enan questions his claim, suggesting
that his family may have been Muladis who pretended to be of Arab origin
in order to gain social status. Enan also mentions a well documented
past tradition, concerning certain Berber groups, whereby they
delusively "aggrandize" themselves with some Arab ancestry. The motive
of such an invention was always the desire for political and societal
ascendancy. Some speculate this of the Khaldun family; they elaborate
that Ibn Khaldun himself was the product of the same Berber ancestry as
the native majority of his birthplace. A point congenial to this posits
that Ibn Khaldun's unusual written focus on, and admiration for Berbers
reveals a deference towards them that is born of a vested interest in
preserving them in the realm of conscious history; such is that which
the true Arabs of his day would find no enthusiasm for and indeed a
vested interest in suppressing. Moreover the special position that he
affords Berbers in his work is fully vindicated upon comparing it with
his vitriolic attitudes towards the Arab, and his relative disinterest
in the state of affairs outside the Maghreb. In contrast, Muhammad
Hozien chooses to believe: "The false [Berber] identity would be valid
however at the time that Ibn Khaldun's ancestors left Andalusia and
moved to Tunisia they did not change their claim to Arab ancestry. Even
in the times when Berbers were ruling in Al-Andalus, the reigns of
Almoravids and Almohads, the Ibn Khalduns did not reclaim their Berber
heritage."
Education
His family's high rank enabled Ibn Khaldun to study with the best
teachers in Maghreb. He received a classical Islamic education, studying
the Qur'an which he memorized by heart, Arabic linguistics, the basis
for an understanding of the Qur'an, hadith, sharia(law) and fiqh
(jurisprudence). He received certification (ijazah) for all these
subjects. The mathematician and philosopher, Al-Abili of Tlemcen,
introduced him to mathematics, logic and philosophy, where he above all
studied the works ofAverroes, Avicenna, Razi and Tusi. At the age of 17,
Ibn Khaldūn lost both his parents to the Black Death, an
intercontinentalepidemic of the plague that hit Tunis in 1348–1349.
Following family tradition, Ibn Khaldūn strove for a political career.
In the face of a tumultuous political situation in North Africa, this
required a high degree of skill developing and dropping alliances
prudently, to avoid falling with the short-lived regimes of the time.
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.
At the age of 20, he began his political career at the Chancellery of
the Tunisian ruler Ibn Tafrakin with the position of Kātib al-'Alāmah,
which consisted of writing in fine calligraphy the typical introductory
notes of official documents. In 1352, Abū Ziad, the Sultan of
Constantine, marched on Tunis and defeated it. Ibn Khaldūn, in any case
unhappy with his respected but politically meaningless position,
followed his teacher Abili to Fez. Here the Marinidsultan Abū Inan Fares
I appointed him as a writer of royal proclamations, which didn't
prevent Ibn Khaldūn from scheming against his employer. In 1357 this
brought the 25-year-old a 22-month prison sentence. Upon the death of
Abū Inan in 1358, the vizier al-Hasān ibn-Umar granted him freedom and
reinstated him in 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 which corresponded with Ibn
Khaldūn's ambitions.
The treatment Ibn Khaldun received after the fall of Abū Salem through
Ibn-Amar ʻAbdullah, a friend of Ibn Khaldūn's, was not to his liking, he
received no significant official position. At the same time, Amar
successfully prevented Ibn Khaldūn – whose political skills he was well
aware of – from allying with the Abd al-Wadids inTlemcen. Ibn Khaldūn
therefore decided to move to Granada. He could be sure of a positive
welcome there, since at Fez he had helped the Sultan of Granada,
theNasrid Muhammad V, regain power from his temporary exile. In 1364
Muhammad entrusted him with a diplomatic mission to the King of Castile,
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 saw 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 which Ibn
al-Khatib thought foolish and a danger to peace in the country – and
history proved him right. At al-Khatib's instigation, 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 us little about his conflict
with Ibn al-Khatib and the reasons for his departure. The orientalist
Muhsin Mahdi interprets this as showing that Ibn Khaldūn later realised
that he had completely misjudged Muhammad V.
Back in Africa, the Hafsid sultan of Bougie, Abū ʻAbdallāh, (who had
been his companion in prison) received him with great enthusiasm, and
made Ibn Khaldūn his prime minister. During this period, 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 the Sultan of Tlemcen, Abū
l-Abbas. A few years later he was taken prisoner by Abu 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 in 1370 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, above all his good relationship with the
wild Berber tribes, were in high demand among the North African rulers,
whereas he himself began to tire of politics and constant switching of
allegiances. In 1375, sent by Abū Hammu, the ʻAbdu l Wadid Sultan
ofTlemcen, 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 of Qalat Ibn Salama. He lived
there for over three years under their protection, taking advantage of
his seclusion to write the Muqaddimah"Prolegomena", the introduction to
his planned history of the world. In Ibn Salama, however, he lacked the
necessary texts to complete the work. As a result, in 1378, he returned
to his native Tunis, which in the mean time had 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. This was brought into sharp contrast
after Ibn Khaldūn presented him with a copy of the completed history
omitting the usualpanegyric to the ruler. Under pretence of going on the
Hajj to Mecca – something a Muslim ruler could not simply refuse
permission for – Ibn Khaldūn was able to leave Tunis and sail to
Alexandria.
Ibn Khaldun said of Egypt, "He who has not seen it does not know the
power of Islam." while other Islamic regions had to cope with border
wars and inner strife, under the Mamluks Egypt experienced a period of
economic prosperity and high culture. However, even in Egypt, where Ibn
Khaldūn lived out his days, he could not stay out of politics
completely. In 1384 the Egyptian Sultan, al-Malik udh-Dhahir Barquq,
made him Professor of the Qamhiyyah Madrasah, and grand Qadi of the
Maliki school of fiqh (one of four schools, the Maliki school was
widespread primarily in West Africa). His efforts at reform encountered
resistance, however, and within a year he had to resign his judgeship. A
contributory factor to his decision to resign may have been the heavy
personal blow that struck him in 1384, when a ship carrying his wife and
children sank off the coast of Alexandria. Ibn Khaldun now decided to
complete the pilgrimage to Makkah after all.
After his return in May 1388, Ibn Khaldūn concentrated more strongly on a
purely educational function at various Cairo madrasas. At court he fell
out of favor for a time, as during revolts against Barquq he had –
apparently under duress – together with other Cairo jurists issued a
Fatwaagainst Barquq. Later relations with Barquq returned to normal, and
he was once again named the Maliki qadi. Altogether he was called six
times to this high office, which for various reasons he never held long.
In 1401, under Barquq's successor, his son Faraj, Ibn Khaldūn took part
in a military campaign against the Mongol conquerorTimur, who besieged
Damascus. Ibn Khaldūn cast doubt upon the viability of the venture and
didn't really want to leave Egypt. His doubts were vindicated, as the
young and inexperienced Faraj, concerned about a revolt in Egypt, left
his army to its own devices in Syria and hurried home. Ibn Khaldūn
remained at the besieged city for seven weeks, being lowered over the
city wall by ropes in order to negotiate with Timur, in a historic
series of meetings which he reports extensively in his autobiography.
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 the intentions behind this, he did not hesitate, on his
return to Egypt, to compose an equally extensive report on the history
of the Tartars, together with a character study of Timur, sending these
to the Merinid rulers in Fez (Maghreb).
Ibn Khaldūn spent the following five years in Cairo completing his
autobiography and his history of the world and acting as teacher and
judge. During this time he is alleged to have joined an underground
party named Rijal Hawa Rijal. Their reform oriented ideals attracted the
attention of local political authorities and the elderly Ibn Khaldun
was placed under arrest. He died on 19 March 1406, one month after his
sixth selection for the office of the Malikiqadi (Judge).
Ibn Khaldūn has left behind few works other than his history of the
world, Kitābu l-ʻibar. Significantly, such writings are not alluded to
in his autobiography, suggesting perhaps that Ibn Khaldūn saw himself
first and foremost as a historian and wanted to be known above all as
the author of Kitābu l-ʻibar. From other sources we know of several
other works, primarily composed during the time he spent in North Africa
andAl-Andalus. His first book, Lubābu l-Muhassal, a commentary on the
Islamic theology of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, was written at the age of 19
under the supervision of his teacher al-Ābilī in Tunis. A work on
Sufism, Sifā'u l-Sā'il, was composed around 1373 in Fes, Morocco. Whilst
at the court of Muhammed V, Sultan of Granada, Ibn Khaldūn composed a
work on logic, ʻallaqa li-l-Sultān.
The Kitābu l-ʻibār (full title: Kitābu l-ʻibar wa Diwānu l-Mubtada' wa
l-Ħabar fī tarikhi l-ʻarab wa l-Barbar wa man ʻĀsarahum min Đawī
Ash-Sha'n l-Akbār "Book of lessons, Record of Beginnings and Events in
the history of the Arabs and Berbers and their Powerful
Contemporaries"), Ibn Khaldūn's main work, was originally conceived as a
history of the Berbers. Later, the focus was widened so that in its
final form (including its own methodology and anthropology), to
represent a so-called "universal history". It is divided into seven
books, the first of which, the Muqaddimah, can be considered a separate
work. Books two to five cover the history of mankind up to the time of
Ibn Khaldūn. Books six and seven cover the history of the Berber peoples
and theMaghreb, which remain invaluable to present-day historians, as
they are based on Ibn Khaldūn's personal knowledge of the Berbers.
Concerning the discipline of sociology, he conceived a theory of social
conflict. He developed the dichotomy of sedentary life versus nomadic
life as well as the concept of a "generation", and the inevitable loss
of power that occurs when desert warriors conquer a city. Following a
contemporary Arab scholar, Sati' al-Husri, the Muqaddimah may be read as
a sociological work: six books of general sociology. Topics dealt with
in this work include politics, urban life, economics, and knowledge. The
work is based around Ibn Khaldun's central concept of 'asabiyyah, which
has been translated as "social cohesion", "group solidarity", or
"tribalism". 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. Ibn Khaldun
has been cited as a racist, but his theories on the rise and fall of
empires have no racial component, and this reading of his work has been
claimed to be the result of mistranslations.
One should then look at the world of creation. It started out from the
minerals and progressed, in an ingenious, gradual manner, to plants and
animals. The last stage of minerals is connected with the first stage of
plants, such as herbs and seedless plants. The last stage of plants,
such as palms and vines, is connected with the first stage of animals,
such as snails and shellfish which have only the power of touch. The
word "connection" with regard to these created things means that the
last stage of each group is fully prepared to become the first stage of
the next group.
The animal world then widens, its species become numerous, and, in a
gradual process of creation, it finally leads to man, who is able to
think and to reflect. The higher stage of man is reached from the world
of the monkeys, in which both sagacity and perception are found, but
which has not reached the stage of actual reflection and thinking. At
this point we come to the first stage of man after (the world of
monkeys). This is as far as our (physical) observation extends.
Ibn Khaldun onEvolution
Perhaps the most frequently cited observation drawn from Ibn Khaldūn's
work is the notion that when a society becomes a great civilization
(and, presumably, the dominant culture in its region), 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 of
barbarians. 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. Some contemporary readers of Khaldun have read this as an
early business cycle theory, though set in the historical circumstances
of the mature Islamic empire.
Ibn Khaldun outlines an early (possibly even the earliest) example of
political economy. He describes the economy as being composed of
value-adding processes; that is, labour and skill is added to techniques
and crafts and the product is sold at a higher value. He also made the
distinction between "profit" and "sustenance", in modern political
economy terms, surplus and that required for the reproduction of classes
respectively. He also calls for the creation of a science to explain
society and goes on to outline these ideas in his major work the
Muqaddimah.
Ibn Khaldun also emphasized on the Islamic Monetary System that the
currency or money should have intrinsic value. And it should be made up
of Gold and Silver i.e.Gold dinar and Silver Dirham. He also emphasized
that the weight and purity of these coins should be strictly followed.
As the weight of one dinar should be one mithqal i.e. equal the weight
of 72 grains ofbarley (equals to almost 4.25 grams) and the weight of 7
dinar should be equal to weight of 10 Dirhams (which equal 7/10 of
Mithqal or 2.975 grams). And according to him these coins must be used
in laws concerning the charity tax (Zakat), marriage (fees), fixed legal
fines, and other things.
The dirham and the dinar differ in value and weight in different
regions, cities, and provinces. The religious law has had occasion to
refer to these (coins) and has mentioned them in connection with many
laws concerning the charity tax, marriage (fees), fixed legal fines, and
other things. Therefore, the religious law must have its own (dirham
and dinar) with a specific value given to them by (the religious law
itself) and agreeing with the intention of (the religious law). These
coins are then the ones to which the laws refer. They are different from
the non-legal (coins).
Ibn Khaldun on Islamic Monetary Economics
The Revelation undertook to mention them and attached many judgements to
them, for examplezakat, marriage, and hudud, etc., therefore within the
Revelation they have to have a reality and specific measure for
assessment of zakat, etc. upon which its judgements may be based rather
than on the non-shari'i other coins.
Know that there isconsensus since the beginning of Islam and the age of
the Companions and the Followers that the dirham of the shari'ah is that
of which ten weigh seven mithqals weight of the dinar of gold... The
weight of a mithqal of gold is seventy-two grains of barley, so that the
dirham which is seven-tenths of it is fifty and two-fifths grains. All
these measurements are firmly established by consensus
Ibn Khaldun onGold dinar and Silver Dirham as Money
Ibn Khaldun was first brought to the attention of the Western world in
1697, when a biography of him appeared inBarthélemy d'Herbelot de
Molainville'sBibliothèque Orientale. Ibn Khaldun began gaining more
attention from 1806, whenSilvestre de Sacy's Chrestomathie Arabeincluded
his biography together with a translation of parts of the Muqaddimah as
the Prolegomena. In 1816, de Sacy again published a biography with a
more detailed description on theProlegomena. More details on and partial
translations of the Prolegomenaemerged over the years until the
complete Arabic edition was published in 1858, followed by a complete
French translation a few years later by de Sacy. Since then, the work of
Ibn Khaldun has been extensively studied in the Western world with
special interest.
British historian Arnold J. Toynbee called the Muqaddimah "a philosophy
of historywhich is undoubtedly the greatest work of its kind that has
ever yet been created by any mind in any time or place."
The British philosopher Robert Flint wrote the following on Ibn Khaldun:
"as a theoristof history he had no equal in any age or country until
Vico appeared, more than three hundred years later. Plato, Aristotle,
and Augustine were not his peers, and all others were unworthy of being
even mentioned along with him".
Abderrahmane Lakhsassi writes: "No historian of the Maghreb since and
particularly of the Berbers can do without his historical contribution."
The British philosopher-anthropologist Ernest Gellner considered Ibn
Khaldun's definition of government, "an institution which prevents
injustice other than such as it commits itself", the best in the history
ofpolitical theory.
Egon Orowan, who termed the concept ofsocionomy, was influenced by Ibn Khaldun's ideas on the evolution of societies.
Arthur Laffer, whom the Laffer curve is named after, noted that, among others, some of Ibn Khaldun's ideas precede his own.
In 2004, the Tunisian Community Centerlaunched 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 him being universally acknowledged as the Father
of Sociology and also for the convergence of his ideas with the
organization's objectives and programs.
In 2006, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation launched an annual essay
contest for Muslim 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."
