Ibnu Khaldun Muqaddimah Pdf Free Download
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I first heard about this book as a student. It was a lead in to a lecture hall joke, the work had apparently been reconstructed from students' lecture notes after Ibn Khaldun's death (pause for punchline after the
The Muqaddimah, an introduction to a universal history up to the author's own day (the 14th century AD) is repetitive, clumsy in places, has some curious choices of material, is maddeningly inexplicit occasionally, and entirely incredible. It is a true landmark in the study of history.I first heard about this book as a student. It was a lead in to a lecture hall joke, the work had apparently been reconstructed from students' lecture notes after Ibn Khaldun's death (pause for punchline after the lecturer scans the faces of the students before them), and this explains the repetitiveness. If an idea is important, it's worth explaining it more than once and very slowly so that everybody can note it down. Some things remain the same apparently.
It's entirely deserved landmark status come from its bold originality. Ibn Khaldun is interested in the social structures that drive patterns of events in history. Actually he falls short here, but he explains a certain type of pattern of events that was central to Ibn Khaldun's experience of history, the rise and fall of dynasties from desert or nomadic tribes to dominance of urban civilisations which in turn decline and fall.
The idea of explaining historical events with reference to social and economic structures is familiar now but in his time was something new. A quick comparison to contemporary European historical writings shows nothing like the self-conscious interest in the structures of civilisations that form the basis of Ibn Khaldun's work: group identities, forms of agriculture, forms of economic activity (including business profits and discussions on taxation), or the developmental pattern of state administrations. Although Ibn Khaldun's work is thoroughly Islamic, Sunni and indulgent to Sufism, his interest is in the human and material causation of events. Geography and Human cultures are the direct driving forces here.
For Ibn Khaldun the harsh conditions of the desert or of a nomadic lifestyle created a unifying sense of group identity. Their poverty and desire for the goods that urban civilisations produced would draw such groups into conflict with settled communities, which when the latter were in decline they would overcome. The richer resource base of a more urbanised civilisation would allow the group to expand, the increasing sophistication of the ruling family would lead it to become isolated from the rest of their original group over time, this would lead to the decay and weakness of the state making it vulnerable to the next incoming group of nomadic peoples.
As an explanatory formula for the recent North-African history of Ibn Khaldun's day, or for that matter the rise of the original Islamic Caliphate, the barbarian invasions of the western Half of the Roman Empire, or the advent of the Mongols or Manchus in northern-China, it was brilliant and insightful. His notion of cyclical cycles of growth and decay remind me of Weber's theory of political leadership which posits the possibility of a cycle from charismatic leadership to bureaucracy to stagnation. But it is not a universal formula for historical change. Maddeningly at one moment he implies that Islamic civilisation is undergoing a relative decline while the European Christian and Chinese civilisations are in a phases of upward growth but the idea is not explored explicitly. Irritatingly he often repeats a kind of Buddenbrooks rule that a ruling dynasty can only endure for a fixed number of generations before collapsing (although the number of generations varies). This is an organic vision of human social life. Societies and ways of life are born, grow, mature, and die as much as people. Reading Ibn Khaldun one needn't restrict this idea to political entities either, the same processes occur everywhere.
Given Ibn Khaldun's family background and occasional spells of time working in Muslim Spain it would have been deeply satisfying (at least for me) if he had looked at the phenomena of the Reconquista in the light of his theories. Later in his career, on a diplomatic mission to Castile, he was even invited by Pedro the Cruel to work for him - an opportunity which he declined. Unfortunate as I find the loss of a discussion on the decline of Muslim Spain this did leave him free to meet Timur the Lame whose rise and rule drawing on the group feeling of the Chingisids, the descendants of Genghis Khan, falls neatly into the framework set out by Ibn Khaldun.
Ibn Khaldun goes further, because the cyclical succession of dynasties that he analyses do not merely effect political history but also impact on social and economic history. Initially the incomers are a destructive influence on agriculture and the built environment, but as they become acculturated to urban civilisation they change. A civilisation in decline, with a declining tax base will wither in other areas of economic and intellectual life, while a growing, expanding civilisation will have an expanding tax base, a richer eco-system of economic activity and have a higher level of cultural attainment in the arts and sciences. This gives the analysis an interplay between the moral simplicity and military strength of the incomers against all that urbanised civilisation has to offer, but ultimately it is the features of urbanised life and its labour specialisation that sustain human life.
This is a work that is rich, fertile, and irritating by turn. Inspiring in its creativity, and maddening that it didn't inspire a North-African medieval Annales School. I'm sure that the Muqaddimah has more to offer to someone much more familiar with the rise and fall of the early Islamic dynasties than I am, but it is none the less clear that this is a major work of historical theory.
PS according to Ibn Khaldun Euclid was a carpenter. I think I would have found school maths easier if the questions had been posed as practical carpentry problems.
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This book surprised me in that I actually enjoyed reading it. I figured it would have good information but be tedious and boring. Not the case, Ibn Khaldun (and perhaps with the help of the translator) has a curious nature and a light humor in his work. He really steps back and looks at the world arou
I read this book because my History of Islam professor recommended it in a class last fall. 8 months later I looked through my notes and saw that I wrote down that I wanted to read it, and so I did.This book surprised me in that I actually enjoyed reading it. I figured it would have good information but be tedious and boring. Not the case, Ibn Khaldun (and perhaps with the help of the translator) has a curious nature and a light humor in his work. He really steps back and looks at the world around him.
I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the history and culture of North Africa and the Middle East. That said, it shouldn't be your introduction to it. I had taken a History of Islam and an Anthropology of Morocco class which gave me familiarity to religious terms, historical events, and an idea of who different groups were. So be curious about the subject before trying this book. Also, know something about modern science because he says some interesting things that are downright incorrect. Like how skin color has to do with the air. Good try buddy :-)
In the end I gave it four stars. It does what it advertises, and it does it well!
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First, the positive: I cannot exaggerate my respect for Ibn Khaldun the historian, economist and sociologist. His theories on the rise and fall of medieval Islamic dynasties are so sound that the majority of modern works I've read just echo his words. He's centuries ahead of his time in terms of his attention to economic and social history, and his first chapter - debunking impossible claims by early historians from Greece,
This rating is very much a compromise, which is really saying something.First, the positive: I cannot exaggerate my respect for Ibn Khaldun the historian, economist and sociologist. His theories on the rise and fall of medieval Islamic dynasties are so sound that the majority of modern works I've read just echo his words. He's centuries ahead of his time in terms of his attention to economic and social history, and his first chapter - debunking impossible claims by early historians from Greece, Rome and the Caliphates with simple logic - is an amazing example of historiography. Like a lot of pre-modern historians, Ibn Khaldun's work is also...kind of charming. Unlike a lot of ancient historians, however, the charm doesn't come from inaccuracies and clever phrasing but from the meticulous put-downs of his fellow historians. It's historiography at its most catty It's also over too soon.
The problem is, aside from a fantastic opening, actually reading the book is pretty dull. It's not helped by the difficulty of translating Arabic and the fact that even the translator's Orientalism-seeped terminology is seeming pretty dated now. (I read the 1967 Franz Rosenthal translation) Ibn Khaldun's popularity means that his views have been repeated and improved upon for hundreds of years. You don't get much out of reading his exact words that you won't get out of a decent modern historian writing in English...and you might have to sit through a lot of discredited and not particularly interesting medical knowledge to get there.
The Muqaddimah has a certain charm, and its author is all kinds of amazing, but it's too old to be of use to people looking for theories of history and too difficult to translate for people looking for fascinating stories. Look for a modern historical work about Ibn Khaldun or, even better, a historian who cites him as an inspiration. The genius of Ibn Khaldun's work is that you can understand his ideas without reading his exact words.
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Melvyn Bragg and guests Robert Hoyland, Robert Irwin, and Hugh Kennedy discuss the life and ideas of the 14th-century Arab philosopher of history Ibn Khaldun.I decided to read this after hearing the In Our Time podcast by Melvyn Bragg about this author (listen here). Blurb:Ibn Khaldun was a North African statesman who retreated into the desert in 1375. He emerged having written one of the most important ever studies of the workings of history.
Khaldun was born in Tunis in 1332. He received a supr
Melvyn Bragg and guests Robert Hoyland, Robert Irwin, and Hugh Kennedy discuss the life and ideas of the 14th-century Arab philosopher of history Ibn Khaldun.Unfortunately, the idea of this was more interesting than reading it. This is essentially an instruction manual for operating a government and understanding civilization, and given when and where it was written, it shows an astonishing synthesis of a great deal of complex information ... but the actual content itself is somewhat banal.Ibn Khaldun was a North African statesman who retreated into the desert in 1375. He emerged having written one of the most important ever studies of the workings of history.
Khaldun was born in Tunis in 1332. He received a supremely good education, but at 16 lost many of his family to the Black Death. His adult life was similarly characterized by sharp turns of fortune. He built a career as a political operator in cities from Fez to Granada. But he often fared badly in court intrigues, was imprisoned and failed to prevent the murder of a fellow statesman.
In 1375, he withdrew into the Sahara to work out why the Muslim world had degenerated into division and decline. Four years later, he had completed not only a history of North African politics but also, in the book's long introduction, one of the great studies of history.
Drawing on both regional history and personal experience, he set out a bleak analysis of the rise and fall of dynasties. He argued that group solidarity was vital to success in power. Within five generations, though, this always decayed. Tired urban dynasties inevitably became vulnerable to overthrow by rural insurgents.
Later in life, Ibn Khaldun worked as a judge in Egypt, and in 1401 he met the terrifying Mongol conqueror Tamburlaine, whose triumphs, Ibn Khaldun felt, bore out his pessimistic theories.
Over the last three centuries, Ibn Khaldun has been rediscovered as a profoundly prescient political scientist, philosopher of history and forerunner of sociology -- one of the great thinkers of the Muslim world.
Robert Hoyland is Professor of Islamic History at the University of Oxford; Robert Irwin is Senior Research Associate of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London; Hugh Kennedy is Professor of Arabic in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
I really recommend listening to the podcast to learn a bit about history that most of us are completely ignorant of. But the book — not so much. Once I got the gist of it, I was pretty much skimming.
Khaldun's writing remains one of the smartest things I've ever read. His theory bears a sophistication that the West couldn't manage until the mid-19th century. And I think the fact he was forgotten actually bears out his theory on the cyclica
This is one of those books that I never would have known to read, if not for the guidance of a good instructor. The guy who assigned it was a really smart cooky, and very helpful to boot. I hope he has gone on to an illustrious career in the history field.Khaldun's writing remains one of the smartest things I've ever read. His theory bears a sophistication that the West couldn't manage until the mid-19th century. And I think the fact he was forgotten actually bears out his theory on the cyclicality of events.
I also think that you can see Khaldun's "three generations" theory borne out in world events. His story goes like this (if I recall): Dynasties seldom last more than three generations. The first king, who fights and acquires power, knows the real value of his acquisition. So he does nothing that his potential rivals won't tolerate. His administration is thus relatively just and wise. His son knows of his struggle only by his father's word, and knows the art of statecraft from his father's example. He will govern OK, but cracks will start to show, and the seeds of dissatisfaction will be sown. The third-generation king knows only a life of luxury, and his grandfather's struggle is dimly remembered at best. He mistakenly thinks that the right to rule inheres in his person, rather than in the consent of those who tolerate his power. He is thus likely to overstep the acceptable bounds, to abuse his power, and to be displaced as a result. Now the dynasty has ended.
I think you see this in many historical triads, and not just those that have explicit monarchies. If it's correct, it would predict that Kim Jong-un will be the last of the Kims to rule North Korea, but the Al-Assad dynasty in Syria may have one more generation before it collapses.
In short, I recommend that people who teach intellectual history and theory courses add this to their assigned readings. Some of their students will be grateful they did.
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Another proof of the height Islamic culture and civilization had once reached. Not an easy read. Ibn Khaldun's knowledge on various historical and sociological issues seems vast. I do not have the necessary knowledge to properly judge all parts of this book by its content, but I have to give a 5 star due to its exhaustive coverage of so many topics, by a brilliant mind.
Another proof of the height Islamic culture and civilization had once reached. ...more
"The capital of knowledge that an individual scholar has to offer is small. Admission (of one's shortcomings) saves from censure. Kindness from colleagues is hoped for. It is God whom I ask to make our deeds acceptable in His sight. He is a good protector"
One of the most significant arguments in the introduction have to do with the dire need to expunge fantasy and falsehoods from history, and he meticulously dissects various instances of the same in order to reveal their baseness. The entire method to it - context, prudence, logic, philosophy, comparativism, cultural relativism, the fact that cultures and society are dynamic and change with time - is something that he elaborates on quite brilliantly.
(More to come)
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Limits of induction (Hume), compromise between rationalism & empiricism (Kant), inaccessibility of the noumenal world (also Kant), Labor theory of value (Smith/Marx), necessity of interpret
Criminally ignored in history of philosophy/intellectual history, since it shockingly illustrates the different ways European & Arabic philosophy were working. This work, written in the 1300s, predates & anticipates a fantastic number of "unique" and "milestone" breakthroughs in European philosophy, including:Limits of induction (Hume), compromise between rationalism & empiricism (Kant), inaccessibility of the noumenal world (also Kant), Labor theory of value (Smith/Marx), necessity of interpretation due to cultural/linguistic relativity (Vico/Herder), Truth as intellectual consensus conforming to empirical observation (Popper), tension between truth in text and truth in speech (Derrida), language influences thought (Whorf), the power necessarily inherent in law (Weber/Foucault)
and probably some others as well
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I think the scientific virtues of this book have been somewhat exaggerated, in part because of its enthusiastic reception by systematic historians such as Toynbee who were making their own effort to create or discover a general theory of history. But to my eyes, Ibn Khaldoun's method is more
Ibn Khaldoun's Muqaddimah is frequently described as a work of proto-sociology and economics. There is a grain of truth to that, but the similarity lies more in the subject matter than the manner of inquiry.I think the scientific virtues of this book have been somewhat exaggerated, in part because of its enthusiastic reception by systematic historians such as Toynbee who were making their own effort to create or discover a general theory of history. But to my eyes, Ibn Khaldoun's method is more that of a speculative philosopher than a scientist. He infers general patterns on the basis of a small number of examples, and regards the patterns as prior to the actuality.
The scientific approach would be somewhat the other way around, where the empirical example would provoke a hypothesis that would then be tested on further examples. But Ibn Khaldoun moves very quickly to a state of epistemic closure, precisely of the kind I find endemic to the Islamic thought-world of his era, and beyond.
Rather than reading this book as a progressive predecessor to the scientific revolution, I position it as a conservative work that attempts to maintain something of the rational-empirical method of the High Middle Ages in the face of its waning under the burgeoning influence of al-Ghazali. I see this book not as the forecast of the sciences of sociology and economics, but as a late example of the rationalism that had been typical of much of the thought of al-Andalus and the 'Abbasid caliphate.
I think few of his actual statements of fact will be too persuasive for the modern reader, from his position that the sun is neither hot nor cold to his view that blacks are well known to be less intelligent to his view that royalty proceeds from holy authority, and urban settled life proceeds from both. But this is a work of some interest to the intellectual historian.
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I'm inclined to agree with Mr Toynbee here, but of course - has anyone ever tried to create a work that even closely parallels this? This book is sheer madness and he says he wrote it in five months. If a 20th century update had existed it certainly would have
"Undoubtedly the greatest work of its kind that has ever been created by any mind in any time or place... the most comprehensive and illuminating analysis of how human affairs work that has been made anywhere." - Arnold J Toynbee, observerI'm inclined to agree with Mr Toynbee here, but of course - has anyone ever tried to create a work that even closely parallels this? This book is sheer madness and he says he wrote it in five months. If a 20th century update had existed it certainly would have been included in the inventory of Voyager.
This book is almost pre-apocalyptic, I imagine Ibn Khaldun in desperation trying to preserve every-single-thing-ever about humanity before its collapse. This is post-crusade and mid-plague and in the twilight of the Islamic empire, so if Khaldun really was desperate to consolidate and preserve he wouldn't have been too far off. Of course, he does intend for someone in the future to use this as a jumping-off point for a second edition, so what I just said is easily and immediately refutable, but I still can't help but wonder whether that played any motivating role at all. What I can't imagine however is Khaldun - or anyone at all for that matter - being able to or even bother trying to write something comparable today.
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The middle few chapters made me rave about this to everyone I know with a mind. This book is absolutely essential to anyone attempting to understand the world.
I read this because of Mark Zuckerburg and was excited as I had planned a trip to Morocco in the New Year, so this seemed relevant and app
This was one of a handful of books I'd prefer to have at arms reach at all times. The method. The development of ideas. The use of those built up constructs to build other ideas. It's a logicians dream.The middle few chapters made me rave about this to everyone I know with a mind. This book is absolutely essential to anyone attempting to understand the world.
I read this because of Mark Zuckerburg and was excited as I had planned a trip to Morocco in the New Year, so this seemed relevant and appropriate. I wasn't expecting to have it fill in so many gaps in my objective understanding of the world. I can see the world with clearer eyes.
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It can be regarded as the earliest attempt made by any historian to discover a pattern in the changes that occur in man's political and social organization. Rational in its approach, analytical in its method, encyclopaedic in detail, it represents an almost complete departure from traditional historiography, discarding conventional concepts and cliches and seeking, beyond the mere chronicle of event
I can't say anything about it, would just copy the statement of Franz Rosenthal on the Muqaddimah:It can be regarded as the earliest attempt made by any historian to discover a pattern in the changes that occur in man's political and social organization. Rational in its approach, analytical in its method, encyclopaedic in detail, it represents an almost complete departure from traditional historiography, discarding conventional concepts and cliches and seeking, beyond the mere chronicle of events, an explanation—and hence a philosophy of history.
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And now: May God guard you who practice the craft of
secretaryship, and may He keep you and give you success and
guidance. There are prophets and messengers and highly honored
kings. After them come different kinds of men, all of them made by
God. They are of different kinds, even if they are all alike in fact.
God o
And now: May God guard you who practice the craft of
secretaryship, and may He keep you and give you success and
guidance. There are prophets and messengers and highly honored
kings. After them come different kinds of men, all of them made by
God. They are of different kinds, even if they are all alike in fact.
God occupied them with different kinds of crafts and various sorts of
businesses, so that they might be able to make a living and earn their
sustenance. He gave to you, assembled secretaries, the great
opportunity to be men of education and gentlemen, to have
knowledge and (good) judgment.505 You bring out whatever is good
in the caliphate and straighten out its affairs. Through your advice,
God improves the government for the benefit of human beings and
makes their countries civilized. The ruler cannot dispense with you.
You alone make him a competent ruler. Your position with regard to
rulers is that (you are) the ears through which they hear, the eyes
through which they see, the tongues through which they speak, and
the hands through which they touch. May God give you, therefore,
enjoyment of the excellent craft with which He has distinguished you,
and may He not deprive you of the great favors that He has shown
unto you.
No craftsman needs more than you to combine all praiseworthy good traits
and all memorable and highly regarded excellent qualities, O secretaries, if you
aspire to fit the description given of you in this letter. The secretary needs on his
own account, and his master, who trusts him with his important affairs, expects him,
to be mild where mildness is needed, to be understanding where judgment is
needed, to be enterprising where enterprise is needed, to be hesitant where
hesitation is needed. He must prefer modesty, justice, and fairness. He must keep
secrets. He must be faithful in difficult circumstances. He must know (beforehand)
about the calamities that may come. He must be able to put things in their proper
places and misfortunes into their proper categories. He must have studied every
branch of learning and know it well, and if he does not know it well, he must at
least have acquired an adequate amount of it. By virtue of his natural intelligence,
good education, and outstanding experience, he must know what is going to happen
to him before it happens, and he must know the result of his actions before action
starts. He must make the proper preparations for everything, and he must set up
everything in its proper, customary form.
Therefore, assembled secretaries, vie with each other to acquire the different
kinds of education and to gain an understanding of religious matters. Start with
knowledge of the Book of God and religious duties. Then, study the Arabic
language, as that will give you a cultivated form of speech. Then, learn to write well,
as that will be an ornament to your letters. Transmit poetry and acquaint yourselves
with the rare expressions and ideas that poems contain. Acquaint yourselves also
with both Arab and nonArab political events, and with the tales of (both groups) and
the biographies describing them, as that will be helpful to you in your endeavors. Do
not neglect to study accounting, for it is the mainstay of the land tax register. 506
Detest prejudices with all your heart, lofty ones as well as low ones, and all idle and
contemptible things, for they bring humility and are the ruin of secretaryship. Do not
let your craft be a low one. Guard against backbiting and calumny and the actions of
stupid people. Beware of haughtiness, foolishness, and pride, for they mean
acquiring hostility without (even the excuse of) hatred. Love each other in God in
your craft. Advise your colleagues to practice it in a way befitting your virtuous,
fair, and gifted predecessors.
If times go hard for one of you, be kind to him and console him, until
everything be well with him again. Should old age make one of you unable to get
around and pursue his livelihood and meet his friends, visit him and honor him and
consult him, and profit from his outstanding experience and mature knowledge.
Every one of you should be more concerned for his assistants, who may be useful
when needed, than for his own children or brothers. Should some praise come (to
one of you) in the course of his work, he should ascribe the merit to his colleague;
any blame he should bear all by himself. He should beware of mistakes and slips
and of being annoyed when conditions change. For you, assembled secretaries, are
more prompt to be blamed than Qur'an readers,507 and blame is more detrimental to
you than to them. You know that everyone of you has a master, one who gives from
his own as much as can be expected, and (every one of you) has the obligation to
repay him, since he deserves it, with fidelity, gratefulness, tolerance, patience, good
counsel, discretion, and active interest in his affairs, and to show (his good
intentions) by his actions whenever his master needs him and his resources. Be
conscious of (your obligations) - God give you success - in good and bad
circumstances, in privation as in munificence and kindness, in happiness as in
misfortune. Any member of this noble craft who has all these qualities has good
qualities indeed.
If any one of you be appointed to an office, or if some matter that concerns
God's children be turned over to one of you, he should think of God and choose
obedience to Him. He should be kind to the weak and fair to those who have been
wronged. All creatures are God's children. He loves most those who are kindest to
His children. Furthermore, he should judge with justice, he should honor the noble
(descendants of Muhammad), augment the booty (gained in wars against infidels),
and bring civilization to the country. He should be friendly to the subjects, and
refrain from harming them. He should be humble and mild in his office. He should
be kind in handling the land tax registers 508 and in calling in outstanding claims.
You should explore the character of him with whom you associate. When his
good and bad sides are known, you will be able to help him to do the good things
that agree with him, and be able to contrive to keep him from the bad things he
desires. You must be able to do that in the subtlest and best manner. You know that
a person who is in charge of an animal and understands his job, endeavors to know
the character of the animal. If it is inclined to gallop,509 he does not goad it when he
is riding it. If it is inclined to kick, he takes precautions with its forelegs. If he fears
that it will shy, he takes precautions with its head. If it is restive, he gently subdues
its desire to go where it wants to go. If it still continues, he pulls it slightly to the
side, then has its halter loosened. This description of how to take care of an animal
contains good points for those who want to lead human beings and deal with them,
serve them, and have intimate contact with them. The secretary, with his excellent
education, his noble craft, his subtlety, his frequent dealings with people who confer
with him and discuss things with him and learn from him or fear his severity, needs
to be kind to his associates,509a to flatter them, and to supply their wants, even more
than the person in charge of an animal which cannot answer, does not know what is
right, does not understand what is said to it, and goes only where its master who
rides upon it makes it go. Be kind - God show mercy unto you-when you look after
things. Use as much reflection and thought as possible. God permitting, you will
thus escape harshness, annoyance, and rudeness on the part of your associates. They
will be in agreement with you, and you will have their friendship and protection, if
God wills.
None of you should have too sumptuous an office or go beyond the proper
limits in his dress, his mount, his food, his drink, his house, his servants, or in the
other things pertaining to his station, for, despite the nobility of the craft by which
God has distinguished you, you are servants who are not permitted to fall short in
their service. You are caretakers whom one does not permit to be wasteful or
spendthrift. Try to preserve your modesty by planned moderation in all the things I
have mentioned and told you. Beware of the wastefulness of prodigality and the bad
results of luxury. They engender poverty and bring about humiliation. People who
(are prodigal and live in luxury) are put to shame, especially if they be secretaries
and men of education.
Things repeat themselves. One thing contains the clue to another. Let
yourselves be guided in your future undertakings-by your previous experience.
Then, choose the method of doing things that is most definite, most accurate, and
that promises the best result. You should know that there is something that defeats
accomplishment, namely, talking about things. The person who does it is prevented
from using his knowledge and his ability to think. Therefore, everyone of you, while
he is in his office, should endeavor to talk no more than is sufficient; he should be
concise in the matters he brings up and in the answers he gives; and he should give
thought to all the arguments he advances. His work will profit from that. It will
prevent too much preoccupation with other things. He should implore God to grant
him success and to support him with His guidance, for he must fear making mistakes
that might hurt his body and (cast doubt upon) his intelligence and education. When
any one of you says or thinks that the high quality and efficiency of his work is
obviously the result of his own cleverness and knowledge of how to do things, he
provokes God. God will let him depend upon himself alone, and then he will find
that he is not adequate to his task. This is no secret to those who reflect.
None of you should say that he has a better understanding of affairs, or
knows better how to handle difficult matters, than other members of his craft, than
those who serve together with him. Of two persons, discerning people consider him
the more intelligent who throws off conceit and thinks his colleagues more
intelligent and more skillful than he. But at any rate, both parties should
acknowledge the excellence of God's favors. No one should let himself be deceived
by his own opinions and consider himself free from mistakes. Nor should he strive
to outdo his friends, equals, colleagues, or his family. Everybody must give praise to
God, in humility in the face of His greatness, in meekness in the face of His might,
and in fulfillment of the command to speak of God's favors.510
In this letter of mine, let me refer to the old proverb: "He who accepts good
advice 511 all is successful." This is the essence of this letter and the best that is said
in it, after the references to God it contains. Therefore, I have placed it at the end,
and I close the letter with it. May God take care of us and of you, assembled
students and secretaries, in the same way He takes care of those whom, as He knows
in His prescience, He will make happy and guide aright. He can do it. It is in His
hand.
Farewell, and God's mercy and blessings upon you
QUOTES
He is Abdurahman bin Muhammad bin Muhammad bin Muhammad bin Al-Hasan bin Jabir bin Muhammad bin Ibrahim bin Abdurahman bin Ibn Khaldun.
For on the surface history is no more than information about political events, dynasties, and occurrences of the remote past, elegantly presented and spiced with proverbs.
The inner meaning of history, on the other hand, involves speculation and an attempt to get at the truth, subtle explanation of the causes and ori
please mind the book was written in 1377ADQUOTES
He is Abdurahman bin Muhammad bin Muhammad bin Muhammad bin Al-Hasan bin Jabir bin Muhammad bin Ibrahim bin Abdurahman bin Ibn Khaldun.
For on the surface history is no more than information about political events, dynasties, and occurrences of the remote past, elegantly presented and spiced with proverbs.
The inner meaning of history, on the other hand, involves speculation and an attempt to get at the truth, subtle explanation of the causes and origins of existing things, and deep knowledge of the how and why of events. History, therefore, is firmly rooted in philosophy. It deserves to be accounted a branch of philosophy.
Blind trust in tradition is an inherited trait in human beings. Occupation with the scholarly disciplines on the part of those who have no right is widespread. But the pasture of stupidity is unwholesome for mankind. No one can stand up against the authority of truth, and the evil of falsehood is to be fought with enlightening speculation. The reporter merely dictates and passes on the material. It takes critical insight to sort out the hidden truth; it takes knowledge to lay truth bare and polish it so that critical insight may be applied to it.
The writing of history requires numerous sources and greatly varied knowledge. It also requires a good speculative mind and thoroughness.
Historians, Qur'an commentators and leading transmitters have committed frequent errors in the stories and events they reported. They accepted them in the plain transmitted form, without regard for its value. They did not check them with the principles underlying such historical situations, nor did they compare them with similar material.
Therefore, today, the scholar in this field needs to know the principles of politics, the true nature of existent things, and the differences among nations, places, and periods with regard to ways of life, character qualities, customs, sects, schools, and everything else. He further needs a comprehensive knowledge of present conditions in all these respects.
However, if the soul is infected with partisanship for a particular opinion or sect, it accepts without a moment's hesitation the information that is agreeable to it. Prejudice and partisanship obscure the critical faculty and preclude critical investigation. Another reason is the fact that people as a rule approach great and high-ranking persons with praise and encomiums.
The knowledge that has not come down to us is larger than the knowledge that has.
IN THE BOOKS of philosophers who speculated about the condition of the world, it has been explained that the earth has a spherical shape and is enveloped by the element of water.
The geographical degree is twenty-five parasangs, the parasang being 12,000 cubits or three miles, since one mile has 4,000 cubits. The cubit is twenty-four fingers, and the finger is six grains of barley placed closely together in one row.
The Euphrates begins in Armenia in the sixth section of the fifth zone. It flows south through Byzantine territory (Anatolia) past Malatya to Manbij, and then passes Siflin, ar-Raggah, and al-Kufah...
The Tigris originates in a number of springs in the country of Khilat, which is also in Armenia.
Through these mountains, there are passes which are called ad-Durub (mountain passes). They lead into Armenia. This section contains a portion of Armenia situated between these mountains and the Chain Mountain.
The area to the right of the Durub, between them and the Mediterranean, comprises the Byzantine territory: Anatolia. At this time, it belongs to the Turkomans and is ruled by Ibn Uthman (the Ottomans).
Armenia, which lies between the Durub and the Chain Mountain, comprises Mar'ash, Malatya, and Ankara, up to the northern end of the section. In Armenia, in the fifth section, originate the river Jayhan and, to the east of it, the river Sayhan. The Jayhan flows south until it has traversed the Durub.
The Euphrates and the Tigris traverse this area in the middle. They originate in the fifth zone, pass southward through Armenia, and cross the Chain Mountain. The Euphrates, then, flows west of Samosata and Saruj in an easterly direction.
The other subdivision contains part of Armenia, including its principal place, al-Marighah.
In the south of this the Tigris and Euphrates originate. In the north, there is the country of al-Baylagin, which adjoins the land of Amorium behind Mount Qubagib and extends far. At its end, where the Euphrates originates, is Kharshanah.
The sixth section of the fifth zone contains in the southwest the country of Armenia, which extends eastward beyond the middle of the section. Arzan (Erzerum) is in the southwest of Armenia. To the north of it, lie Tiflis and Dabil. East of Arzan is the city of Khilat, followed by Bardha'ah. In the southeast is the capital city of Armenia. There, Armenia, entering the fourth zone, includes. alMaraghah, east of the Mountain of the Kurds which is called Mountain of Barimma, and which has been mentioned before in connection with the sixth section of the fourth zone. In this section, and in the ...
The city of Derbend, which belongs to this country, lies on the Caspian Sea. In the southwest, the country of the "Gates" adjoins Armenia.
WE HAVE SEEN that Negroes are in general characterized by levity, excitability, and great emotionalism. They are found eager to dance whenever they hear a melody. They are everywhere described as stupid. The real reason for these opinions is that, as has been shown by philosophers in the proper place, joy and gladness are due to expansion and diffusion of the animal spirit.
The Egyptians are dominated by joyfulness, levity, and disregard for the future. They store no provisions of food, neither for a month nor a year ahead, but purchase most of it (daily) in the market.
Muhammad SAW said: "Every infant is born in the natural state. It is his parents who make him a Jew or a Christian or a Magian."
When customs proper to goodness have been first to enter the soul of a good person and his soul has thus acquired the habit of goodness, that person moves away from evil and finds it difficult to do anything evil.
15. Savage nations are better able to achieve superiority than others.
It should be known that since, as we have stated in the Third Prefatory Discussion, desert life no doubt is the reason for bravery, savage groups are braver than others. They are, therefore, better able to achieve superiority and to take away the things that are in the hands of other nations.
Superiority comes to nations through enterprise and courage.
Thus, wherever an Arab tribe leads a life of luxury and abundance, while another does not, the one holding fast to desert life the longer will be superior to and more powerful than the other, if both parties are otherwise equal in strength and number.
Meekness and docility to outsiders that may come to be found in a tribe are obstacles on the way toward royal authority.
The reason for this is that meekness and docility break the vigor and strength of group feeling. The very fact that people are meek and docile shows that their group feeling is lost.
They do not become fond of meekness until they are too weak to defend themselves. Those who are too weak to defend themselves are all the more weak when it comes to withstanding their enemies and pre...
This situation was the result of the quality of docility and the longing to be subservient to the Egyptians, which the Israelites had acquired through many long years and which led eventually to the complete loss of their group feeling.
Thus, a new group feeling could grow up in the new generation, and that new group feeling enabled them to press their claims and to achieve superiority.
Whoever loses his group feeling is too weak to do any of these things.
19. A sign of the qualification of an individual for royal authority is his eager desire to acquire praiseworthy qualities, and vice versa.
Whenever we observe people who possess group feeling and who have gained control over many lands and nations, we find in them an eager desire for goodness and good qualities, such as generosity, the forgiveness of error, tolerance toward the weak, hospitality toward guests, the support of dependents, maintenance of the indigent, patience in adverse circumstances, faithful fulfillment of obligations, liberality with money for the preservation of honor, respect for the religious law and for the scholars who are learned in it, observation of the things to be done or not to be done that those...more
20. While a nation is savage, its royal authority extends farther.
These savage peoples, furthermore, have no homelands that they might use as a fertile pasture, and no fixed place to which they might repair. All regions and places are the same to them. Therefore, they do not restrict themselves to possession of their own and neighbouring regions. They do not stop at the borders of their horizon. They swarm across distant zones and achieve superiority over faraway nations.
23. A nation that has been defeated and come under the rule of another nation will quickly perish.
When hope and the things it stimulates are gone through apathy, and when group feeling has disappeared under the impact of defeat, civilization decreases and business and other activities stop.
Therefore, the Negro nations are, as a rule, submissive to slavery, because Negroes have little that is essentially human and have attributes that are quite similar to those of dumb animals, as we have stated.
there are those who by accepting slavery hope to obtain high rank or to get money or power. This was the case with the Turks in the East, and with the Galician infidels and European Christians in Spain. Such people are customarily claimed by the dynasty for itself. Thus, they are not ashamed to be slaves, because they hope to be chosen for high position by the dynasty.
24. Arabs can gain control only over flat territory. This is because, on account of their savage nature, the Arabs are people who plunder and cause damage. They plunder whatever they are able to lay their hands on ...
25. Places that succumb to the Arabs are quickly ruined.
The reason for this is that the Arabs are a savage nation, fully accustomed to savagery and the things that cause it. Savagery has become their character and nature.
For instance, the Arabs need stones to set them up as supports for their cooking pots. So, they take them from buildings which they tear down to get the stones, and use them for that purpose.
It is noteworthy how civilization always collapsed in places the Arabs took over and conquered, and how such settlements were depopulated and the very earth there turned into something that was no longer earth.
Persian civilization in the Arab 'Iraq is likewise completely ruined. The same applies to contemporary Syria.
26. Arabs can obtain royal authority only by making use of some religious coloring, such as prophecy, or sainthood, or some great religious event in general.
The reason for this is that because of their savagery, the Arabs are the least willing of nations to subordinate themselves to each other, as they are rude, proud, ambitious, and eager to be the leader. Their individual aspirations rarely coincide. But when there is religion among them through prophecy or sainthood, then they have some restraining influence in themselves.
27. The Arabs are of all nations the one most remote from royal leadership.
A nation dominated by the Arabs is in a state no different from anarchy, where everybody is set against the others. Such a civilization cannot last and goes quickly to ruins, as would be the case in a state of anarchy, as we have mentioned before. For all these reasons, the Arabs are by nature remote from royal leadership.
6. Religious propaganda cannot materialize without group feeling.
Many religious people who follow the ways of religion come to revolt against unjust amirs. They call for a change in, and prohibition of, evil practices and for good practices. They hope for a divine reward for what they do. They gain many followers and sympathizers among the great mass of the people, but they risk being killed, and most of them actually do perish in consequence of their activities as sinners and unrewarded, because God had not destined them for such activities as they undertake.
8. The greatness of a dynasty, the extent of its territory, and the length of its duration depend upon the numerical strength of its supporters.
9. A dynasty rarely establishes itself firmly in lands with many different tribes and groups.
Therefore, it has taken the Arabs a long time to establish their dynasty in the land of Ifriqiyah and the Maghrib. The same was the case in Syria in the age of the Israelites. At that time, there existed there a very large number of tribes with a great variety of group feelings, such as the tribes of Palestine and Canaan, the children of Esau, the Midyanites, the children of Lot, the Edomites, the Armenians, the Amalekites, Girgashites, and the Nabataeans from the Jazirah and Mosul. Therefore, it was difficult for the Israelites to establish their dynasty firmly.
This is what happened to the Turkish dynasty in the East. Most members of its army were Turkish clients. The Turkish rulers then chose horsemen and soldiers from among the white slaves (Mamelukes) who were brought to them.
The reply was: "Yes, my Lord, I attended the banquet of one of the provincial governors (marzbans) of the Persian king,
20 - Armenia: 13,000,000 dirhams, Embroidered carpets: 20 Variegated cloth: 580 pounds, Salted Surmahi fish: 10,000 pounds Herring: 10,000 pounds, Mules: 200, Falcons: 30
23. The meaning of caliphate and imamate. As explained, the real meaning of royal authority is that it is a form of organization necessary to mankind.
The second kind of war - war caused by hostility - is usually found among savage nations living in the desert, such as the Arabs, the Turks, the Turkomans, the Kurds, and similar peoples.
They earn their sustenance with their lances and their livelihood by depriving other people of their possessions.
41. Injustice brings about the ruin of civilization. It should be known that attacks on people's property remove the incentive to acquire and gain property.
The buildings and constructions in Islam are comparatively few considering Islam's power and as compared to the dynasties preceding Islam.
The reason for this is the very same thing that we mentioned concerning the Berbers. The Arabs, too, are quite firmly rooted in the desert and quite unfamiliar with the crafts.
Buildings erected by Arabs, with very few exceptions, quickly fall into ruins.
Capitalists among the inhabitants of cities need rank and protection.
Muhammad SAW said: "The caliphate after me will last thirty years; then, it will revert to being tyrannical royal authority."
This may be exemplified by the Jews. Their rule in Syria lasted about 1,400 years.
Profit is the value realized from human labor.
God created the two mineral "stones," gold and silver, as the measure of value for all capital accumulations.
it should be further known that the capital a person earns and acquires, if resulting from a craft, is the value realized from his labor.
A portion of the value, whether large or small, comes from the labor.
Being a servant is not a natural way of making a living.
The reason for the existence of servants on a lower level is the fact that most of those who live in luxury are too proud to take care of their own personal needs or are unable to do so, because they were brought up accustomed to indulgence and luxury.
Man is the child of customs, not the child of his ancestors.
Happiness and profit are achieved mostly by people who are obsequious and use flattery. Such character disposition is one of the reasons for happiness.
Persons who are in charge of ices dealing with religious matters, such as judge, mufti, teacher, prayer leader, preacher, muezzin, and the like, are not as a rule very wealthy.
The character qualities of merchants are inferior to those of leading personalities and remote from manliness.
The character qualities of merchants are inferior to those of noblemen and rulers.
The Arabs, of all people, are least familiar with crafts.
Therefore, we find that the homelands of the Arabs and the places they took possession of in Islam had few crafts altogether, so that crafts had to be imported from other regions.
One may observe the great number of crafts in nonArab countries such as China, India, the lands of the Turks, and the Christian nations, and the fact that other nations imported their own crafts from them.
The crafts, especially writing and calculation, give intelligence to the person who practices them.
IT SHOULD BE KNOWN that God distinguished man from all the other animals by an ability to think
The first degree is man's intellectual understanding of the things that exist in the outside world in a natural or arbitrary order, so that he may try to arrange them with the help of his own power.
This kind of thinking mostly consists of perceptions.
The second degree is the ability to think which provides man with the ideas and the behavior needed in dealing with his fellow men and in leading them.
The world of the things that come into being as the result of action, materializes through thinking.
Man is essentially ignorant, and becomes learned through acquiring knowledge.
Most of the scholars in Islam have been non-Arabs (Persians).
It is a remarkable fact that, with few exceptions, most Muslim scholars both in the religious and in the intellectual sciences have been non-Arabs.
When a scholar is of Arab origin, he is non-Arab in language and upbringing an...
This is so in spite of the fact that Islam is an Arabic religion, and its founder was an Arab. The reason for it is that at the beginning Islam had no sciences or crafts. That was due to the simp...
...more Ibn Khaldun, jurist, philosopher, proto-sociologist, writing at the start of the 15th century, predating Machiavelli, produced a fascinating introspection on the nature of the state. As an educator his views predated Descartes and William James - one begins with the senses and ordinary experience as a basis for learning. His view of civilization, predating Spengler, was cyclical in that nomads from the desert utilizing the strength of their leaders, which
Khaldun and the Enchantment of the SocialIbn Khaldun, jurist, philosopher, proto-sociologist, writing at the start of the 15th century, predating Machiavelli, produced a fascinating introspection on the nature of the state. As an educator his views predated Descartes and William James - one begins with the senses and ordinary experience as a basis for learning. His view of civilization, predating Spengler, was cyclical in that nomads from the desert utilizing the strength of their leaders, which Khaldun regards as a natural ruling class, conquered a civilization that had become weak, but over a period of 4 generations become so accustomed to luxury, entitlements and corruption, forgetting the strengths and deprivations of the forefathers that they in turn are conquered by the next set of barbarians.
The work is divided into 6 sections. The first describes the geography and peoples of the known world, the effect of climate both on growing seasons and its civilizing effect. The second develops his ideas of history, previously mentioned. Khaldun favours the self reliance of the Bedouin though concedes that no individual has enough time to provide all the necessities of life, which he sees as a driving force towards sedentary communities and secondary professions in government, mercantilism and the arts. The success of such communities is made possible only when the community possess what Rosenthal translates as "group feeling" ('assabiya) or identification through extended kinship or solidarity. (He would not have been happy with multiculturalism and a pluralistic democratic state.) Khaldun observes that one of the downfalls of most civilization is the outsourcing military or economic control by the ruling group. The outside group owes no loyalty to their employers or the original group, and easily become the new masters. (Or conversely, the ruing group becomes suspicious of the aspirations and loyalty of the millet whose fortunes are on the upswing - the Turks of the 18th century were quite interested in Khaldun's theories!
The third section consists of case studies of civilizations that Khaldun uses to support his theories: the decline of the Abbasids in Iraq to the Persians, Daylam (a people living around the Caspian Sea) the Saljuks (Seljuk Turks), and then the Tartars; the rise and fall of the Umayyads in Spain; he mentions the collapse of the Persian empire, yet does not examine in any detail the persistence of the Byzantine dynasties which survived the loss of its Syrian territories - perhaps because he did not know the details. He also dwells on the roles of public officials such as the religious and civil police, a wazir (usually a Copt or a Jew as they were considered skilled in such things) who looked after bookkeeping, the royal gatekeeper, principal secretaries and the conduct of war. Above all he believed that only the dynastic head of state with his Bedouin origins is most in tune with the demands of ruling. He ends this section with a discussion of the art of war and a reflection on naive messianic beliefs in the Mahdi.
In Sections 4 and 5 he develops a theory of economics observing that the concentration of people in cities over time encourages a surplus of food production, decreasing costs, whereas the surplus of labour creates a diversification of occupations increasing the pay of merchants, trades people and other professionals as individuals seek to maximize the return for work done. In the latter he focuses on the variety of crafts and trades such as farming, architecture, craftsmanship, weaving and tailoring including the "noble" professions of medicine, singing and the production of books. The practitioners of these are long term sedentary peoples rather than the Arabs (Khaldun himself is Berber) for reason of their nomadic roots (pp317, also earlier on pp119). He notes again (pp428) that for the same reasons most of the scholars in Islam have been sedentary peoples and non-Arab.
In the last and 6th section Khaldun offers his thoughts on education, both the subjects to be taught and the methods of teaching. Of the legal sciences, which through with the laws of inheritance have encouraged algebra, he is of the opinion that with Islam they have reached perfection and cannot be further improved (pp334). To this he adds the literary crafts: writing and the study of languages, grammar, literature both poetry and prose and the proper assessment of these through exposure and practice to develop good taste.
The remaining subjects he organizes into 7 main groups (beginning pp371) and assorted subcategories briefly summarized as follows: logic, geometry(including Greek geometry, mechanics and optics) , mathematics (business arithmetic and algebra), music, astronomy (including astrology, which he dismisses as harmful), physics (the physical sciences including the study of motion, agriculture, geography and medicine), metaphysics (including magic which is mostly forbidden by religious law; Greek philosophy of which he disapproves including the work of al-Farabi and Avicenna; alchemy and mystical interpretations are dismissed as harmful as well).
Rosenthal's translation is both understandable and non-intrusive. This is one of the seminal works of philosophy on the nature of history as well as an excellent overview of Islamic attitudes and perceptions of the middle ages. Some of the theological discussions are a bit dry and long winded, for example his ideas on the differences between soothsaying, revelation and divination (pp78-87) , and a quite a number of his notions are now outdated, even racist (see ppp117) but these things are of its time.
Not to everyone's taste but useful to those interested in the history of science and theories of civilization. Recommended!
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Overall good read, but a bit too dragged. Could have been written in a more concise form.
"What distinguished Ibn Khaldun was neither his Arab linage nor his linkage to Berbers via marriage but his Mediterranean location. At the intersection of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim influences, heir to Greek science and Arabic poetry, and connected by trade and history to Asia, the Medeterranen Sea had become the nexus of Muslim cosmopolitanism by the 14th century. Social mobility as well as physical travel animated Me Dr. Lawrence gives a good introduction to this book first, so I quote below
"What distinguished Ibn Khaldun was neither his Arab linage nor his linkage to Berbers via marriage but his Mediterranean location. At the intersection of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim influences, heir to Greek science and Arabic poetry, and connected by trade and history to Asia, the Medeterranen Sea had become the nexus of Muslim cosmopolitanism by the 14th century. Social mobility as well as physical travel animated Mediterranean Muslims, especially those, like Ibn Khaludun, who rose to high posts in government, law, and education."
In short, the author had a vision of more width and depth than any other in his time, 14th century.
This book not only justifies the system of "dynasty" but also points out the limitations of the system, which is that bedouins' strength is rarely inherited to the next generations. Then why do the author justify the system? This is because he has the assumption that the sustenance of governance make civilization develop. However, when the sustenance means the hold of power, the dynasty will be weak externally.
What will we do for the sustenance of the dynasty? This question is similar to the question; what we will do for the sustenance of the company, I think. ...more
One of the basic issues pertaining to Khaldun is his admiration of Aristotle, in most part of the book, he constructs his theory around Aristotle's zoonpolitikon
The book shows very well the current distinction between the Eastern and the Western political and socio-economic thought. On the one hand, it could be seen as an earlier attempt of formulating the `Leviathan` but on the other hand it has certain differences from the European philosophy based on the state of nature and social contract.One of the basic issues pertaining to Khaldun is his admiration of Aristotle, in most part of the book, he constructs his theory around Aristotle's zoonpolitikon but his aim, unlike Aristotle, is to show the way how God created man and later on how man created a social organization and royal authority. His concept of group feeling (asabiyye) is a distinctive approach on political theory and this needs a special emphasis for also the studies of urban theory.
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I read The Musqaddimah due to Mark Zuckerberg's review. He summed it up well enough to entice me to read it. I would recommend this read for anyone interested in history from a different perspective. Zuckerberg's thoughts are:
It's a history of the world written by an intellectual who lived in the 1300s. It focuses on how society and culture flow, including the creation of cities, politics, commerce and science.
While much of what was believed then is now disproven after 700 more years of progress
I read The Musqaddimah due to Mark Zuckerberg's review. He summed it up well enough to entice me to read it. I would recommend this read for anyone interested in history from a different perspective. Zuckerberg's thoughts are:
It's a history of the world written by an intellectual who lived in the 1300s. It focuses on how society and culture flow, including the creation of cities, politics, commerce and science.
While much of what was believed then is now disproven after 700 more years of progress, it's still very interesting to see what was understood at this time and the overall worldview when it's all considered together.
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"The Muqaddimah," which translates to "The Introduction," was written in 1377 by the Islamic historian Khaldun. It's an attempt to strip away biases of historical records and find universal elements in the progression of humanity.
Khaldun's revolutionary scientific approach to history established him as one of the fathers of modern sociology and historiography.
"While much of what was believed then is now disproven after 700 more years of progr
* 20 books Mark Zuckerberg thinks everyone should read"The Muqaddimah," which translates to "The Introduction," was written in 1377 by the Islamic historian Khaldun. It's an attempt to strip away biases of historical records and find universal elements in the progression of humanity.
Khaldun's revolutionary scientific approach to history established him as one of the fathers of modern sociology and historiography.
"While much of what was believed then is now disproven after 700 more years of progress, it's still very interesting to see what was understood at this time and the overall worldview when it's all considered together," Zuckerberg writes.
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I'm rather disappointed this book was used only as a tool to aid Islamic theology (though it absolutely helped). But Khaldun wrote some of the VERY first theories on historiography (my favorite subject, it even beats out biochemistry and civil politics, exce
Ibn Khaldun is quite possibly one of the greatest minds we've ever had. I had to buy this book for my Origins of Pre-Islamic Arabian Civilizations course, and we only had to read a small excerpt, but I read it all. He's an unbelievable mind.I'm rather disappointed this book was used only as a tool to aid Islamic theology (though it absolutely helped). But Khaldun wrote some of the VERY first theories on historiography (my favorite subject, it even beats out biochemistry and civil politics, except no one really knows much about it), economics, sociology, chemistry, and even ethnology.
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The most interesting parts to me were his brief mention of Korea, the views on Christian figures, a chapter that basically sums up the Laffer Curve, and a discussion of the multiplier effect of governmen
Some parts are extremely interesting and insightful, not just about the Muslim understanding of the world in the 14th century, but as applies to the world today. More parts are tedious and repetitive, with endless minutiae about Muslim history an details that are just not engaging to an outsider.The most interesting parts to me were his brief mention of Korea, the views on Christian figures, a chapter that basically sums up the Laffer Curve, and a discussion of the multiplier effect of government spending.
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There was one "coffee spewing" passage early on. "It has been reported that most of the Negroes of the first zone dwell in caves and thickets, eat herbs, live in savage isolation and do not congregate, and eat each other. The same applies to the Slavs."
Talk about tarring with one brush!
Ibn Khaldun was a man of his culture and time. Though clearly a desert Arabist, he presents an interesting world view as compared with non-Muslim, non-Arab sources, correct in some things, far amiss in others.There was one "coffee spewing" passage early on. "It has been reported that most of the Negroes of the first zone dwell in caves and thickets, eat herbs, live in savage isolation and do not congregate, and eat each other. The same applies to the Slavs."
Talk about tarring with one brush!
...moreHe is best known for his book The Muqaddimah (known as Prolegomena i
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 AD/732 AH – March 19, 1406 AD/808 AH) was an Arab Muslim historiographer and historian, regarded to be among the founding fathers of modern historiography, sociology and economics.He is best known for his book The Muqaddimah (known as Prolegomena in Greek). The book influenced 17th-century Ottoman historians like Ḥajjī Khalīfa and Mustafa Naima who used the theories in the book to analyze the growth and decline of the Ottoman Empire.[2] 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.
ولي الدين أبو زيد عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن محمد بن الحسن بن جابر بن محمد بن إبراهيم بن عبد الرحمن بن خالد (خلدون) الحضرمي مؤسس علم الاجتماع ومؤرخ مسلم من إفريقية في عهد الحفصيين وهي تونس حالياً ترك تراثاً مازال تأثيره ممتداً حتى اليوم.
ولد ابن خلدون في تونس عام بالدار الكائنة بنهج تربة الباي رقم 34. أسرة ابن خلدون أسرة علم وأدب فقد حفظ القرآن الكريم في طفولته وكان أبوه هو معلمه الأول. شغل أجداده في الأندلس وتونس مناصب سياسية ودينية مهمة وكانوا أهل جاه ونفوذ نزح أهله من الأندلس في منتصف القرن السابع الهجري، وتوجهوا إلى تونس وكان قدوم عائلته إلى تونس خلال حكم دولة الحفصيين.
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