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Ibn Khaldun The Statesman

Fromherz Allen James

in Ibn Khaldun: Life and Times

This chapter focuses on Ibn Khaldun's political ties and political involvement. Ibn Khaldun while he may support a particular ruler, he has a frequent attitude of ambivalence, especially toward ... More

This chapter focuses on Ibn Khaldun's political ties and political involvement. Ibn Khaldun while he may support a particular ruler, he has a frequent attitude of ambivalence, especially toward rulers who did not meet his expectations. This attitude of ambivalence continued throughout most of his career. This chapter focuses on his political involvement from the period of Abu'inan, to that of Muhammad V. Nasrid amir of Granada, and to Ibn al-Khatib, the grand wazir of Granada. While the focus of this chapter is on the Ibn Khadun 's political involvement, the chapter also takes note of his observations of the upwelling and decline of dynasties, and the dependence of the unification of an empire on the combination of religious legitimacy and tribal solidarity ('asabiyya).Less

Historian Meets History

Fromherz Allen James

in Ibn Khaldun: Life and Times

This chapter introduces Ibn Khaldun, a world historical figure and a world historian. His famed book Muquaddimah and his theory of tribal solidarity or 'asabiyya as determinant of the rise and fall ... More

This chapter introduces Ibn Khaldun, a world historical figure and a world historian. His famed book Muquaddimah and his theory of tribal solidarity or 'asabiyya as determinant of the rise and fall of dynasties made him the fascination of many modern thinkers to the extent that Ibn Khaldun was orphaned of his own time and exiled from his own history. The first section of the chapter discusses the attempts to identify Ibn Khaldun as a modern thinker. While his thoughts have transcended time and have a modern scientific relevance, identifying Khaldun as a modern thinker ignores the relationship between his times and his thoughts. It is argued instead in this section that the best way to approach Ibn Khaldun is to abandon the attempt to attach the adjective ‘modern’ to him. The second section discusses the fourteenth-century world of Ibn Khaldun. This period was marked by two concurrent trends. First, while it was a century marked by irreconcilable political divisions, it was also a period of maturation and consolidating of Muslim institutions and practices, both in the form of educational institutions controlled by the government, such as madrasas and the establishment and growth of important religious communities and institutions. Second, it was a period that set the stage for two world historic developments: the rise of European economic hegemony; and the victory of the Ottoman Empire.Less

Ibn Khaldun's Early Life

Fromherz Allen James

in Ibn Khaldun: Life and Times

Some scholars contend that it is impossible to write an ‘interesting’ biography of Ibn Khaldun. According to this assessment, Ibn Khaldun did not reveal anything personal, anything in the modern ... More

Some scholars contend that it is impossible to write an ‘interesting’ biography of Ibn Khaldun. According to this assessment, Ibn Khaldun did not reveal anything personal, anything in the modern sense of what is expected in a proper biography: a psychological analysis of an individual. In the introduction of his translation of the Muqaddimah, Franz Rosenthal noted that Ibn Khaldun rarely provided intimate biographical information. Even significant information on his psychological relationship to his contemporaries, according to Rosenthal, was lacking. Although Ibn Khaldun's account of his life was ‘the most detailed autobiography in medieval Muslim literature’ a psychologically compelling work for Rosenthal it was not. However, Rosenthal did not seem to recognize that even psychological depth could be expressed in many ways other than the lurid details of immediate, intimate relations. This chapter shows that Ibn Khaldun in fact provided some brief and fascinating clues about his own psychological make-up and personal disposition. These clues are abundant upon a close reading of his narratives and poetry. Rosenthal himself pointed out the rich source of information on the mind and thinking of Ibn Khaldun found in the Muqaddimah. Tensions, contradictions and conundrums exist in Ibn Khaldun's writings, as they might exist in the writings of any intellectual. It is thus with optimism that this book sets out to examine the life of Ibn Khaldun, the man, as much as it examines Ibn Khaldun, the philosopher of history.Less

On Being Ibn Khaldun

Fromherz Allen James

in Ibn Khaldun: Life and Times

As this autobiography has shown, Ibn Khaldun had an unusually individualistic character. Hence, it is ironic that Ibn Khaldun's view of history did not seem to allow much room for the agency of free ... More

As this autobiography has shown, Ibn Khaldun had an unusually individualistic character. Hence, it is ironic that Ibn Khaldun's view of history did not seem to allow much room for the agency of free will and determinism of the individual. For Ibn Khaldun, even the charisma of an individual leader must be sanctified by divine prophecy. Although he described the lives of chiefs, sultans, prophets and mahdis in great detail, there was rarely the sense in his philosophy of history that individuals could break through inevitable patterns and cycles. Unlike several previous historians who strung together biographies of great rules and personalities and called it history, Ibn Khaldun saw events systematically. Individuals were subjected to events, and events were subjected to social or tribal solidarity to abisayya, to divine inspiration and to the irreversible cycle of the rise and fall of dynasties. In contrast to this determinism, Ibn Khaldun's autobiography contrasted with this wider view of history as an inevitable social process. It was as his life as an individual literary moved concurrently and parallel to the text of his philosophy. This chapter discusses the autobiography of Ibn Khaldun. Ibn Khaldun's biography tells of relative freedom. While he knew that dynasties must rely on the tribal solidarity, a rudimentary form of social freedom outside the boundaries of despotism, so too could Ibn Khaldun, the individual, think and act, even if that thinking and acting was ultimately controlled by God. His autobiography too was not of the typical Arabic biography. While in some aspects he did follow the tradition of tarajim, as a whole his autobiography betrayed a great deal sense of personal information and psychological awareness, even if that information was hidden between the lines in the letters, or in his poetic verse dispersed throughout the work. Unlike, many previous autobiographies that centred on personal praise, Ibn Khaldun was of remarkable depth of description and self-reflection. He did not avoid shameful and difficult events in his life. These events made his autobiography a remarkable document, intended not to praise its own subject but to show the trials and tribulations of public life. While his life was of apparent contradictions, these contradictions did not paralyze him. Instead, these very contradictions added yet more richness and complexity to the life of a person who reflected his own period of history, a person who wrote a history of the world, and also a history of his own life in the world.Less

Ibn Khaldun’s Autobiography and his Character

Syed Farid Alatas

in Ibn Khaldun

Chapter 1 provides a short account of Ibn Khaldun’s genealogy, his life, the social influences on his thinking and the intellectual context in which he thought and wrote. The Maghreb of the ... More

Chapter 1 provides a short account of Ibn Khaldun’s genealogy, his life, the social influences on his thinking and the intellectual context in which he thought and wrote. The Maghreb of the fourteenth century in which he lived was vastly different from what he knew of earlier centuries. By the time of Ibn Khaldun’s birth, the Maghreb was politically fragmented, economically depressed and constantly under threat from nomadic invasions and pillaging. These circumstances must surely have influenced Ibn Khaldun’s thinking on the rise and decline of states.Less

Further Reading and Works Cited

Syed Farid Alatas

in Ibn Khaldun

Chapter 6 gives, along with a list of the works cited in this book, an account of the various editions and translations of Ibn Khaldun’s works into European and non-European languages. It also ... More

Chapter 6 gives, along with a list of the works cited in this book, an account of the various editions and translations of Ibn Khaldun’s works into European and non-European languages. It also presents a briefly annotated list of major works in Arabic, English and other European languages relevant to the topics covered. The range and scale of works on Ibn Khaldun can be gauged from the list of bibliographies presented in this chapter. The chapter provides a list of readings useful for further study. The list is restricted to those titles that should prove the most useful for an orientation of the general reader to the field. The suggested further reading list is arranged thematically.Less

Between City and Countryside: Ibn Khaldun and the Fourteenth Century

Allen James Fromherz

in The Near West: Medieval North Africa, Latin Europe and the Mediterranean in the Second Axial Age

This chapter focuses on polymath, minister, and historian Ibn Khaldun. Foreshadowing the rise of the Ottomans, he predicted the rise of a great, new Muslim naval power that would conquer all the ... More

This chapter focuses on polymath, minister, and historian Ibn Khaldun. Foreshadowing the rise of the Ottomans, he predicted the rise of a great, new Muslim naval power that would conquer all the lands of the European Christians beyond the sea. Ibn Khaldun realized that new dynasties could arise, take power, and set the stage for a new era. He wrote a great history of the Berbers to illustrate his point, perhaps to give hope that a new unifying dynasty would emerge in the midst of the disintegration of North Africa and the misfortunes of the Almohad successor dynasties. Despite a consequent decline in the North African admiralties, Ibn Khaldun’s work affirmed that Muslim trade, commerce, and travel was still bustling in the fourteenth-century Western Mediterranean.Less

Ibn Khaldun and the Science of Society

Syed Farid Alatas

in Ibn Khaldun

Chapter 2 focuses on Ibn Khaldun’s ‘new science’. His approach was a positive rather than a normative one – the study of state and society as they are rather than as they should be. In this sense, he ... More

Chapter 2 focuses on Ibn Khaldun’s ‘new science’. His approach was a positive rather than a normative one – the study of state and society as they are rather than as they should be. In this sense, he departed from the dominant pattern of writings on state and society. Ibn Khaldun’s rationale for developing a new field of science is based on his critique of the conventional historical science of his time. That critique of conventional history and his argument for a new science to overcome its shortcomings are explained in detail, with emphasis on the key methodological aspects of the new science and its main features.Less

Practical Politics

Antony Black

in The West and Islam: Religion and Political Thought in World History

Muslim Advices-to-Kings took into account Realpolitik in a way that European political writings did not, until Machiavelli. They were handbooks of political management and social psychology with a ... More

Muslim Advices-to-Kings took into account Realpolitik in a way that European political writings did not, until Machiavelli. They were handbooks of political management and social psychology with a prudential, utilitarian approach. Muslims saw ruthless force applied for the right ends as legitimate. The idea of ‘the circle of power’ embodied an Iranian view of the relationship between power and justice. Ibn Khaldun saw the caliphate and 'umma as subject to the same universal pattern as other states, in which tribal groups, nurtured in the wilderness and inspired by collective loyalty ('asabiyya), take over civilization and then themselves become decadent. His thought partly anticipated the sociological theories of Hegel and Marx.Less

Writing History as a Political Act: Ibn Khaldūn, ʿAṣabiyya and Legitimacy

Allen J. Fromherz

in The Articulation of Power in Medieval Iberia and the Maghrib

Studies of legitimacy in the medieval Maghrib have considered political, religious, social, and economic power, but rarely the political motivations of those who write the sources of the era. ... More

Studies of legitimacy in the medieval Maghrib have considered political, religious, social, and economic power, but rarely the political motivations of those who write the sources of the era. Although archaeology has made some promising advances, the basis for our understanding of these factors comes primarily from historical sources written by a particular class of scholar. Most historians of the medieval Maghrib were also ministers and advisors with their own specific and highly political interests. These writers were far from passive referees on the sidelines of history. Their portrayal of what was legitimate or even of what was history often had to do with their own political interests as learned ministers. Using Ibn Khaldūn’s autobiography, this chapter argues that to understand legitimacy in the fourteenth century a deeper understanding of the personal and political motivations of historians is needed.Less

The Reception of Ibn Khaldun

Syed Farid Alatas

in Ibn Khaldun

Chapter 4 is a broad survey of the reception of Ibn Khaldun. It looks at how Ibn Khaldun was thought of in the pre-modern Muslim world by scholars who lived in places and times uninfluenced by the ... More

Chapter 4 is a broad survey of the reception of Ibn Khaldun. It looks at how Ibn Khaldun was thought of in the pre-modern Muslim world by scholars who lived in places and times uninfluenced by the modern social sciences. The chapter then gives a critical presentation of the discovery and reception of Ibn Khaldun in Western academia and his status in and for the contemporary social sciences.Less

The Vision of Order and Al-‘Umrân as an Explanatory Concept in the Debates on Civilization

Vahdettin Işık

in Debates on Civilization in the Muslim World: Critical Perspectives on Islam and Modernity

The chapter analyses the concept of civilization across the social sciences as a ‘condition’ versus a ‘universalizing’ process. It also compares this Western notion of civilization with Khaldun’s ... More

The chapter analyses the concept of civilization across the social sciences as a ‘condition’ versus a ‘universalizing’ process. It also compares this Western notion of civilization with Khaldun’s conceptualization of civilization.Less

Theorizing from Within: Ibn Khaldun and the Understanding of Arab Political Culture

in Varieties of Muslim Experience: Encounters with Arab Political and Cultural Life

From the eighteenth century onward, Western scholars have characterized the Arab historian Ibn Khaldun as one of the truly great social theorists—a systematizer of deep historical trends, one of the ... More

From the eighteenth century onward, Western scholars have characterized the Arab historian Ibn Khaldun as one of the truly great social theorists—a systematizer of deep historical trends, one of the first “social scientists.” Ibn Khaldun is best known for his grand theory of state formation. In his own life—as in the lives of his cultural successors—Ibn Khaldun placed great emphasis on knowing the customs and practices of other groups one might encounter. But for him and contemporary Arabs there was and is a clear emphasis as well on understanding human behavior through the specific contexts and circumstances in which such actions are embedded. Perhaps an understanding of Arab political culture in the present may nonetheless inform our understanding of Ibn Khaldun's way of theorizing more than 600 years ago. Reading between the lines of Ibn Khaldun—for his culture, his type of theorizing, his view of humanity—can enrich our view of history and the social ideas of our Arab contemporaries.Less

Ibn Khaldun on Education and Knowledge

Syed Farid Alatas

in Ibn Khaldun

Chapter 3 discusses Ibn Khaldun’s thoughts on education and knowledge. The classification of knowledge in the classical Islamic tradition functioned as a guide to the range of sciences in existence ... More

Chapter 3 discusses Ibn Khaldun’s thoughts on education and knowledge. The classification of knowledge in the classical Islamic tradition functioned as a guide to the range of sciences in existence at the time and the relationship between them. There was, therefore, a pedagogical dimension to the classification of sciences. Ibn Khaldun’s own classification, his distinction between the intellectual and transmitted sciences, and the strength and weaknesses of his scheme, are discussed. So too are his views on learning capacity, memorization, curriculum, strict teachers, and the breadth and depth of education. He was a keen observer of the relationship between education and society and saw education as having multiple objectives.Less

Story

Wen-chin Ouyang

in Politics of Nostalgia in the Arabic Novel: Nation-State, Modernity and Tradition

Personalisation of history privileges pre-modern popular forms of storytelling, such as the popular epic (sira sha'biyya), which now frames autobiography and biography in the Arabic novel that tells ... More

Personalisation of history privileges pre-modern popular forms of storytelling, such as the popular epic (sira sha'biyya), which now frames autobiography and biography in the Arabic novel that tells the story of state tyranny from the perspective of the individual common man and of the impact of surveillance and torture on the modern subject. While Naguib Mahfouz writes the epic of an Egyptian family's rise to material and symbolic power in The Epic of Harafish, Ben Salem Himmich rewrites Ibn Khaldun's autobiography as a story of resistance to tyranny in The Polymath, and Gamal al-Ghitani exposes surveillance and torture as the machinery of despotism in his biography of tyranny in Zayni Barakat.Less

The Significance of Ibn Khaldun for the Modern Social Sciences

Syed Farid Alatas

in Ibn Khaldun

Chapter 5 points out that, while there is a systematic theory of society to be found in the works of Ibn Khaldun, there has been insufficient attention to it in introductory textbooks on the history ... More

Chapter 5 points out that, while there is a systematic theory of society to be found in the works of Ibn Khaldun, there has been insufficient attention to it in introductory textbooks on the history of the various social sciences and on more specialized topics to which Ibn Khaldun’s science is obviously relevant. In terms of the themes, concepts and framework of the Muqaddimathat make up the theory of the rise and decline of dynasties, Ibn Khaldun is certainly relevant to the modern social sciences. Nevertheless, there has been a dearth of attention to his works, especially in the social science curricula in universities. The chapter goes on to discuss the possibility of developing Khaldunian social science by combining his theoretical insights with those of the modern social sciences.Less

The Lord of Conjunction: Sacrality and Sovereignty in the Age of Timur

A. Azfar Moin

in The Millennial Sovereign: Sacred Kingship and Sainthood in Islam

This chapter explores how Timur, a cruel conqueror who wrought destruction on a continent not yet recovered from the ravages of the Mongol invasion led by Chinggis Khan, became a master symbol of ... More

This chapter explores how Timur, a cruel conqueror who wrought destruction on a continent not yet recovered from the ravages of the Mongol invasion led by Chinggis Khan, became a master symbol of sacred kingship that endured for centuries in social memory across Iran and India. In a report of Arab historian Ibn Khaldun, he called Timur a Lord of Conjunction whose rise to the mastery of the world was signaled by a “conjunction of the two superior planets”; a leader awaited by the most learned men of the age—Sufis, astrologers, physicians, preachers metaphysicians, Muslims, and Jews—in Muslim North Africa and Christian Spain; a man who would inaugurate a new era, possibly the last one before the end of time; and a man who was potentially the awaited messiah descended from the prophetic line. However, it was not until the very end of Timur's reign that he was formally and publicly portrayed as Lord of Conjunction.Less