MUQADDIMAH, THE

byIbn Khaldūn

(1377)

The important Islamic jurist, philosopher, and historian IBN KHALDūN is best known for hisMuqaddimah(Introduction). What we think of as theMuqaddimahis the preface and first book of his Kitāb al-‘Ibar, or “Universal History.” Its well-deserved reputation rests on the fact that it is the world’s first attempt to find a rational explanation for the historical changes in human society, outside of religious myth or conventional cliché. Ibn Khaldūn’s revolutionary methods have led subsequent generations to call him the first sociologist, or the first true philosopher of history. Ibn Khaldūn begins by considering the effect of the physical environment on human beings, and concludes that the middle or temperate latitudes, away from the extremes of the northern and southern climates, provide the ideal setting for human civilization. He then considers the nature of the human species, in an Aristotelian manner: God has given us the gift of rational thought, so we realize that we need to cooperate with others because it is impossible for us to produce everything we need by ourselves. However, we are animals, Ibn Khaldūn says, so we must be governed by someone with the power to prevent our harming one another if we are to live in a cooperative society. Once this cooperative society is formed, the result is what Ibn Khaldūn calls ‘umrân, or “civilization.” As the organization becomes more populous, ‘umrânincreases until the state is formed, the highest form of ‘mrân. What enables some groups to achieve this advanced state more readily than others is a quality Ibn Khaldūn calls ‘asabîyah, a word meaning something like “group consciousness.” Generally one feels this ‘asabîyah, toward one’s family or tribe,with whom one has a blood relationship, but in the more advanced civilization the attitude is broadened to include the larger political entity of the nation.Certain groups with a very strong sense of ‘asabîyah. are able to dominate other groups, and further, within the dominant group the leading family, founder of a dynasty, will be the one with the strongest ‘asabîyah. For Ibn Khaldūn, the worddawlahmeans both “dynasty” and “state,” for he sees the two as inseparable—when the dynasty falls, so does the state itself.

It is under a dynasty that human cultural achievement reaches its apex. In the large cities and towns necessary for the ‘umrānof the dynasty, human needs are more easily met and the excess labor available goes into the production of arts, crafts, and sciences. But the desire for luxuries on the part of the ruling dynasty encourages them to seek higher and higher taxes to pay for the luxuries they desire, and to consolidate their power as their ‘asabîyahdecreases. They are forced to rely on outside military support from a group whose own ‘asabîyahis stronger. Ultimately, this group overthrows the reigning dynasty and founds its own state, only to succumb ultimately to the same fate in what Ibn Khaldūn describes as the cyclical pattern of history.

Despite the constant rise and fall of states, Ibn Khaldūn sees that the arts and sciences, the higher aspects of civilization, are maintained and advanced through what he callsmalakuhor “habit.” The new rulers generally keep the things they admired in the previous dynasty, and individuals who have learned the arts and sciences will educate those of the new order willing to learn them. Thus Ibn Khaldūn argues that, despite historians who claim that the world has declined from a previous golden age, and that the current civilization is inferior to that of the past, the only difficulty with the present civilization is a decline in political organization. In the cycle of history, it will rise again.

■ Al-Azmeh,Aziz.Ibn Khaldûn: An Essay in Reinterpretation. London: Routledge, 1990.

■ Baali, Fuad.Social Institutions: Ibn Khaldûn’s Social Thought. Lanham,Md.: University Press of America, 1992.

■ Ibn Khaldûn.The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History. Translated by Franz Rosenthal, abridged and edited by N. J. Dawood, with a new introduction by Bruce B. Lawrence. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005.

■ Mahdi, Muhsin.Ibn Khaldûn’s Philosophy of History: A Study in the Philosophic Foundation of the Science of Culture. London: G. Allen and Unwin, 1957.