The Father of Modern Social Science & Cultural History
Ibn Khaldun (1332-1395 C.E.)
Ibn Khaldun, considered the greatest Arab historian, is also known as the father of modern social science and cultural history.
[His contribution to history is marked by the fact that, unlike most earlier writers interpreting history largely in a political context, he emphasized environmental, sociological, psychological and economic factors governing the apparent events. This revolutionized the science of history and also laid the foundation of Umraniyat (Sociology).]
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Abd al-Rahman Ibn Mohammad is generally known as Ibn Khaldun after a remote ancestor. His parents, part of the Banu Khaldun, an upper-class Andalusian family which held many high offices in Andalucia, who were originally Yemenite Arabs, had settled in Spain, but after the fall of Seville, had migrated to Tunisia.
He was born in Tunisia in 1332 C.E. (732 A.H.), where he received his early education and where, still in his teens, he entered the service of the Egyptian ruler Sultan Barquq. Under the Tunisian Hafsid dynasty, some of his family held political office; Ibn Khaldun’s father and grandfather, however, withdrew from political life and joined a mystical order.
His family’s high rank enabled Ibn Khaldun to study with the best North African teachers of the time. He received a classical Arabic education, studying the Quran and Arabic linguistics, the basis for an understanding of the Quran and of Islamic law, Hadith and Fiqh. The mystic, mathematician and philosopher Al-Abili introduced him to mathematics, logic and philosophy, where he above all studied the works of Averroes, Avicenna, Razi and al-Tusi. At the age of 17, Ibn Khaldun lost both his parents to an epidemic of the plague which hit Tunis.
At the age of 20, he began his political career at the Chancellery of the Tunisian ruler, Ibn Tafrakin, with the position of kAtib al-’alAmah, which consisted of writing in fine calligraphy the typical introductory notes of official documents. In 1352, Abu Ziad, the Sultan of Constantine, marched on Tunis, and defeated it. His thirst for advanced knowledge and a better academic setting soon made him leave this service and migrate to Fez.
This was followed by a long period of unrest marked by contemporary political rivalries affecting his career. This turbulent period also included a three-year refuge in a small village Qalat Ibn Salama in Algeria, which provided him with the opportunity to write Muqaddimah, the first volume of his world history that won him an immortal place among historians, sociologists and philosophers.
Following family tradition, Ibn Khaldun strove for a political career. In the face of a constantly changing political situation in contemporary North Africa, this required a high degree of skill, developing alliances and dropping them appropriately, to avoid being sucked under by the demise of rules who at times held power only briefly. Ibn Khaldun’s autobiography, in which he spends time in prison, gains the highest offices and enters exile, at times reads like an adventure story.
The uncertainty of his career still continued, with Egypt becoming his final abode where he spent his last 24 years. Here he lived a life of fame and respect, marked by his appointment as the Chief Malakite Judge and lecturing at the Al-Azhar University, but envy caused his removal from his high judicial office as many as five times.
Ibn Khaldun’s chief contribution lies in philosophy of history and sociology. He sought to write a world history preambled by a first volume aimed at an analysis of historical events. This volume, commonly known as Muqaddimah or ‘Prolegomena’, was based on Ibn Khaldun’s unique approach and original contribution and became a masterpiece in literature on philosophy of history and sociology.
The chief concern of this monumental work was to identify psychological, economic, environmental and social facts that contribute to the advancement of human civilization and the currents of history. In this context, he analyzed the dynamics of group relationships and showed how group-feelings, al-’Asabiyya, give rise to the ascent of a new civilization and political power and how, later on, its diffusion into a more general civilization invites the advent of a still new ‘Asabiyya in its pristine form.
He identified an almost rhythmic repetition of rise and fall in human civilization, and analyzed factors contributing to it. His contribution to history is marked by the fact that, unlike most earlier writers interpreting history largely in a political context, he emphasized environmental, sociological, psychological and economic factors governing the apparent events. This revolutionized the science of history and also laid the foundation of Umraniyat (Sociology).
As part of this new science, Ibn Khaldun aimed to analyze objectively economic issues, and to show the consequences of various policies. He thought that those things mandated by God can be shown scientifically to be the best social policies, and that this is the natural consequence of the fact that economic principles and the foundation of the good life were both created by God. These laws dictated that the state has certain limited functions: the defense of the community against injustice and aggression, the protection of private property, the prevention of fraud in exchanges between citizens, the overseeing of the mint to safeguard the currency, and the wise exercise of political leadership.
He denounced high taxation and government competition with the private sphere because they lower productivity, take away the incentive of people to work hard, and ultimately ruin the state.
Apart from the Muqaddimah that became an important independent book even during the lifetime of the author, the other volumes of his world history, Kitab al-I’bar, deal with the history of Arabs, contemporary Muslim rulers, contemporary European rulers, ancient history of Arabs, Jews, Greeks, Romans, Persians, etc., Islamic History, Egyptian history and North African history, especially that of Berbers and tribes living in the adjoining areas. The last volume deals largely with the events of his own life and is known as Al-Tasrif. This was also written in a scientific manner and initiated a new analytical tradition in the art of writing autobiography. A book on mathematics written by him is not extant.
Ibn Khaldun’s influence on the subject of history, philosophy of history, sociology, political science and education has remained paramount ever since his life. His books have been translated into many languages, both in the East and the West, and have inspired subsequent development of these sciences. For instance, Prof. Gum Ploughs and Kolosio consider Muqaddimah as superior in scholarship to Machiavelli’s The Prince written a century later, as the former bases the diagnosis more on cultural, sociological, economic and psychological factors.
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