Ibn Khaldun Structure of History and Society

The Travels and Career of Ibn Khaldun

Lecture Outline the Muqaddima History as a scientific inquiry Ibn Khaldun’s view of social organization His cyclical theory Aristotle’s causal model ‘Asabiyya Legacy of Ibn Khaldun

Epistēmē: knowledge Logos: logical discourse Epistemology: the study of the theory of knowledge

Intellectual World of the Medieval Mediterranean Falsafa: continuation and refinement of the Greek philosophical and scientific tradition (translation movement) Episteme and İlm Aristotelian framework to build their systems of logic and natural philosophy

Ilm al-umran “This science then, like all other sciences, whether based on authority or on reasoning, appears to be independent and has its own subject, that is to say human society, and its own problems, that is to say the social phenomena and the transformations that succeed each other in the nature of society….”

Necessary Accidents of Society (Mulk) Royal Authority Government Laws Occupations Crafts and sciences

Conditions that Affect Society Environment Climate Air Diet Ethnicity (Race) Culture

On Difference The error arises from a failure to observe the nature of things and of regions; for every thing changes with successive generations and nothing remains constant.

Ibn Khaldun’s Dialectic Model Nomadic (Bedouin) tribes Sedentary (settled) urban community

Aristotle’s Causal Theory Nature Material Cause Formal Cause Efficient Cause Final Cause (TELOS)

Aristotle’s Causal Theory Nature Material Cause Formal Cause Efficient Cause Final Cause (TELOS)

On Transformation “The ignorance of the laws governing the transformations of human society. For every single thing, whether it be an object or an action, is subject to a law governing its nature and any changes that may take place in it. If therefore the historian understands the nature of events and of changes that occur in the world, and the conditions governing them, such knowledge will help him more than anything else to clarify any record and to distinguish the truths it contains from the falsehoods.”

On Transformation Conditions of the world, and of the nations, with their customs and modes of occupation, do not persist in one unchanging state or stable pattern, but are transformed with the passage of time and move from one condition to another.

Ibn Khaldun’s Cycle of Civilization

Rise and Fall of Dynasties ʻasabiyya: to bind or to tie together ʻasab: a group bound together group feeling, social solidarity, social cohesion

President Habib Bourguiba

Avenue Bourguiba Tunis

Ibn Khaldun’s Statue on Avenue Bourguiba

Ibn Khaldun 1332-1406 2006 Exhibition: 600th anniversary of the death of Ibn Khaldun, Seville, Spain