Ibn Khaldun

Ibn Khaldūn (27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732–808 AH) was an Arab scholar, historian, philosopher, and sociologist. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages, and is considered by a number of scholars to be a major forerunner of historiography, sociology, economics, and demography studies. His best-known book is the Muqaddimah or Prolegomena ("Introduction"), which he wrote in six months as he states in his autobiography. It later influenced 17th-century and 19th-century Ottoman historians such as Kâtip Çelebi, Mustafa Naima and Ahmed Cevdet Pasha, who used its theories to analyze the growth and decline of the Ottoman Empire. Ibn Khaldun interacted with Tamerlane, the founder of the Timurid Empire. He has been called one of the most prominent Muslim and Arab scholars and historians. Recently, Ibn Khaldun's works have been compared with those of influential European philosophers such as Niccolò Machiavelli, Giambattista Vico, David Hume, G. W. F. Hegel, Karl Marx, and Auguste Comte as well as the economists David Ricardo and Adam Smith, suggesting that their ideas found precedent (although not direct influence) in his. He has also been influential on certain modern Islamic thinkers (e.g. those of the traditionalist school).

Early life Ibn Khaldun's life is well-documented as he wrote an autobiography. However, despite being it being described as "the most detailed autobiography in Medieval Muslim literature", it lacked many personal details. Both the scholars Walter Joseph Fischel and Syed Farid Alatas divided Ibn Khaldun's life into phases with the former dividing it into two and the latter into three.

Birth and family

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khaldūn was born in Tunis on 26 May 1332 (1 Ramadan 732 AH) into an upper-class Andalusian family of Yemeni Arab descent, the Banū Khaldūn. He traced his family's ancestry to Ḥaḍramawt specifically to the tribe of Kinda:

Our ancestry goes back to Ḥaḍramawt, [we belong to the] Arabs of the Yemen, and descend from Wāʾil Ibn Hujr. He was one of the leaders of the Arabs, was known, and had a following. Ibn Khaldun traced his lineage specifically to Wāʾil Ibn Hujr a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a prominent chief. In a delegation to Madina visiting the prophet, he received a blessing "O Allah, bless Wa'il and his descendants!" and he narrated about seventy hadiths. He was also a close companion of Muʿāwiya. The eponymous ancestor of the Banū Khaldūn was ʿUthmān ibn Bakr ibn Khālid, also known as Khaldūn, who originally settled in Carmona then in Seville. Both Ibn Ḥazm and Ibn Ḥayyān mentioned the Banū Khaldūn as one of the most important Arab families in al-Andalus occupying prominent governmental and scholarly positions in Seville. Although, during the first three centuries of Muslim rule, there is little information about the Banū Khaldūn. At the start of the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd Allāh's reign in the 9th century, the Banū Khaldūn alongside the Banū l-Ḥajjāj were the leading Arab families of Seville. One of Ibn Khaldun's ancestors, Kurayb, led a revolt at that time and established a quasi-independent state in Seville. In the taifa period, the Banū Khaldūn served as viziers under the Abbadid dynasty. Under the Almohads, the Banū Khaldūn reappeared as members of the Sevillan ellite and they had ties with the Almohad governors. Ibn Khaldun was linked to the Hafsids on his maternal side as one of his maternal ancestors, Ibn al-Muhtasib, gave a Galician concubine to the Hafsid Abū Zakariyyāʾ. A descendant of this relationship was the Hafsid ruler in Tunis. The Banū Khaldūn left Seville in 1232 before the Reconquista and the city's occupation in 1248. They first settled in the city of Ceuta before moving to Tunis. The fourth-grandfather of Ibn Khaldun, al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad, joined Abū Zakariyyāʾ in Bona. Ibn Khaldun's great grandfather, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, served as Director of Finances (ʿamal al-ashgāl) to Abū Isḥāq. However, he died during a revolt against the Hafsids by the pretender Ibn Abī ʿUmāra who arrested, tortured and executed him. Ibn Khaldun's grandfather, Muḥammad, was initially named Chamberlain to the Crown Prince, Abū Fāris, under Abū Isḥāq. After Abū Yaḥyā ibn al-Liḥyānī conquered Tunis, Muḥammad was appointed chamberlain. Abū Yaḥyā would often leave the affairs of state under Muḥammad's administration. Muḥammad held a number of minor positions under multiple Hafsid rulers but avoided higher appointments (potentially because of the fate of his father). After two pilgrimages to Mecca, he retired to become a religious scholar. He died in 1337. Ibn Khaldun's father, Muḥammad Abū Bakr, broke from the familial tradition and stayed out of politics. He devoted himself to fiqh, literature and piety. Ibn Khaldun also had a younger brother, Yahya, who was also a scholar and historian, and an older brother, Muhammad, who there is little information about. The plague of 749/1348 was a major turning point during Ibn Khaldun's youth, during which he lost close family members and teachers. He lost both his parents as well as some of his teachers in the plague. After this had occurred, Sultan Abū al-Ḥasan returned to Fez along with the scholars he had brought to Tunis. Ibn Khaldun originally intended to go to Fez with his teachers and continue his studies there, but his older brother Muḥammad advised him otherwise, effectively dissuading him.

Education

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