Ibn Khaldun
Read history through the nature of human society.
ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Khaldun, born in Tunis into a family of Andalusian origin, spent his life between the courts of North Africa, Granada and Mamluk Cairo as secretary, envoy, teacher and Maliki judge. From that experience of dynasties rising and falling he drew the Muqaddimah, which tests historical reports against the nature of human society and explains political power through group solidarity, the passage from desert to city and the decline that luxury brings.
Why do states rise and decline, and how can a historian tell a credible report from an impossible one?
The essentials
A life in dates
Biography- 1332Birth in Tunis
- 1348–1349The Black Death
- 1375–1378Retreat at Qalʿat Ibn Salama
- 1384Judge in Cairo
- 1401–1406Timur and the last years
Key ideas
PhilosophyBiography
ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Khaldun, born in Tunis into a family of Andalusian origin, spent his life between the courts of North Africa, Granada and Mamluk Cairo as secretary, envoy, teacher and Maliki judge. From that experience of dynasties rising and falling he drew the Muqaddimah, which tests historical reports against the nature of human society and explains political power through group solidarity, the passage from desert to city and the decline that luxury brings.
Philosophy
The solidarity born of kinship, alliance or clientship binds people to defend one another and to pursue common goals; it is strongest among those who live hard lives on the desert fringe, and royal authority is its natural aim.
Reading guides
Original introductions to enter the works, discover their central questions and take the reflection further.
Bibliography
Works, testimonies and further readings are distinguished. Dates refer to composition or first publication, as specified in each entry.
Who came before, who came after.
Above the timeline, each solid arc marks a documented reading, back in time or forward; dotted arcs pair kindred questions.
Kindred questions1
A first reading.
A new science of society
Follow how the Muqaddimah turns the criticism of historical reports into a science of human society built on solidarity, rule and economic life.
The MuqaddimahHistory as a book of lessons
Read the Book of Lessons as a universal chronicle and as a test of the Muqaddimah’s theory, above all in its history of the Berber dynasties.
The Book of LessonsA scholar among princes
Explore the autobiography as a record of teachers, offices and journeys, and as a self-portrait shaped by the author of the Muqaddimah.
The AutobiographyLinked thinkers
- Kindred questions