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.
An original introduction. This guide accompanies the work; it is neither the complete text nor a translation.
Situating the text
Ibn Khaldun drafted it in about five months at Qalʿat Ibn Salama in 1377 and kept revising it in Tunis and Cairo until his death. Copied in Cairo and later studied by Ottoman scholars, it was printed in Cairo in 1857 and in Paris in 1858, and then became central to European debates about the origins of sociology. The Muqaddimah, or Introduction, opens the Kitab al-ʿIbar with a theory of history: after showing how historians go wrong, it studies human society in six chapters, on climate and geography, desert peoples, dynasties and the caliphate, cities, crafts and livelihoods, and finally the sciences and their teaching.
Following the arguments
Group feeling : Solidarity based on kinship and alliance lets a group seize power; religion can greatly multiply its force, but no religious call succeeds without it. Three generations : Royal authority passes from hardy founders to heirs softened by luxury, so a dynasty rarely outlives three generations, roughly 120 years. Taxation and labour : Labour creates value; early in a dynasty low rates yield high revenue, while late dynasties raise their rates, discourage work and watch their income shrink.
Continuing the reading
Begin with the foreword on the errors of historians and the first discussions of group feeling, then read the chapter on dynasties and the passage on taxation, noting how each argument is tested against examples. Ibn Khaldun drafted it in about five months at Qalʿat Ibn Salama in 1377 and kept revising it in Tunis and Cairo until his death. Copied in Cairo and later studied by Ottoman scholars, it was printed in Cairo in 1857 and in Paris in 1858, and then became central to European debates about the origins of sociology.
For Ibn Khaldun, writing history well requires a theory of how societies work, not only a carefully checked chain of witnesses.
Your turn to think.
- Which test does Ibn Khaldun apply to a historical report, and what kind of error does it expose?
- Why does group feeling create royal authority and then wear away once that authority is secure?
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