Ibn Khaldun
IBN KHALDUN
Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun was born in (1332 AD) in Tunis. He was regarded to be the father of sociology and one of the strongest personalities during the Muslim cultural decline in the Arab world. In this paper I will be demonstrating Ibn Khaldun’s presence, thoughts, and work. Despite the fact that he lived in the 14th and 15th centuries, his thoughts and contributions to humanity are still appropriate for discussion in the 20th century and have become a source of scientific and political judgments. His area of concentration focused more or less on three main disciplines sociology, history and philosophy. Starting with sociology, he looked at two groups of people, nomads and townspeople, with peasants in between then he characterized each group with a certain sociological structure. In terms of history, Ibn Khaldun wanted to examine analyse history by dividing it into two parts historical manifest and historical gist. Finally, in regard to philosophy, Ibn Khaldun attempted to re-examine mysticism and theology in developing a model of the Sufism. Ibn Khaldun contribution to the discipline of sociology, he first looked at nomads’ characteristics and categorized them as being rough, savage and uncultured and their presence will always be destructive to civilization; however they have other unique characteristics that perhaps cannot be found with other groups that he identified as members of the civilized society. These characteristics are hardy, have good morals, freedom-loving and self reliant, and so make excellent fighters. In addition, they have group cohesion and social solidarity, with these types of characteristics they would have a great military potential. After the in depth analysis of nomad social structure Ibn Khaldun found phenomena that he later described as (Asabiyyah), which means group cohesion or bond.
The bond, Asabiyyah, Ibn Khaldun believed existed at all levels of civilization, from nomadic society to modern society; however, it
Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun was born in (1332 AD) in Tunis. He was regarded to be the father of sociology and one of the strongest personalities during the Muslim cultural decline in the Arab world. In this paper I will be demonstrating Ibn Khaldun’s presence, thoughts, and work. Despite the fact that he lived in the 14th and 15th centuries, his thoughts and contributions to humanity are still appropriate for discussion in the 20th century and have become a source of scientific and political judgments. His area of concentration focused more or less on three main disciplines sociology, history and philosophy. Starting with sociology, he looked at two groups of people, nomads and townspeople, with peasants in between then he characterized each group with a certain sociological structure. In terms of history, Ibn Khaldun wanted to examine analyse history by dividing it into two parts historical manifest and historical gist. Finally, in regard to philosophy, Ibn Khaldun attempted to re-examine mysticism and theology in developing a model of the Sufism. Ibn Khaldun contribution to the discipline of sociology, he first looked at nomads’ characteristics and categorized them as being rough, savage and uncultured and their presence will always be destructive to civilization; however they have other unique characteristics that perhaps cannot be found with other groups that he identified as members of the civilized society. These characteristics are hardy, have good morals, freedom-loving and self reliant, and so make excellent fighters. In addition, they have group cohesion and social solidarity, with these types of characteristics they would have a great military potential. After the in depth analysis of nomad social structure Ibn Khaldun found phenomena that he later described as (Asabiyyah), which means group cohesion or bond.
The bond, Asabiyyah, Ibn Khaldun believed existed at all levels of civilization, from nomadic society to modern society; however, it