Ibn Khaldun's The Muqaddimah
Rich with history, The Middle East is the birthplace of the worlds largest religion and home to the Arab peoples. The Arab peoples close ties to Islam greatly effected how they grew together and intertwined themselves so deeply that most laws and traditions practiced by Arabs are closely connected to the Islamic faith. The main primary source of information, for historians, comes from Ibn Khaldun's book, “The Muqaddimah.” Khaldun's book record the history from the first human civilizations til the fourteenth century of which Ibn Khaldun lived. He describes the known world and the people that lived before him and from these observations Khaldun extrapolates many theories on philosophy, the sciences, religion, and more. “The Muqaddimah”
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served as a primary reference for Albert Hourani, a leading British historian, in his book “A History of the Arab Peoples.” This book was much more user friendly, as it was written in English, and still covered all the important aspects of the mixed history of the Middle East effectively. Albert Hourani used the theories provided by Khaldun in order to argue that Asabiyyah, or group-feel and religion were the most important aspects during the birth of Islam. Hourani effectively used the methods employed in Khaldun's book in order to provide evidence for his own thesis. In order to define the efficacy of Hourani's usage of Khaldun, effectively must first be defined.
In common definition its just how well he Hourani used his source material to make a point, but as with all subjects relating to history, there are always secondary meanings; not only is it how well he used Khaldun, but also what passages were focused on, what points were left out, and for what purpose? These questions allow for a bias to be ascertained from Hourani's book and allow the readers to more carefully study his writings in addition to being able to draw their own conclusions. “The Muqaddimah” is much more biased and opinionated than Hourani's because of Khaldun's faith. Khaldun's beliefs distort his writing making them more focused on informing and almost persuading his original Arabian audience that Islam was the one true faith. He really emphasizes how important it is to stay true to the beliefs of Islam because it brought their nation closer, but also because it fulfilled his own quest to spread his beliefs. The fact that copies of his books survived means that his work was well regarded and was successfully distributed or else modern historians would have had much more difficulty discovering it. Its description of the history of Arabic Civilization was valuable, but it wasn't until Hourani simplified Khaldun's ideas, and stripped away much of the bias that lied within “the Muqaddimah,” that the history could clearly be
stated. In the first chapter of “A History of the Arab Peoples,” Hourani decribes the world that came before the Arabs; the Roman Empire. He claims that even after the death of the Empire, many of the peoples inhabiting former Roman territories still had a sense of Romanism. This pride didn't just stem from local though, “A deeper change had taken place. The empire had become Christian.” (Hourani, pg. 7) This religion was what unified the peoples of this new Byzantine Empire and formed the glue that held them together. Christianity was what their laws were based on, Christianity was what their traditions were based on, and Christian qualities were what the people looked for in their leaders. Hourani emphasizes the importance of religion on these past people because he knows that it has been a driving force in unification and will continue to do so for centuries after his time. This argument comes from the first chapter, last prefatory discussion in “The Muqaddimah” where Khaldun states, “[Those chosen by God] are to make it their task to keep their fellow men out of the fire of Hell and to show them the path to salvation.” (Khaldun, pg. 70) Khaldun is suggesting that religion is what defines ones true purpose in life, and that those who were chosen by God must live for helping their fellow man succeed and guide them along their journey to Heaven. The parallel arguments here hint that Hourani used these sections in order to justify his more overarching statements that any religion can unify a peoples through common beliefs and goals. Some of these beliefs were those of the sciences and how they were arranged by value to Khaldun. “The Muqaddimah” would have its readers believe that “traditional sciences” were those interpreted from God and that, “All of them depend upon information based on the authority of the given religious law.” (Khaldun, pg. 344) The only other sciences were those of philosophy and they were not nearly as important or useful. The traditional sciences were there to interpret God's rules and thus they must be followed. Hourani has a similar argument, but elaborates on the multiple Arab races and their views on Islam. He states that, “The orders differed in their view of the relationship in the two ways of Islam... Obedience to the law derived from God's commands, and... the search for direct spiritual knowledge of Him.” (Hourani, pg. 154) This serves as another example for how Hourani effectively uses Khaldun's overarching themes and expands them to include a more diverse view of Islam's birth while still using layman’s terms. Hourani describes how there wasn't just one view of traditional sciences, but instead that was just the focus of one group. In addition he describes a subdivision of Islam that focused more on the sciences of understanding God's message rather than just obeying it. These members were practicing the philosophical sciences according to Khaldun, but in to their group, this was the true calling of the Qur’an; to be understood. Hourani draws a picture of a diverse Islamic following, but still they stood united through Asabiyyah. Khaldun's idea of group feeling, otherwise known as Asabiyyah, focused on the need for unity in order for a civilization to survive and thrive. Khaldun's most obvious example of this comes in the form of his theory of generations. He states that there are roughly five stages of a dynasty and they correlate to the generations of those living in the aforementioned dynasty. The first stage is the conquering waves that settle on the newly taken land, the second stage consists of the youngest members of the first stage and their children who remember the trying times, but have comfort currently. The third and fourth stages are those of prosperity and satisfaction before the fifth stage becomes an infatuation with wealth and leads to the decline of a dynasty due to poor management. Group feel comes in waves and is strong in the first stage due to the traumatic experiences shared. It wanes in the second stage as the tension settles, but resumes in the third and fourth due to the prosperity and shared benefits that accompany it. Finally if completely disappears as the dynasty falls in the fifth stage. In Hourani's book, he uses this same idea, but again simplifies it and focuses on what is required of a city to in order to create a successful dynasty as a whole. The theme is maintained, but this smaller scale allows Hourani to use Khaldun's ideology on a small set that can be scaled up. Hourani states that, “A dynasty needed to strike roots in the city: it needed the wealth...” (Hourani, pg. 130) Hourani uses the city's need for a trade route for resources as a way for a dynasty to have a home base from which to spread. He discusses how group feel in the city is crucial and that if there was not central city, this group feel would weaken and so would the empire. This is correlated to the third and fourth stages that Khaldun describes where the cities are prosperous and this causes high group feel. The two arguments compliment each other and thus Hourani effectively uses Khaldun as a primary source of evidence to back up his own beliefs and hypothesis. Group-feel and Islam both play are huge role in the arguments laid out by both Ibn Khaldun and Albert Hourani. In many ways Khaldun set the foundation for which Hourani built his work on, but because of the different times and authors they do have different purposes. For instance, Khaldun's book seems to be trying to persuade the reader to embrace the Muslim beliefs and strive to follow its teachings. He wrote this book during the rise of Islam and during a time which the writing of history was still being developed which left his book appearing extremely biased. Hourani came later and took the core messages of “The Muqaddimah” and managed to tone down the religious tone and replaced it with a more objective perspective. He also expanded and added his own theories on the rise of the Arab peoples with his centuries of knowledge that Khaldun didn't have. The fact that so much of Khaldun's ideas made it into Hourani's book “A History of the Arab Peoples” truly expresses how modern and accurate Khaldun's ideas were and how well they complimented Hourani's work. These overlapping arguments were effectively used by Hourani in order to argue that his theory that group feel and religion were the backbones of the Arab civilization during its rise to power.
served as a primary reference for Albert Hourani, a leading British historian, in his book “A History of the Arab Peoples.” This book was much more user friendly, as it was written in English, and still covered all the important aspects of the mixed history of the Middle East effectively. Albert Hourani used the theories provided by Khaldun in order to argue that Asabiyyah, or group-feel and religion were the most important aspects during the birth of Islam. Hourani effectively used the methods employed in Khaldun's book in order to provide evidence for his own thesis. In order to define the efficacy of Hourani's usage of Khaldun, effectively must first be defined.
In common definition its just how well he Hourani used his source material to make a point, but as with all subjects relating to history, there are always secondary meanings; not only is it how well he used Khaldun, but also what passages were focused on, what points were left out, and for what purpose? These questions allow for a bias to be ascertained from Hourani's book and allow the readers to more carefully study his writings in addition to being able to draw their own conclusions. “The Muqaddimah” is much more biased and opinionated than Hourani's because of Khaldun's faith. Khaldun's beliefs distort his writing making them more focused on informing and almost persuading his original Arabian audience that Islam was the one true faith. He really emphasizes how important it is to stay true to the beliefs of Islam because it brought their nation closer, but also because it fulfilled his own quest to spread his beliefs. The fact that copies of his books survived means that his work was well regarded and was successfully distributed or else modern historians would have had much more difficulty discovering it. Its description of the history of Arabic Civilization was valuable, but it wasn't until Hourani simplified Khaldun's ideas, and stripped away much of the bias that lied within “the Muqaddimah,” that the history could clearly be
stated. In the first chapter of “A History of the Arab Peoples,” Hourani decribes the world that came before the Arabs; the Roman Empire. He claims that even after the death of the Empire, many of the peoples inhabiting former Roman territories still had a sense of Romanism. This pride didn't just stem from local though, “A deeper change had taken place. The empire had become Christian.” (Hourani, pg. 7) This religion was what unified the peoples of this new Byzantine Empire and formed the glue that held them together. Christianity was what their laws were based on, Christianity was what their traditions were based on, and Christian qualities were what the people looked for in their leaders. Hourani emphasizes the importance of religion on these past people because he knows that it has been a driving force in unification and will continue to do so for centuries after his time. This argument comes from the first chapter, last prefatory discussion in “The Muqaddimah” where Khaldun states, “[Those chosen by God] are to make it their task to keep their fellow men out of the fire of Hell and to show them the path to salvation.” (Khaldun, pg. 70) Khaldun is suggesting that religion is what defines ones true purpose in life, and that those who were chosen by God must live for helping their fellow man succeed and guide them along their journey to Heaven. The parallel arguments here hint that Hourani used these sections in order to justify his more overarching statements that any religion can unify a peoples through common beliefs and goals. Some of these beliefs were those of the sciences and how they were arranged by value to Khaldun. “The Muqaddimah” would have its readers believe that “traditional sciences” were those interpreted from God and that, “All of them depend upon information based on the authority of the given religious law.” (Khaldun, pg. 344) The only other sciences were those of philosophy and they were not nearly as important or useful. The traditional sciences were there to interpret God's rules and thus they must be followed. Hourani has a similar argument, but elaborates on the multiple Arab races and their views on Islam. He states that, “The orders differed in their view of the relationship in the two ways of Islam... Obedience to the law derived from God's commands, and... the search for direct spiritual knowledge of Him.” (Hourani, pg. 154) This serves as another example for how Hourani effectively uses Khaldun's overarching themes and expands them to include a more diverse view of Islam's birth while still using layman’s terms. Hourani describes how there wasn't just one view of traditional sciences, but instead that was just the focus of one group. In addition he describes a subdivision of Islam that focused more on the sciences of understanding God's message rather than just obeying it. These members were practicing the philosophical sciences according to Khaldun, but in to their group, this was the true calling of the Qur’an; to be understood. Hourani draws a picture of a diverse Islamic following, but still they stood united through Asabiyyah. Khaldun's idea of group feeling, otherwise known as Asabiyyah, focused on the need for unity in order for a civilization to survive and thrive. Khaldun's most obvious example of this comes in the form of his theory of generations. He states that there are roughly five stages of a dynasty and they correlate to the generations of those living in the aforementioned dynasty. The first stage is the conquering waves that settle on the newly taken land, the second stage consists of the youngest members of the first stage and their children who remember the trying times, but have comfort currently. The third and fourth stages are those of prosperity and satisfaction before the fifth stage becomes an infatuation with wealth and leads to the decline of a dynasty due to poor management. Group feel comes in waves and is strong in the first stage due to the traumatic experiences shared. It wanes in the second stage as the tension settles, but resumes in the third and fourth due to the prosperity and shared benefits that accompany it. Finally if completely disappears as the dynasty falls in the fifth stage. In Hourani's book, he uses this same idea, but again simplifies it and focuses on what is required of a city to in order to create a successful dynasty as a whole. The theme is maintained, but this smaller scale allows Hourani to use Khaldun's ideology on a small set that can be scaled up. Hourani states that, “A dynasty needed to strike roots in the city: it needed the wealth...” (Hourani, pg. 130) Hourani uses the city's need for a trade route for resources as a way for a dynasty to have a home base from which to spread. He discusses how group feel in the city is crucial and that if there was not central city, this group feel would weaken and so would the empire. This is correlated to the third and fourth stages that Khaldun describes where the cities are prosperous and this causes high group feel. The two arguments compliment each other and thus Hourani effectively uses Khaldun as a primary source of evidence to back up his own beliefs and hypothesis. Group-feel and Islam both play are huge role in the arguments laid out by both Ibn Khaldun and Albert Hourani. In many ways Khaldun set the foundation for which Hourani built his work on, but because of the different times and authors they do have different purposes. For instance, Khaldun's book seems to be trying to persuade the reader to embrace the Muslim beliefs and strive to follow its teachings. He wrote this book during the rise of Islam and during a time which the writing of history was still being developed which left his book appearing extremely biased. Hourani came later and took the core messages of “The Muqaddimah” and managed to tone down the religious tone and replaced it with a more objective perspective. He also expanded and added his own theories on the rise of the Arab peoples with his centuries of knowledge that Khaldun didn't have. The fact that so much of Khaldun's ideas made it into Hourani's book “A History of the Arab Peoples” truly expresses how modern and accurate Khaldun's ideas were and how well they complimented Hourani's work. These overlapping arguments were effectively used by Hourani in order to argue that his theory that group feel and religion were the backbones of the Arab civilization during its rise to power.