The World(s) of Ibn Khaldun

1332-1406

“This science then, like all other sciences, whether

based on authority or on reasoning, appears to be

independent and has its own subject, that is to say

human society, and its own problems, that is to say

the social phenomena and the transformations that

succeed each other in the nature of society….”

Ibn Khaldun

Tunis in 1573, Braun and Hogenberg, Civitates Orbis Terrarum (Atlas of Cities of the World)

Spread of Islam in the 7th- 8th Centuries

The Spread of Islam

• Death of Prophet Muhammad in 632

The Four Caliphs

• Abu Bakr (632-634)• Umar (634-644)• Uthman (644-656)• Ali (656-661)

The Caliphate

• The Umayyads (661-750): Capital in Damascus (Roman/Mediterranean culture)

– Al-Andalus invaded in 710 by the Umayyad caliphate. 

• The Abbasids (749-1258) Capital in Baghdad, (Iranian culture; the end of Arab supremacy) 

• The Fatimids (969-1171) capital Cairo. Shi’i Ismaili sect, (the Counter Caliphate)

Islamic World to 1500

The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Islamic World, Edited by Francis Robinson, Cambridge University Press, 1996

Miniature "Victimes de la peste de 1349" (victims of 1349-plague) in the Annales of Gilles le Muisit (1272-1353). Royal Library of Belgium

The Black Death

Islamic Philosophy

• al-Ghazali: Neoplatonic law, mathematics, science (mysticism)

• al-Kindi: Islamic philosophy

• al-Farabi: Ranked with Aristotle as “2nd teacher”

• Ibn Sina (Avicenna): synthesized Aristotelian thought and Neoplatonism

• Ibn Rushd (Averroës): Aristotelian philosophy

• Moses Maimonides (Jewish d. 1135): Aristotelian and Neoplatonic philosophy

Abbasid House of Wisdom “Bayt al-Hikma ”9th century Baghdad

14th-century illustration to the Greek translation of the Zad al-Musafir by Ahmad ibn

al-Jazzar

The Travels and Career of Ibn Khaldun

Madrasa al-AzharCairo (10th century)

A 17th century illustration by Rembrandt depicting Ibn Khaldun in the court of

Tamerlane in 1401, Louvre, Paris

Ibn Khaldun meets Tamerlane(1401)

Prolegomena

Prolegomenon- ˌprəʊlɪˈɡɒmɪnən/:a critical or discursive introduction to a book

Greek

Pro: before

Legein: say

Autograph of Ibn Khaldun on a Manuscript of the Muqaddimah, MS. C (Atıf Efendi 1936)

The Muqaddimah (Prolegomena)

Rise and Fall of Dynasties

ʻasabiyya (عصبية)

to bind or tie together

ʻasab

a group bound together

• group feeling, social solidarity, social cohesion

Cycle of Civilization

Royal authority results from superiority. Superiority results from group feeling. Only by God’s help in establishing His religion do individuals desires come together in agreement to press their claims, and hearts become united (The Muqaddimah 3.125).

…The power (of the ruling dynasty) is then wiped out. Superiority exists merely in proportion to (the existing) group feeling, without the additional (power of ) religion. As a result, the dynasty is overpowered by those groups (up to this time) under its control, that are equal or superior to it in strength. It had formerly overpowered the groups that had a stronger group feeling and were more deeply rooted in desert life, with the help of the additional power that religion had given it… (The Muqaddimah 3: 126)

Similarly, prophets in their religious propaganda depended on groups and families, though they were the ones who could have been supported by God with anything in existence, if He had wished, but in His wisdom He permitted matters to take their customary course. (The Muqaddimah 3: 127)

Each dynasty depended on the numerical strength of its supporters. When its numbers were exhausted through expansion, no further conquest or extension of power was possible. This is how God proceeds with His creatures. (The Muqaddimah 3: 129)

People lose the good qualities that were a sign and indication of royal authority. They adopt the contrary bad qualities. This points toward retrogression and ruin, according to the way God (has planned) for His creatures in this connection. The dynasty shows symptoms of dissolution and disintegration. (The Muqaddimah 3: 135)

2006 Exhibition marking the 600th anniversary of the death of Ibn Khaldun, Real Alcázar, Seville