Ibn Khaldun and his «Muqaddimah»«lf the vuorks of peopîe provide more gcıins thon they ııeed, members o f that comrriuriity spend the ir time and efforts on iearning Sciences and arts»

IBN KHALDUN (')Ar. Gör. Müjdat ŞAKAR (* ** )

İn an ord ina ry day, though many people are involved in only their usual dai ly work, a few philosophers though limited deal with the sub jec ts like des tiny of humanity, orig ina l and futu re aspects of com munal life and reasons for events. During depression periords, such probleme also concern ord inary people. Great leaders and ideas resulting in rad ical changes in societies usually come up in such periods. The most impor tan t phi losophic though ts and meaningful com menta ries on his tor ica l events, analysis of social and cultural changes are the result of such trans ition periods (2).

As a society, feel ing deep ly the depression of a transition period, it is important to become fam ilia r with Ibn Khaldun and his book, titl ed «Muqaddimah», vvritten in the depression period.

The 14 th cen tury in vvhich Ibn Khaldun lived, vvas the regression per iod for Islamic thoughts. Ibn Khaldun, having experience in vvork- ing mechanism of a State and no prejudice of any kind, vvas interested in his tory in order to understand ali past years, especially his own age. This vvas not the curiosity of a lite rary man, but it vvas the strugg le of a bat tleman aga inst his age (3). He, not only passed the his torical fac ts to us, but it vvas he, vvho first claimed tha t societies have their own entitie s and if anything is to happen, the rules of

(’) Ibn KHALDUN, Mukaddime (Muqaddimah), Trans, by Zakir Kadiri Ugan, Vol. II, Second ed„ İstanbul 1970, pp. 453

(* *) Teaching Assistant, Department of Labor Economics and Indrustrial Relations, Faculty of Administative Sciences, Marmara University.

(2) Pitirim A. SOROKIN, Bir Bunalım Çağında Toplum Felsefeleri (Philo- sophies of Society İn A Depression Age), Trans, by Mete Tuncay, Ankara 1972, PP- 15

(3) Cemil MERİÇ, Ümrandan Uygarlığa (To Civilisa tion From Ümran), İstanbul 19.74, pp. 138

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society must be obeyed. So he established the basics of a new Science, socio logy (4). Many princip les of soc ial Sciences vvere fir st explained by Ibn Khaldun. For instcınce, soc iai changes obey some rules, but these rules are not so clear as the rules of nature. Hovvever, these rules are clea r enough for an even t to be included in clas - sification. Indiv iduals of a soc iety can not change or dis turb these invisable rules, tha t is to say, any individual endeavoring to change rules of socie ty, is bound to fail. (5).

As the ideas of Ibn Khaldun are compared vvith the ones of hisage, it is clear tha t they are ext raordinary. So, people got the fee iing that , he only follovved the ideas of oid Greek phi losophers (G), others ciaimed that the oid Spanish books dest royed by lnquis ition in the Middle Ages were his sources of inspira tion to deve iop his ideas (7). Actually, none of these ciaims are true. He had only two sources, his environment and moslem historians (“).

Ibn Khaldun's book is fuil of ideas pioneering «the phi losophy of history», «sociology» and «pol itica l socio logy» (°). He establ ished a very dif ferent system of ideas and it is di fficu lt to inc lude him in any classif icat ion of İslam philosophers (10). He was the fir st person - vvriter, who indica ted tha t the legal system of a soc iety is closely related to the way of living and the degree of civ ilization (").

The pol itica l theory of Ibn Khaldun is com plete and shou ld be considered as a vvhole i f one vvishes to understand the charac ter ist ics of his method. But understanding and exp lain ing him and his book, requires a sophist icated research by experts. I intend in this ar tic le to introduce you this outstanding İslam philosopher.

(•’) See. Yavuz ABADAN (Editör), Devlet Felsefesi (State Philosophy), Excerpts of Readings, Trans, by Nermin Abadan - Bülent Daver - Mete Tuncay, Ankara 1959,pp. 165

{’) See. MERİÇ, pp. 139 (6) See. ABADAN, pp. 163(’, Charles ISSAWI asserts such a daim in his book entitled «An Arab

Philosophy of History» (Transferred by MERİÇ, pp. 147)(8) MERİÇ, pp. 147(9) Gaston BOUTHOUL, Siyaset Sosyolojisi (Political Sociology), Trans, by

A. Türkay Yazıcı, İstanbul 1968, pp. 17(10) See. Nihat KEKLİK, Felsefe (Philosophy), İstanbul 1978, pp. 36(u ) Hamide TOPÇUOĞLU, Hukuk Sosyolojisi (Sociology of Law), Vol. I, Se-

cond ed., Ankara 1963, pp. 340

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İtan Khcildun’s Life :

The ideas of Ibn Khaldun are closely relcıted to his life. His env ironment and life fu ll of batt les, had grea t effe cts on his for- mation of his ideas. Therefore, it is bet ter to have some information about his life story .

Our inform ation source about his life derives from his ovvn autobiography en titled «El-Tarif», vvhich is the most detailed book, tha t can be found in the Islamic literatüre.

He was born in 1332 as the son of one of the nobles in Tunisia. İn his chi ldhood he was educated in the subjects of language, The Koran and Hadith (Proph et’s sayings). When he was eighteen, he began to work with adminis tra tive autho rity for the ruler of Morocco. İn 1365, he was in Andalusia and he received invitations from King of Cas tile and from some oth er kings to work as an advisor for them. Later on, we see him as the commander of the ruler of Becaye in the bat tle vvith the Barber ians .

Ali these po liti ca l and mil itary experiences, helped him to become fam ilia r with Bedouin socie ty and to establish his system of ideas.

The appearanc e of his book, «Muqaddimah», follovvs afte r his res ignation from adminis tra tive duties. He settled in Castle of Selame and completed this book in three years. İn 1337 he submitted his book to the ruler of Tunisia, Abu Abbas. The next four years, he had been vvorking on his his tory book knovvn shortly as «Kitab-el-lber». İn 1384 he vvas appointed as the head of the Maliki , vvhich was one of the rrıany religious sects in İslam. The people against, forced him to leave this pos ition . This created an oppurtunity for him to con- cen tra te on his sc ient ific vvorks and lectures in Ezher Mosqııe. At that time, Egypt vvas in a po litic al confusion vvhich vvas a v ivid example for Ibn Khaldun to examine.

İn 1400, the Mogul ruler Timur conquered the city of Damascus. Ibn Khaldun vvas app ointed to talk vvith tha t ruler vvith in a group. Tim ur vvanted Ibn Khaldun to work for him, but Ibn Khaldun pretending that he vvould be back af ter he obtained his books, returned to Egypt.

Af ter that date, Ibn Khaldun lived in Egypt as a famous and respec ted sc ien tist . He made many researches on vvhole Islamic Wor ld, Turks, Moguls and many Chr istian citie s and coun tries.' İn 1406, vvhen he vvas 74 years old, he died in Cairo. Af ter his

dea th he vvas forgo tten and not app reciated for a very long time, til l the beg inning of the 20th century.

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MUÇADDIMAH

Ibn Khaldun’s fame comes mainly from the «Muqaddimah» (Prologue), vvritten for his history book. Many other books of that author, ncımes of which are en- countered in histor ical sources, are not availab le today.

Ibn Khaldun’s history book consists of seven volumes and althogether is called «Kitab-el-lber». The firs t volüme is the one in vvhich Ibn Khaldun explains his theoretical works. Actually this first volüme was orig inally named as «Kitab-ı Evvel», but it became known as «Muqaddimah». Later, Ibn Khaldun also used the name Muqaddimah for this volüme. Although the Muqaddimah is only a single volüme of the whole seven volüme book, it is worth considering that part by itself as a whole.

Ibn Khaldun was fortyfive years old when he completed the Muqaddimah in the Castle of Selame, in the province of Beni Tacin, Algeria. Afte r having finished the vvriting of the book, he revised it many times until his death. Therefore, dif- ferent versions of Muqaddimah are available.

İn order to obtain further knovvledge and detailed Information, the reader should be refered to the follovving sourc es:

— Ümit HASSAN, Ibn Haldun'un Metodu ve Siyaset Teorisi (The Method And Politica l Theory of Ibn Khaldun), Ankara 1977.Ibn Khaldun, Mukaddime (Muqaddimah), Trans, by Zakir Kadiri Ugan, Vol. I. II, III, İstanbul 1968-1970 (Ugan's forevvord)Ziyaeddin Fahri FINDIKOGLU, «Ibn Haldun», iş Mecmuası (Labor Review), Issue : 15-16-17, İstanbul 1938.Ülker GÜRKAN, Hukuk Sosyolojisi Açısından Ibn Haldun (Ibn Khaldun From the Point of view of Sociology of Law), AÜHFD (Law Faculty Revievv of Ankara University), Vol. XXIV, Ankara 1967.Nihat FAL.AY, Ibn Haldun’un İktisadi Görüşleri (Economic Views of Ibn Khaldun), İstanbul 1978.Zeki Velidl TOGAN, Tarihte Usul (Methods used in History), 2nd ed. İstanbul•H T 7O

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