Ibn Khaldun's Socio-Political Analysis of History
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description
Ibn Khaldun as the pioneer of historiography has come to be fully recognised only fairly recently. His concepts of al-Asabiyyah (group feeling) and al-Mulk (royal authority) are central to his thesis of the causes of the rise and fall of empires and successes and failures of civilizations. Many outside the Islamic world have come to regard his approach as unrestricted by the norms of his times, some even suggesting the influence Greek thought, implying that he was a secular thinker rather than the product of his age where Islamic thought prevailed. The author believes that this is not necessarily the case and that Ibn Khaldun’s thought needs to be looked at in the light of the Qur'an and Islamic thinking of his times. This approach reveals a very Islamic character of his writings. Given the authors philosophical background and readings in Islamic history and thought, he manages to delve deep into the origin and development of Ibn Khaldun’s thinking, giving a critical and scholarly evaluation of the work of the founder of historiography and philosophy of history.
Transcript of Ibn Khaldun's Socio-Political Analysis of History
