Ibn Khaldun

Ibn Khaldun

Ibn Khaldun (Arabic: ابن خلدون; 27 May 1332, Tunis - 19 March 1406, Cairo) was a 14th-century thinker, statesman, and historian regarded as one of the pioneers of modern historiography, sociology, and economics. He was also the first Muslim thinker to include the principles of Liberalism in his books in the Islamic world. Because he came from a well-established family, he received a good education. After holding state positions in Tunisia and Morocco, he worked in Granada and Egypt. The politically unstable and intrigue-filled life of North Africa at that time caused him to spend two years in prison. Because he knew the Bedouin tribes very well, he became a sought-after statesman and advisor. In Egypt he served six times as Maliki qadi. His meeting with Timur, who occupied Damascus, went down in history as the intriguing encounter of a conqueror and a scholar.

During the periods when he withdrew from political life, he wrote the 7-volume world history Kitâbu'l-İber, which recorded his name in history, and the Muqaddimah, which he conceived as its introductory book. Although his work did not create an impact in the Arab world, it deeply influenced the Ottoman conception of history. Ottoman historians, chief among them Katip Çelebi, Naima, and Ahmet Cevdet Pasha, analyzed the rise and fall of the Ottoman State many times with his theories. Its rediscovery in the Arab world came about only with the beginning of the development of Arab nationalism. From the 19th century onward it was discovered by European historians and his works met with great appreciation. So much so that Toynbee, after the intervening centuries, said of him: "The possessor of the greatest philosophy of history ever created by any mind, in any country, at any time."

Life

His full name is Ebu Zeyd Abdurrahman ibn Haldun el-Hadramî, or Abdurrahman b. Muhammed b. Ebu Bekr Muhammed b. Hasan. The Ebu Zeyd in his kunya comes from his eldest son, Zeyd. He was also known by such epithets as Veliyüddin, because he served as Maliki chief qadi in Egypt; Hadramî, because his family was from the Hadramaut province of Yemen; Tunusî, because he himself was born in Tunis; Malikî, in order to be distinguished from the qadis belonging to the other schools; and Mağribî, because he spent an important part of his life in the Maghreb.

Ibn Khaldun's life is very well documented. The most important source on his life is his own autobiography, Et-Ta'rif. In this work, various documents concerning his life are conveyed in detail. However, his autobiography contains very little information about his private life and his family's past. He was from a family living in al-Andalus and known as the Beni Haldun, and was born in 1332 (732 AH) in Tunis. His family, which had held important state positions in al-Andalus, migrated to Tunis after al-Andalus was captured by the Castilian king Ferdinand III in the mid-13th century. His family held official service alongside the Hafsid dynasty in Tunis. On the other hand, Ibn Khaldun's father and grandfather had withdrawn from political life and devoted themselves to a mystical life. His brother Yahya Ibn Khaldun, a historian like himself, wrote a book on the Abdalwadid dynasty and was assassinated by a rival who wanted to become the official historian of the court.

In his autobiography, Ibn Khaldun mentions that his origin extends back to Hadramaut, one of the Yemeni Arab tribes of the time of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and that his family came to Spain at the beginning of the Islamic conquest. Vail bin Hacer, on whom he bases his origin, was a Companion who visited Muhammad, received his blessing, and narrated 70 hadiths from him. Ibn Khaldun's family migrated from Yemen to al-Andalus at the end of the 8th century, and after al-Andalus was captured by King Ferdinand of Spain in the 12th century, migrated to Tunis. The origin of the "Haldun" family name comes from their forebear Osman bin Halid. The name Halid was transformed into the form Haldun by the addition of the letters waw and nun, as was the custom of the people of Yemen. The Beni Haldun family lived for several generations in the Carmona and Seville regions of al-Andalus. In his autobiography, Ibn Khaldun says, "and our ancestors come from Vail bin Hacer, of the Yemeni Arabs of Hadramaut, among the most renowned and most respected of the Arabs." However, the biographer Muhammad Abdullah Enan questions this claim and suggests that Ibn Khaldun's family may have been Muladis who claimed to be of Arab tribes in order to gain social status at that time. Enan also documents in detail that some Berber groups made a deceptive and exaggerated effort to base themselves on an Arab ancestry. He states that the reason underlying this effort was the desire to obtain political and social influence. According to another view, Ibn Khaldun descends from the same Berber ancestors as the native majority of his birthplace. According to this view, his admiration and respect for the Berber tribes did not quite fit the traditional outlook of the period in which he lived. In addition, the space he devoted to the Berbers in his works, his use of caustic expressions in his comparisons with the Arabs, and his remaining quite indifferent to events and states outside the Maghreb, have given rise to conjectures that he may have been Berber. Muhammad Hozien objects to this idea with the words: "Ibn Khaldun's family may be Berber; however, if his ancestors had left al-Andalus and come to Tunis in their time, they would not have felt the need to claim that their ancestors were Arab. Because the Almohads and Almoravids who ruled in al-Andalus were also Berber, and Ibn Khaldun would not have thought of denying his Berber origin." Rosenthal, who made what may be called the best translation of the Muqaddimah, considered Ibn Khaldun's most important work, says on this matter: "Although it is possible that the Berber and Spanish contributions to our author's personality later became involved, common sense does not permit us to view his Arab origin, coming from the distant past, with suspicion."

Education and learning

Ibn Khaldun's grandfather was a vizier at the Hafsid court in Tunis. His father, Muhammad Vâbili, was someone who devoted himself to the Islamic sciences and literature. His first teacher was his father; he began his education with the lessons he took from him and by memorizing the Qur'an. Thanks to his family's position, he had the opportunity to receive an education from the best teachers in Tunis. He received a quality Arab education—the Qur'an, Arabic linguistics, Hadith, and Fiqh. From Sheikh Abdullah Muhammed bin Bezzal-i Ensari, the renowned qira'at scholar of the period, he learned "to read the Qur'an in seven ways according to the seven dialects of Arabic" (Qira'at al-Sab'a). He memorized the Şatibiyye and Raiyye odes. By his own account, he completed the Qur'an 21 times according to the seven recitations. He learned the Arabic language and literature, besides from his father, from Sheikh Muhammed el-Arabi el-Hasayidi, Sheikh Muhammed Şevvaş el-Mezazi, and Sheikh Ebu Abbas Ahmed bin Kassar. He studied the science of literature under Sheikh Ebu Abdullah bin Bahr and, on his recommendation, read—and memorized some of—the Mu'allaqat (the seven odes hung on the wall of the Kaaba before Islam), the poems of Mütenebbi (al-Mutanabbi), and the Aghani, a great collection of 10th-century poetry. He learned the sciences of Fiqh and Hadith from Sheikh Şemsettin Ebi Abdullah Muhammed bin Cabir, Sheikh Ebu Abdullah Muhammed bin Abdullah Ceyyani, and Sheikh Ebu Kasım Muhammed Kusayr. He attended the assemblies of Sheikh Ebu Abdullah Muhammed bin Süleyman Satti, Sheikh Muhammed bin İbrahim Eyli, and Qadi Sheikh Ebu Abdullah Muhammed bin Abdüsselam, prominent intellectuals of the period, and received an ijaza from each of them. Thus he developed himself in both the rational and the transmitted sciences. In addition, he received an education in mathematics, logic, and philosophy from the mathematician and philosopher al-Âbilî (1282/3-1356), and read the works of Averroes (Ibn Rushd), Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Fahreddin Razî (Fakhr al-Din al-Razi), and Şerafeddin el-Tusî (Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi). At the age of 17, he lost his family in the Great Plague epidemic that swept over three continents and, among them, the city of Tunis.

Sources

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