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{{Short description|Arab Islamic scholar, historian and philosopher (1332–1406)}}
{{For|the horse|Ibn Khaldun (horse)}}
{{more citations needed|date=August 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}}
{{Infobox religious biography
| name               = Ibn Khaldun<br />{{lang|ar|ابن خلدون}}
| image              = Bust of Ibn Khaldun (Casbah of Bejaia, Algeria).jpg
| caption            = Bust of Ibn Khaldun in the entrance of the Kasbah of Bejaia, [[Algeria]]
| religion           = [[Islam]]
| birth_date         = 27 May 1332
| birth_place        = [[Tunis]], [[Hafsid dynasty|Hafsid Sultanate]]
| death_date         = {{death date and age text|17 March 1406|27 May 1332}}
| death_place        = [[Cairo]], [[Mamluk Sultanate]]
| denomination       = [[Sunni]]<ref name="MPhilosophy">{{Cite web |title=Ibn Khaldun – His Life and Work |url=http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/klf.htm#Intro |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130913010235/http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/klf.htm#Intro |archive-date=13 September 2013 |access-date=25 February 2017}}</ref>
| jurisprudence      = [[Maliki]]<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |year=2010 |title=Ibn Khaldun |encyclopedia=The Biographical Encyclopaedia of Islamic Philosophy |publisher=[[Continuum International Publishing Group|Continuum]] |last=Ahmad |first=Zaid |editor-last=Oliver Leama |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199754731.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-975473-1}}</ref>
| creed              = [[Ash'ari]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Doniger |first=Wendy |url = https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780877790440/page/82 |title=Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions |year=1999 |publisher=Merriam-Webstar Inc. |isbn=978-0-87779-044-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780877790440/page/82 82] |url-access=registration }}</ref><ref name="maydan">https://themaydan.com/2017/11/myth-intellectual-decline-response-shaykh-hamza-yusuf/ "'''Ibn Khaldun on Philosophy:'''

After clarifying what was meant precisely by philosophy in the Islamic tradition, namely the various schools of peripatetic philosophy represented either by Ibn Rushd or Ibn Sina, it should be clear why Ibn Khaldun was opposed to them. His critique of philosophy is an Ash’ari critique, completely in line with the Ash’aris before him, including Ghazali and Fakhr al-din al-Razi, both of whom Ibn Khaldun recommends for those who wish to learn how to refute the philosophers"</ref>
| main_interests     = {{cslist| [[Historiography]]| [[sociology]]| [[economics]]| [[demography]]| [[political science]]}}
| notable_ideas      = {{plainlist}}
* [[Asabiyyah]]
* [[State formation#Conflict theories|Conquest theory of state formation]]
* [[Social cycle theory|Cyclical theory of empires]]
* Economic growth theory<ref name="Muqaddimah 2 1995 p 30">Muqaddimah 2:272–273 quoted in Weiss (1995) p. 30</ref>
* [[Supply and demand|Supply and demand theory]]<ref>{{harvnb|Weiss|1995|p=31}} quotes Muqaddimah 2:276–278</ref>
* [[Supply-side economics]]
{{endplainlist}}
| notable_works      = 
| influences         = {{flatlist}}
* [[Al-Farabi]]<ref>{{Cite book |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=8pmZ5FD_FBEC&pg=PA87 |title = Joseph A. Schumpeter: Historian of Economics: Perspectives on the History of Economic Thought |publisher=Routledge |year=1996 |isbn=978-1-134-78530-8 |editor-first = Laurence S. |editor-last = Moss |page=87 |quote = Ibn Khaldun drited away from Al-Farabi's political idealism.}}</ref>
* [[Al-Ghazali]]<ref name="maydan" />
* [[Al-Jahiz]]<ref>Shah, Muhammad Sultan. "Pre-Darwinian Muslim Scholars’ Views on Evolution." (2017).</ref>
* [[Fakhr al-din al-Razi|Al-Razi]]<ref name="maydan" />
* [[Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī|Al-Tusi]]
* [[Aristotle]]
* [[At-Turtushi]]<ref>In al-Muqaddima, Ibn Khaldun cites him as a pioneer in sociology</ref>
* [[Avempace|Ibn Bajja]]
* [[Averroes|Ibn Rushd]]<ref name="maydan" />
* [[Avicenna|Ibn Sina]]<ref name="maydan" />
* [[Ibn Abi Zar]]
* [[Ibn Hazm]]
* [[Al-Tabari|Ibn Jarir]]
* [[Al-Mawardi]]<ref>{{cite book |last1= Ayub |first1=Zulfiqar |title=The Biographies of the Elite Lives of the Scholars, Imams & Hadith Masters | publisher=Zulfiqar Ayub Publications| year=2015 |isbn= |page=200}}{{ISBN?}}</ref>
*Al-Tilmisani<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Ibn al-Sakkak, Muhammad ibn Abi Ghalib|year=2002|encyclopedia=Ma'lamat al-Maghrib (Encyclopedia of Morocco)|first=Mohamed|last=Hajji|volume=15|editor1-last=Toufiq|editor1-first=Ahmed|editor2-last=Hajji|editor2-first=Mohamed|publisher=al-Jamī‘a al-Maghribiyya li-l-Ta’līf wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Nashr|editor-link=Ahmed Toufiq|language=ar|page=5028}}</ref>
{{endflatlist}}
| expand_influences  = 
| influenced         = {{flatlist}}
* [[Ibn al-Khatib]]
* [[Abu Yahya ibn al-Sakkak|Ibn al-Sakkak]]
* [[Al-Maqrizi]]
* [[Saad al-Din bin Ghurab|Ibn Ghurab]]
* [[Ibn al-Azraq]]
* [[Kâtip Çelebi|Çelebi]]
* [[Mustafa Naima]]
* [[Ahmed Cevdet Pasha|Ahmed Cevdet]]
* [[Traditionalist School (perennialism)|20th-century traditionalism]]
* [[Arnold J. Toynbee|Toynbee]]
* [[Egon Orowan|Orowan]]
* [[Mahdi Amel|Amel]]
* [[Auguste Comte|Comte]]
{{endflatlist}}
| expand_influenced  = 
| module             = 
| module1            = {{infobox Arabic name|embed=yes  
|ism=ʿAbd al-Raḥmān
|ism-ar=عَبْدُ الرَّحْمَٰنِ
|nasab=ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Khaldūn  
|nasab-ar= بن مُحَمَّد بن مُحَمَّد بن أَبِي بَكْر مُحَمَّد بن الحَسَن  بن خَلْدُون
|kunya=Abū Zayd  
|kunya-ar= أَبُو زَيْدٍ
| laqab= Walī al-Dīn
| laqab-ar= وَلِيُّ الدِّيْنِ
|nisba=al-Ḥaḍramī
|nisba-ar=الْحَضْرَمِيُّ
}}
| relatives          = [[Yahya ibn Khaldun]]
}}

'''Ibn Khaldun'''{{efn|{{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɪ|b|ən|_|h|æ|l|ˈ|d|uː|n}} {{Respell|IH|bun|_|hal|DOON}}; {{langx|ar|ابن خلدون}} {{IPAc-ar|i|b|n|-|kh|a|l|d|uu|n}}; {{langx|ar| أبو زيد عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن خلدون الحضرمي}}, {{transliteration|ar|DIN|''Abū Zayd ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Khaldūn al-Ḥaḍramī''}}}} (27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732–808 [[Hijri year|AH]]) was an [[Arabs|Arab]]<ref>
* {{cite book |last=Savant |first=Sarah Bowen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rySrBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA77 |title=Genealogy and Knowledge in Muslim Societies: Understanding the Past |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-7486-4497-1 |page=77 |quote=Banu Khaldun al-Hadrami (Yemen, but not Qahtan), to which belonged the famous historian Ibn Khaldun. The family's ancestor was 'Uthman ibn Bakr ibn Khalid, called Khaldun, a Yemeni Arab among the conquerors who shared kinship with the Prophet's Companian Wa'il ibn Hujr and who settled first in Carmona and then in Seville.}}
* ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=v_seJ21M0UoC&q=Ibn+Khaldun+as+an+Arab&pg=PT3 The Historical Muhammad]'', Irving M. Zeitlin, (Polity Press, 2007), p. 21; "It is, of course, Ibn Khaldun as an Arab here speaking, for he claims Arab descent through the male line.".
* ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=kLCR9zGH774C&q=Khaldun The Arab World: Society, Culture, and State]'', Halim Barakat (University of California Press, 1993), p. 48;"The renowned Arab sociologist-historian Ibn Khaldun first interpreted Arab history in terms of badu versus hadar conflicts and struggles for power."
* ''[https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/ibn-khaldun-COM_0330?s.num=0&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopaedia-of-islam-2&s.q=Ibn+Khald%C5%ABn Ibn Khaldun]'', M. Talbi, ''The Encyclopaedia of Islam'', Vol. III, ed. B. Lewis, V.L. Menage, C. Pellat, J. Schacht, (Brill, 1986), 825; "Ibn Khaldun was born in Tunis, on I Ramadan 732/27 May 1332, in an Arab family which came originally from the Hadramawt and had been settled at Seville since the beginning of the Muslim conquest...."
* ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=JIO9CgAAQBAJ&q=ibn+khaldun Ibn Khaldun's Philosophy of History: A Study in the Philosophic Foundation of the Science of Culture]'', Muhsin Mahdi, Routledge; "His family claimed descent from a Yemenite tribe originating in Hadramawt"
* Issawi, Charles. "[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ibn-Khaldun ''Ibn Khaldūn'']". ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', 13 March 2021; "the greatest Arab historian", "the family claimed descent from Khaldūn, who was of South Arabian stock, and had come to Spain in the early years of the Arab conquest and settled in Carmona."
* Cheddadi, Abdesselam, ''“[https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/ibn-khaldun-abd-al-rahman-COM_30943?s.num=0&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopaedia-of-islam-3&s.q=Ibn+Khald%C5%ABn Ibn Khaldūn, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān]''”, ''Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE''; "was one of the greatest Arab historians, a philosopher, and a sociologist."</ref> [[Islamic scholar|scholar.]] historian, philosopher, and sociologist.<ref name=Barakat1993/><ref name=IslamEncyc/><ref>{{cite web |author = Muhammad Hozien |title = Ibn Khaldun: His Life and Work |url= http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/klf.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130913010235/http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/klf.htm |archive-date=13 September 2013 |access-date=19 September 2008 |website = Islamic Philosophy Online }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title = Ibn Khaldūn – The Muqaddimah: Ibn Khaldūn's philosophy of history |url = https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ibn-Khaldun |access-date=22 December 2020 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en }}</ref> He is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the [[Middle Ages]],<ref>[[Bernard Lewis]]: "Ibn Khaldun in Turkey", in: ''Ibn Khaldun: The Mediterranean in the 14th Century: Rise and Fall of Empires'', Foundation El Legado Andalusí, 2006, {{ISBN|978-84-96556-34-8}}, pp. 376–380 (376) S.M. Deen (2007) ''Science under Islam: rise, decline and revival''. p. 157. {{ISBN|1-84799-942-5}}</ref> and considered by a number of scholars to be a major forerunner of historiography, sociology, economics, and demography studies.<ref>
* {{cite book |last=Farid Alatas|first=Syed |title = Applying Ibn Khaldūn: The Recovery of a Lost Tradition in Sociology |year=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-138-12596-4 |oclc=914395509}}
* {{cite journal |last=Sulkunen|first=Pekka|date=2 September 2014 |title = The proto-sociology of Mandeville and Hume |url = https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1600910X.2014.897639 |journal = Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory |language=en|volume=15|issue=3|pages=361–365 |doi = 10.1080/1600910X.2014.897639 |s2cid=144222817 |issn=1600-910X |url-access=subscription }}
* [[Joseph J. Spengler]] (1964).  "Economic Thought of Islam: Ibn Khaldun", ''Comparative Studies in Society and History'', 6(3), pp. [https://www.jstor.org/pss/177577 268]–306.
* {{harv|Boulakia|1971|pp=1105–1118}}</ref>{{NoteTag|name=HistoryAndSociology}}{{NoteTag|name=Economics}}

His best-known book is the ''[[Muqaddimah]]'' or ''Prolegomena'' ("Introduction"), which he wrote in six months as he states in his autobiography.<ref>Ali Zaidi, ''Islam, Modernity, and the Human Sciences'', Springer, 2011, p. 84</ref> It later influenced 17th-century and 19th-century Ottoman historians such as [[Kâtip Çelebi]], [[Mustafa Naima]] and [[Ahmed Cevdet Pasha]], who used its theories to analyze the growth and decline of the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Lewis |first=Bernard |title=Studies in Islamic history and civilization: in honour of Professor David Ayalon |publisher=Brill |year=1986 |isbn=978-965-264-014-7 |editor1-last=Ayalon |editor1-first=David |editor2-last = Sharon |editor2-first=Moshe |pages=527–530 |chapter = Ibn Khaldūn in Turkey  }}</ref> Ibn Khaldun interacted with [[Tamerlane]], the founder of the [[Timurid Empire]].

He has been called one of the most prominent Muslim and Arab scholars and historians.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Re-reading Ibn-Khaldun in the 21st Century: Traveling Theory and the Question of Authority, Legitimacy, and State Violence in the Modern Arab World|year=2021|journal=Ahmed Abozeid|doi=10.13169/arabstudquar.43.2.0146 |jstor=10.13169/arabstudquar.43.2.0146 |last1=Abozeid |first1=Ahmed |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=146–171 |s2cid=235841623 |doi-access=free |hdl=10023/23143 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ibn-Khaldun|title=Ibn Khaldun|encyclopedia=Britannica|accessdate=3 October 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | doi=10.23943/9781400889549 | title=Ibn Khaldun | date=2018 | last1=Irwin | first1=Robert | isbn=9781400889549 | s2cid=239392974 }}</ref> Recently, Ibn Khaldun's works have been compared with those of influential European philosophers such as [[Niccolò Machiavelli]], [[Giambattista Vico]], [[David Hume]], [[G. W. F. Hegel]], [[Karl Marx]], and [[Auguste Comte]] as well as the economists [[David Ricardo]] and [[Adam Smith]], suggesting that their ideas found precedent (although not direct influence) in his. He has also been influential on certain modern Islamic thinkers (e.g. those of the [[traditionalist school]]).

== Early life and family ==
[[File:TCCKhaldun.jpg|thumb|200px|Ibn Khaldun – Life-size bronze bust sculpture of Ibn Khaldun that is part of the collection at the Arab American National Museum (Catalog Number 2010.02). Commissioned by The Tunisian Community Center and Created by Patrick Morelli of Albany, New York, in 2009. It was inspired by the statue of Ibn Khaldun erected at the Avenue Habib Bourguiba in [[Tunis]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arab American National Museum : Online Collections |url=http://arabamerican.pastperfect-online.com/33769cgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=A9A7FFF1-3E51-46CC-8C72-966442091673;type=101 |access-date=25 February 2017}}</ref>]]
Ibn Khaldun's life is relatively well-documented, as he wrote an [[autobiography]] ({{lang|ar|التعريف بابن خلدون ورحلته غربا وشرقا}}, ''{{transliteration|ar|at-Taʻrīf bi-ibn Khaldūn wa-Riḥlatih Gharban wa-Sharqan}}'';<ref>Published by Muḥammad ibn Tāwīt aṭ-Ṭanjī, Cairo 1951</ref> ''Presenting Ibn Khaldun and his Journey West and East'') in which numerous documents regarding his life are quoted word-for-word.

Abū Zayd 'Abdu r-Rahman bin Muhammad bin Khaldūn Al-Hadrami, generally known as "Ibn Khaldūn" after a remote ancestor, was born in [[Tunis]] in AD 1332 (732 [[Anno hegirae|AH]]) into an upper-class [[Al-Andalus|Andalusian]] family of Arab descent;.<ref name=Barakat1993>{{cite book|page=48|title=The Arab World: Society, Culture, and State|first=Halim|last=Barakat|publisher=University of California Press|year=1993|isbn=9780520914421|quote=The renowned Arab sociologist-historian Ibn Khaldun first interpreted Arab history in terms of badu versus hadar conflicts and struggles for power.}}</ref><ref name=IslamEncyc>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/EI3O/COM-30943.xml?rskey=LtOeqI&result=2|title=Ibn Khaldūn, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam|publisher=Brill Online|first=Abdesselam|last=Cheddadi|doi=10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_30943 |accessdate=19 November 2024|url-access=subscription}}</ref> The family's ancestor was a [[Hadhrami people|Hadhrami]] who shared kinship with [[Wa'il ibn Hujr]], a companion of the [[Prophets and messengers in Islam|Islamic prophet]], [[Muhammad]]. His family, which held many high offices in [[al-Andalus]], had emigrated to [[Tunisia]] after the [[Siege of Seville|fall of Seville]] to the [[Reconquista]] in 1248. Although some of his family members had held political office in the Tunisian [[Hafsid dynasty]], his father and grandfather later withdrew from political life and joined a [[Tariqa|mystical order]]. His brother, [[Yahya ibn Khaldun]], was also a [[historian]] who wrote a book on the [[Abdalwadid]] dynasty and was assassinated by a rival for being the official [[historiographer]] of the court.<ref>{{Cite journal |year= 1841 |title=Lettre à Monsieur Garcin de Tassy |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=blQpAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA484 |journal= [[Journal Asiatique]] |language=fr |location=Paris |publisher= [[Société asiatique]] |volume=3 |page=491 |number=12}}</ref>

In his autobiography, Khaldun traces his descent back to the time of Prophet Muhammad through an Arab tribe from the south of the [[Arabian Peninsula]], specifically the [[Hadhramaut]], which came to the [[Iberian Peninsula]] in the 8th century, at the beginning of the Islamic conquest: "And our ancestry is from Hadhramaut, from the Arabs of Arabian Peninsula, via Wa'il ibn Hujr also known as [[Hujr ibn 'Adi]], from the best of the Arabs, well-known and respected." (p.&nbsp;2429, Al-Waraq's edition).

Ibn Khaldun's insistence and attachment to his claim of Arab ancestry at a time of Berber dynasties domination is a valid reason to believe his claim of Arab descent.<ref name="Hozien">{{cite web | last=Hozien | first=Muhammad | title=Notes on Ibn Khaludn's Life | website= Muslim philosophy | url= http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/knts.htm#n1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Enan|first=Mohammad Abdullah|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=OQTNO3CWmpAC&pg=PA7 |title=Ibn Khaldūn: His Life and Works|date=2007|publisher=The Other Press|isbn= 978-983-9541-53-3}}</ref>

=== Education ===
His family's high rank enabled Ibn Khaldun to study with prominent teachers in [[Maghreb]]. He received a classical [[Madrasah|Islamic education]], studying the [[Quran]], which he [[Hafiz (Quran)|memorized by heart]], [[Arabic language|Arabic linguistics]]; the basis for understanding the Qur'an, [[hadith]], [[sharia]] (law) and [[fiqh]] (jurisprudence). He received certification ([[ijazah]]) for all of those subjects.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Muhammad Hozien |title=Ibn Khaldun: His Life and Work |url=http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/klf.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130913010235/http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/klf.htm |archive-date=13 September 2013 |access-date=19 September 2008 |publisher=Islamic Philosophy Online}}</ref> The mathematician and philosopher [[Al-Abili]] of [[Tlemcen]] introduced him to [[Islamic mathematics|mathematics]], [[Logic in Islamic philosophy|logic]], and [[Islamic philosophy|philosophy]]. He studied the works of [[Averroes]], [[Avicenna]], [[Fakhr al-Din al-Razi|Razi]] and [[Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi|Tusi]]. At the age of 17, Ibn Khaldūn lost both his parents to the [[Black Death]], an intercontinental [[epidemic]] of the [[bubonic plague|plague]] that hit Tunis in 1348–1349.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Saudi Aramco World: Ibn Khaldun and the Rise and Fall of Empires |url=http://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/200605/ibn.khaldun.and.the.rise.and.fall.of.empires.htm |access-date=6 December 2017 |website=archive.aramcoworld.com}}</ref>

Following family tradition, he strove for a political career. In the face of a tumultuous political situation in North Africa, that required a high degree of skill in developing and dropping alliances prudently to avoid falling with the short-lived regimes of the time.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ibn Khaldun – His Life and Work |url=http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/klf.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130913010235/http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/klf.htm |archive-date=13 September 2013 |access-date=6 December 2017 |website=www.muslimphilosophy.com}}</ref> Ibn Khaldūn's autobiography is the story of an adventure, in which he spends time in prison, reaches the highest offices and falls again into exile.

== Political career ==
{{more citations needed section|date=January 2019}}
[[File:Dar Ibn Khaldoun.jpg|thumb|Birth home of Ibn Khaldun at [[Tunis]]]]
[[File:Tunisia588.jpg|thumb|The mosque in which Ibn Khaldun studied]]
At the age of 20, he began his political career in the chancellery of the Tunisian ruler Ibn Tafrakin with the position of ''Kātib al-'Alāmah'' (seal-bearer),<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://muslimheritage.com/article/ibn-khaldun-his-life-and-works|title=Ibn Khaldun: His Life and Works {{!}} Muslim Heritage|website=muslimheritage.com|language=en|access-date=5 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171206135839/http://muslimheritage.com/article/ibn-khaldun-his-life-and-works|archive-date=6 December 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> which consisted of writing in fine [[calligraphy]] the typical introductory notes of official documents. In 1352, Abū Ziad, the sultan of [[Constantine, Algeria|Constantine]], marched on Tunis and defeated it. Ibn Khaldūn, in any case unhappy with his respected but politically meaningless position, followed his teacher Abili to [[Fez, Morocco|Fez]]. There, the [[Marinid]] sultan, Abū Inan Fares I, appointed him as a writer of royal proclamations, but Ibn Khaldūn still schemed against his employer, which, in 1357, got the 25-year-old a 22-month prison sentence. Upon the death of Abū Inan in 1358, Vizier al-Hasān ibn-Umar granted him freedom and reinstated him to his rank and offices. Ibn Khaldūn then schemed against Abū Inan's successor, Abū Salem Ibrahim III, with Abū Salem's exiled uncle, Abū Salem. When Abū Salem came to power, he gave Ibn Khaldūn a ministerial position, the first position to correspond with Ibn Khaldūn's ambitions.

The treatment that Ibn Khaldun received after the fall of Abū Salem through Ibn-Amar ʻAbdullah, a friend of Ibn Khaldūn's, was not to his liking, as he received no significant official position. At the same time, Amar successfully prevented Ibn Khaldūn, whose political skills he knew well, from allying with the [[Zayyanid dynasty|Abd al-Wadids]] in Tlemcen. Ibn Khaldūn, therefore, decided to move to [[Granada]]. He could be sure of a positive welcome there since at Fez, he had helped the Sultan of Granada, the [[Nasrid dynasty|Nasrid]] [[Muhammad V of Granada|Muhammad V]], regain power from his temporary exile. In 1364, Muhammad entrusted him with a diplomatic mission to the king of [[Crown of Castile|Castile]], [[Pedro of Castile|Pedro the Cruel]], to endorse a peace treaty. Ibn Khaldūn successfully carried out this mission and politely declined Pedro's offer to remain at his court and have his family's Spanish possessions returned to him.

In Granada, Ibn Khaldūn quickly came into competition with Muhammad's vizier, [[Ibn al-Khatib]], who viewed the close relationship between Muhammad and Ibn Khaldūn with increasing mistrust. Ibn Khaldūn tried to shape the young Muhammad into his ideal of a wise ruler, an enterprise that Ibn al-Khatib thought foolish and a danger to peace in the country. As a result of al-Khatib's influence, Ibn Khaldūn was eventually sent back to North Africa. Al-Khatib himself was later accused by Muhammad of having unorthodox philosophical views and murdered despite an attempt by Ibn Khaldūn to intercede on behalf of his old rival.

In his autobiography, Ibn Khaldūn tells little about his conflict with Ibn al-Khatib and the reasons for his departure. Orientalist [[Muhsin Mahdi]] interprets that as showing that Ibn Khaldūn later realised that he had completely misjudged Muhammad V.

Back in [[Ifriqiya]], the [[Hafsids of Bejaïa|Hafsid]] sultan of [[Béjaïa]], Abū ʻAbdallāh, who had been his companion in prison, received him with great enthusiasm and made Ibn Khaldūn his prime minister. Ibn Khaldūn carried out a daring mission to collect taxes among the local Berber tribes. After the death of Abū ʻAbdallāh in 1366, Ibn Khaldūn changed sides once again and allied himself with the [[Sultan of Tlemcen]], Abū l-Abbas. A few years later, he was taken prisoner by [[Abu Faris Abdul Aziz]], who had defeated the sultan of Tlemcen and seized the throne. He then entered a monastic establishment and occupied himself with scholastic duties until 1370. In that year, he was sent for to Tlemcen by the new sultan. After the death of ʻAbdu l-Azīz, he resided at Fez, enjoying the patronage and confidence of the regent.

Ibn Khaldūn's political skills and, above all, his good relationship with the wild Berber tribes were in high demand among the North African rulers, but he had begun to tire of politics and constantly switching allegiances. In 1375, he was sent by [[Abu Hammu II|Abū Hammu]], the Abd al-Wadid Sultan of Tlemcen, on a mission to the Dawadida Arabs tribes of Biskra. After his return to the West, Ibn Khaldūn sought refuge with one of the Berber tribes in the west of [[Algeria]], in the town of [[Qalat Ibn Salama]]. He lived there for over three years under their protection, taking advantage of his seclusion to write the ''Muqaddimah'' "Prolegomena", the introduction to his planned history of the world. In Ibn Salama, however, he lacked the necessary texts to complete the work.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://alhassanain.org/english/?com=book&id=1008|title=Ibn Khaldun's Political and Economic Realism|date=26 March 2016|publisher=google.com/+AlhassanainOrgNetwork |language=en}}</ref> Therefore, in 1378, he returned to his native Tunis, which had meanwhile been conquered by Abū l-Abbas, who took Ibn Khaldūn back into his service. There, he devoted himself almost exclusively to his studies and completed his history of the world. His relationship with Abū l-Abbas remained strained, as the latter questioned his loyalty. That was brought into sharp contrast after Ibn Khaldūn presented him with a copy of the completed history that omitted the usual [[panegyric]] to the ruler. Under pretence of going on the [[Hajj]] to [[Mecca]], something for which a Muslim ruler could not simply refuse permission, Ibn Khaldūn was able to leave Tunis and to sail to [[Alexandria]].

== Later life ==
{{more citations needed section|date=January 2019}}
[[File:Ibn Khaldun Statue and Square, Mohandesin, Cairo.jpg|thumbnail|Ibn Khaldun Statue and Square, [[Mohandessin]], Cairo]]
Ibn Khaldun said of [[Egypt]], "He who has not seen it does not know the power of Islam."<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ibn-Khaldun#ref3458 | title=Ibn Khaldūn &#124; Muslim historian| date=23 May 2023}}</ref> While other Islamic regions had to cope with border wars and inner strife, [[Mamluk Egypt]] enjoyed prosperity and high culture. In 1384, the Egyptian Sultan, al-Malik udh-Dhahir [[Barquq]], made Khaldun professor of the ''Qamhiyyah [[Madrasah]]'' and appointed him as the Grand [[qadi]] of the [[Maliki]] school of ''[[fiqh]]'' (one of four schools, the Maliki school was widespread primarily in [[Western Africa]]). His efforts at reform encountered resistance, however, and within a year, he had to resign his judgeship. Also in 1384, a ship carrying Khaldun's wife and children sank off of [[Alexandria]].

After his return from a [[Hajj|pilgrimage]] to Mecca in May 1388, Ibn Khaldūn concentrated on teaching at various Cairo madrasas. At the Mamluk court he fell from favor because during revolts against Barquq, he had, apparently under duress, with other Cairo jurists, issued a [[fatwa]] against Barquq. Later relations with Barquq returned to normal, and he was once again named the Maliki ''qadi''. Altogether, he was called six times to that high office, which, for various reasons, he never held long.

In 1401, under Barquq's successor, his son [[An-Nasir Faraj|Faraj]], Ibn Khaldūn took part in a military campaign against the [[Mongol]] conqueror, [[Timur]], who [[Siege of Damascus (1400)|besieged Damascus]] in 1400. Ibn Khaldūn cast doubt upon the viability of the venture and really wanted to stay in Egypt. His doubts were vindicated, as the young and inexperienced Faraj, concerned about a revolt in Egypt, left his army to its own devices in [[Syria]] and hurried home. Ibn Khaldūn remained at the besieged city for seven weeks, being lowered over the city wall by ropes to negotiate with Timur, in a historic series of meetings that he reported extensively in his autobiography.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bent|first=Josephine van den|date=3 May 2016|title="None of the Kings on Earth is Their Equal in ʿaṣabiyya:" The Mongols in Ibn Khaldūn's Works|journal=Al-Masāq|volume=28|issue=2|pages=171–186|doi=10.1080/09503110.2016.1198535|issn=0950-3110|doi-access=free}}</ref> Timur questioned him in detail about conditions in the lands of the Maghreb. At his request, Ibn Khaldūn even wrote a long report about it. As he recognized Timur's intentions, he did not hesitate, on his return to Egypt, to compose an equally-extensive report on the history of the [[Tatars]], together with a character study of Timur, sending them to the Merinid rulers in [[Fez, Morocco|Fez]].

Ibn Khaldūn spent the next five years in Cairo completing his autobiography and his history of the world and acting as teacher and judge. Meanwhile, he was alleged to have joined an underground party, ''Rijal Hawa Rijal'', whose [[Islah|reform]]-oriented ideals attracted the attention of local political authorities. The elderly Ibn Khaldun was placed under arrest. He died on 17 March 1406, one month after his sixth selection for the office of the Maliki ''qadi'' (Judge).

== Works ==
[[File:Handwriting of Ibn Khaldūn, al-Muqaddima, MS Atıf Efendi 1936, f. 7a.png|thumb|Handwriting of Ibn Khaldūn certifying a manuscript copy of ''[[Muqaddima|al-Muqaddima]]'', MS {{Ill|Atif Efendi Library|lt=Atif Efendi|ar|مكتبة عاطف أفندي}} 1936, f. 7a]]

=== ''al-Muqaddima'' and the rest of ''Kitāb al-ʻIbar'' ===
* '''''Kitāb al-ʻIbar''''', (full title: ''Kitāb al-ʻIbar wa-Dīwān al-Mubtadaʼ wa-l-Khabar fī Taʼrīkh al-ʻArab wa-l-Barbar wa-Man ʻĀṣarahum min Dhawī ash-Shaʼn al-Akbār'' "Book of Lessons, Record of Beginnings and Events in the History of the Arabs and the Berbers and Their Powerful Contemporaries");  begun as a history of the [[Berber people|Berbers]] and expanded to a [[Universal history (genre)|universal history]] in seven books.<ref>Ibn Khaldun the Muqaddimah. An Introduction to History. Translated from the Arabic by Franz Rosenthal. In Three Volumes. First Volume. 606 pages. [[Bollingen Foundation]] Series xliii. Princeton University Press. 1958. Prof. Dr. Darcy Carvalho. Feausp. Sao Paulo. Brazil. 2016</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/THEMUQADDIMAHVOLUME1|title=The Muqaddimah Volume 1|accessdate=20 March 2024}}</ref>
:Book 1; ''[[Muqaddimah|Al-Muqaddima]]'' ('The Introduction'),  a socio-economic-geographical universal history of empires, and the best known of his works.<ref>Schmidt, Nathaniel. Ibn Khaldun: Historian, Sociologist and Philosopher. Universal Books, 1900.</ref>
:Books 2–5; [[World history (field)|World History]] up to the author's own time.
:Books 6–7; Historiography of the [[Berber people|Berbers]] and the Maghreb.  Khaldun departs from the classical style of Arab historians{{NoteTag|For classical style of Arab historians ''see'' [[Ibrahim ibn ar-Raqiq|Ibrahim ibn ar-Raqīq]] (~d.1028) and [[Abu Bakr al-Maliki|al-Mālikī]].}} by synthesising multiple, sometimes contradictory, sources without citations.<ref>See articles by Modéran and Benabbès in ''Identités et Cultures dans l'Algérie Antique'', University of Rouen, 2005 ({{ISBN|2-87775-391-3}}).</ref>  He reproduces some errors originating probably from his 14th-century [[Fez, Morocco|Fez]] source, the work ''[[Rawd al-Qirtas|Rawḍ al-Qirṭās]]'' by [[Ibn Abi Zar]], yet  ''Al-'Ibar'' remains an invaluable source of [[Berber history]].
{| class="toccolours" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5"
| style="text-align: left;" | Businesses owned by responsible and organized merchants shall eventually surpass those owned by wealthy rulers.<ref>Muqaddimah 2 1995 p 30</ref>
|-
| style="text-align: left;" | '''''Ibn Khaldun on [[economic growth]] and the ideals of [[Platonism]]'''''
|}
Concerning the discipline of [[sociology]], he described the dichotomy of sedentary life versus nomadic life as well as the inevitable loss of power that occurs when warriors conquer a city. According to the Arab scholar [[Sati' al-Husri]], the ''Muqaddimah'' may be read as a sociological work. The work is based around Ibn Khaldun's central concept of [[Asabiyyah|''aṣabiyyah,'']] translated as "[[group cohesiveness]]" or "solidarity".<ref>{{cite journal|author=Beyza Sümer|title=Ibn Khaldun's Asabiyya for Social Cohesion|journal=Electronic Journal of Social Sciences|year=2012|volume=11|issue=41|url=https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/esosder/issue/6155/82716}}</ref> This social cohesion arises spontaneously in tribes and other small kinship groups; it can be intensified and enlarged by a religious ideology. Ibn Khaldun's analysis looks at how this cohesion carries groups to power but contains within itself the seeds – psychological, sociological, economic, political – of the group's downfall, to be replaced by a new group, dynasty or empire bound by a stronger (or at least younger and more vigorous) cohesion. Some of Ibn Khaldun's views, particularly those concerning the ''[[Zanj]]'' people of sub-Saharan Africa,<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Negative Images of Blacks in Some Medieval Iranian Writings |last1=Southgate|first1=Minoo|journal=Iranian Studies|volume=17|issue=1|page=15|jstor=4310424
|year=1984|doi=10.1080/00210868408701620}}</ref> have been cited as [[Racism|racist]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Racism: A Global Reader |editor=Kevin Reilly |editor2=Stephen Kaufman |editor3=Angela Bodino|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|year=2003|page=123|isbn=978-0-7656-1059-1}}</ref> According to the scholar Abdelmajid Hannoum, Ibn Khaldun's description of the distinctions between [[Berbers]] and Arabs were misinterpreted by the translator [[William McGuckin de Slane]], who wrongly inserted a "racial ideology that sets Arabs and Berbers apart and in opposition" into his translation of part of''`Ibar'' translated under the title Histoire des Berbères.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hannoum|first=Abdelmajid|date=2003|title=Translation and the Colonial Imaginary: Ibn Khaldûn Orientalist|journal=History and Theory|volume=42|issue=1|pages=77–80|doi=10.1111/1468-2303.00230|jstor=3590803}}</ref>

Perhaps the most frequently cited observation drawn from Ibn Khaldūn's work is the notion that when a society becomes a great civilization, its high point is followed by a period of decay. This means that the next cohesive group that conquers the diminished civilization is, by comparison, a group of [[barbarians]]. Once the barbarians solidify their control over the conquered society, however, they become attracted to its more refined aspects, such as literacy and arts, and either assimilate into or appropriate such cultural practices. Then, eventually, the former barbarians will be conquered by a new set of barbarians, who will repeat the process.

Georgetown University Professor [[Ibrahim Oweiss]], an economist and historian, argues that Ibn Khaldun was a major forerunner of modern economists and, in particular, originated the [[labor theory of value]] long before better known proponents such as [[Adam Smith]] and [[David Ricardo]], although Khaldun did not refer to it as either a labor theory of value or theory.<ref>Oweiss, Ibrahim M. “Ibn Khaldun, the Father of Economics.” Georgetown University, State University of New York Press, 1988, faculty.georgetown.edu/imo3/ibn.htm.</ref>

Ibn Khaldun also called for the creation of a science to explain society and went on to outline these ideas in his major work, the ''Muqaddimah'', which states that “Civilization and its well-being, as well as business prosperity, depend on productivity and people’s efforts in all directions in their own interest and profit”.<ref>Khaldun, Ibn, et al. Muqaddimah – an Introduction to History. Princeton University Press, 2015.</ref>

Ibn Khaldun diverged from norms that Muslim historians followed and rejected their focus on the credibility of the transmitter and focused instead on the validity of the stories and encouraged critical thinking.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://evonomics.com/amazing-north-african-scholar-beat-adam-smith-half-millennium/|title=The Amazing Arab Scholar Who Beat Adam Smith by Half a Millennium – Evonomics|date=9 June 2017|work=Evonomics|access-date=5 December 2017|language=en-US}}</ref>

Ibn Khaldun also outlines early theories of division of labor, taxes, scarcity, and economic growth.<ref>Irwin, Robert. Ibn Khaldun: an Intellectual Biography. Princeton University Press., 2018.</ref>

He argued that poverty was a result of the destruction of morality and human values. He also looked at what factors contribute to wealth, such as consumption, government, and investment. Khaldun also argued that poverty was not necessarily a result of poor financial decision-making but of external consequences and therefore the government should be involved in alleviating poverty. Researchers from Malaysia's Insaniah University College and Indonesia's Tazkia University College of Islamic Economics created a [[System dynamics|dynamics model]] based upon Ibn Khaldun's writings to measure poverty in the Muslim nations of South Asia and Southeast Asia.<ref>Affandi, Akhmad, and Dewi Puji Astuti. “Dynamic Model of Ibn Khaldun Theory on Poverty.” Humanomics, vol. 30, no. 2, 2014, pp. 136–161.</ref>

Ibn Khaldun also believed that the currency of an Islamic monetary system should have [[wikt:intrinsic|intrinsic]] value and therefore be made of [[gold]] and [[silver]] (such as the [[dirham]]). He emphasized that the weight and purity of these coins should be strictly followed: the weight of one dinar should be one ''mithqal'' (the weight of 72 grains of [[barley]], roughly 4.25 grams) and the weight of 7 dinar should be equal to weight of 10 dirhams (7/10 of a ''mithqal'' or 2.96 grams).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/Muqaddimah/Chapter3/Ch_3_34-35.htm|title=index|date=30 October 2020|access-date=14 May 2022|archive-date=30 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030004808/http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/Muqaddimah/Chapter3/Ch_3_34-35.htm|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref>

Ibn Khaldun's writings regarding the division of labor are often compared to Adam Smith's writings on the topic.
{{blockquote | The individual being cannot by himself obtain all the necessities of life. All human beings must co-operate to that end in their civilization. But what is obtained by the cooperation of a group of human beings satisfies the need of a number many times greater than themselves. For instance, no one by himself can obtain the share of the wheat he needs for food. But when six or ten persons, including a smith and a carpenter to make the tools, and others who are in charge of the oxen, the ploughing of, the harvesting of the ripe grain, and all other agricultural activities, undertake to obtain their food and work toward that purpose either
separately or collectively and thus obtain through their labour a certain amount of food, that amount will be food for a number of people many times their own. The combined labour produces more than the needs and necessities of the workers (Ibn Khaldun 1958, vol. II 271–272)<ref name="auto">{{cite book |title=Labor in an Islamic setting : theory and practice |date=2017 |location=New York |isbn=978-1-315-59127-8 |pages=40–41 }}</ref>}}

{{blockquote | In every other art and manufacture, the effects of the division of labour are similar to what they are in this very trifling one [pin production]; though, in many of them, the labour can either be so much subdivided, nor reduced to so great a simplicity of operation. The division of labour, however, so far as it can be introduced, occasions, in every art, a proportionable increase of the productive powers of labour (Smith 1976a, vol. I, 13–24)<ref name="auto"/>}}

Both Ibn Khaldun and Smith shared the idea that the division of labor is fundamental to economic growth, however, the motivations and context for such division differed between them. For Ibn Khaldun, ''asabiyyah'' or social solidarity was the underlying motive and context behind the division of labor; for Smith it was self-interest and the market economy.<ref name="auto"/>

=== Social thought ===
Ibn Khaldun's epistemology attempted to reconcile mysticism with theology by dividing science into two different categories, the religious science that regards the sciences of the Qur'an and the non-religious science. He further classified the non-religious sciences into intellectual sciences such as logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, etc. and auxiliary sciences such as language, literature, poetry, etc. He also suggested that possibly more divisions will appear in the future with different societies. He tried to adapt to all possible societies’ cultural behavior and influence in education, economics and politics. Nonetheless, he didn't think that laws were chosen by just one leader or a small group of individual but mostly by the majority of the individuals of a society.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The epistemology of Ibn Khaldun|last=Ahmad|first=Zaid|publisher=RoutledgeCurzon|year=2003|isbn=978-0-415-61275-3|location=New York}}{{Page needed|date=April 2024}}</ref>

To Ibn Khaldun, the state was a necessity of human society to restrain injustice within the society, but the state means is force, thus itself an injustice. All societies must have a state governing them in order to establish a society. He attempted to standardize the history of societies by identifying ubiquitous phenomena present in all societies. To him, civilization was a phenomenon that will be present as long as humans exist. He characterized the fulfillment of basic needs as the beginning of civilization. At the beginning, people will look for different ways of increasing productivity of basic needs and expansion will occur. Later the society starts becoming more sedentary and focuses more on crafting, arts and the more refined characteristics. By the end of a society, it will weaken, allowing another small group of individuals to come into control. The conquering group is described as an unsatisfied group within the society itself or a group of desert bandits that constantly attack other weaker or weakened societies.

In the Muqaddimah, his most important work, he discusses an introduction of philosophy to history in a general manner, based on observable patterns within a theoretical framework of known historical events of his time. He described the beginnings, development, cultural trends and the fall of all societies, leading to the rise of a new society which would then follow the same trends in a continuous cycle. Also, he recommended the best political approaches to develop a society according to his knowledge of history. He heavily emphasized that a good society would be one in which a tradition of education is deeply rooted in its culture.<ref name=":1" />
Ibn Khaldun (1987) introduced the word ''asabiya'' (solidarity, group feeling, or group consciousness), to explain tribalism. The concept of asabiya has been translated as "social cohesion," "group solidarity," or "tribalism." This social cohesion arises spontaneously in tribes and other small kinship groups (Rashed,2017).

Ibn Khaldun believed that too much bureaucracy, such as taxes and legislations, would lead to the decline of a society, since it would constrain the development of more specialized labor (increase in scholars and development of different services). He believed that bureaucrats cannot understand the world of commerce and do not possess the same motivation as a businessman.<ref name=":1" />

In his work the Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun emphasizes human beings' faculty to think (''fikr'') as what determines human behavior and ubiquitous patterns. This faculty is also what inspires human beings to form into a social structure to co-operate in division of labor and organization.  According to Zaid Ahmand in ''Epistemology and the Human Dimension in Urban Studies'', the ''fikr'' faculty is the supporting pillar for all philosophical aspects of Ibn Khaldun's theory related to human beings’ spiritual, intellectual, physical, social and political tendencies.

Another important concept he emphasizes in his work is the mastery of crafts, habits and skills. This takes place after a society is established and according to Ibn Khaldun the level of achievement of a society can be determined by just analyzing these three concepts. A society in its earliest stages is nomadic and primarily concerned with survival, while a society at a later stage is sedentary, with greater achievement in crafts. A society with a sedentary culture and stable politics would be expected to have greater achievements in crafts and technology.<ref name=":1" />

Ibn Khaldun also emphasized in his epistemology the important aspect that educational tradition plays to ensure the new generations of a civilization continuously improve in the sciences and develop culture. Ibn Khaldun argued that without the strong establishment of an educational tradition, it would be very difficult for the new generations to maintain the achievements of the earlier generations, let alone improve them.

Another way to distinguish the achievement of a society would be the language of a society, since for him the most important element of a society would not be land, but the language spoken. He was surprised that many non-Arabs were really successful in the Arabic society, had good jobs and were well received by the community. "These people were non-Arab by descent, but they grew up among the Arabs who possessed the habit of Arabic," Ibn Khaldun once recalled, "[b]ecause of this, they were able to master Arabic so well that they cannot be surpassed."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/UmarIbnAlKhattab2Volumes|title=Umar Ibn Al Khattab (2 Volumes)|last=Umar Ibn Al Khattab (2 Volumes)|first=Umar Ibn Al Khattab|date=5 February 2017}}</ref> He believed that the reason why non-Arabs were accepted as part of Arab society was due to their mastery of the Arabic language.

Advancements in literary works such as poems and prose were another way to distinguish the achievement of a civilization, but Ibn Khaldun believed that whenever the literary facet of a society reaches its highest levels it ceases to indicate societal achievements anymore, but is an embellishment of life. For logical sciences he established knowledge at its highest level as an increase of scholars and the quality of knowledge. For him the highest level of literary productions would be the manifestation of prose, poems and the artistic enrichment of a society.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/IbnKhaldunsHistoryalMuqaddimah/Ibn%20khaldun's%20History%20(al-muqaddimah)_djvu.txt|title=Full text of "Ibn Khaldun's Historiography"|website=archive.org|language=en|access-date=25 April 2018}}</ref>

===Religious thought===
Ibn Khaldun believes that communication between the tangible and intangible world is the basis of every [[religion]], and the credit for its occurrence is the human spirit, as it is the mediator between God and humans. It is immortal by nature and does not perish, and has characteristics that enable it to communicate with God. However, most souls have lost their hidden ability and are connected to the sensory world only. A small number of them still maintain their full ability to communicate with God. These are the ones God chose and they became [[prophet]]s, so their souls leave the sensory world to receive from God. Their souls abandon the sensory world in order to receive from God what they should convey to humans. Religions arise only from this connection. He believes that religions that rely on institutions of prediction and reconnaissance are false, but they partly contain some truth. A person’s concentration on a specific thing for a long period makes him forget everything and become attached to what he focused on. Only, this focus makes him see the non-sensory world very quickly and in a very imperfect way, and these are [[Paganism|pagan religions]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Hussein |first=Taha |title=Ibn Khaldun's Philosophy فلسفة ابن خلدون الاجتماعية |date=1925 |website=foulabook.com |url=https://foulabook.com/book/downloading/778740035 |pages=66–78}}</ref>

Ibn Khaldun agrees with [[Sufism]] and believes that if a person maintains his good faith and is stripped of the desire to create a new religion and strives to separate himself from the sensory world, he will be able to approach the divine essence and the ideas of scholars will appear to him clearly. But if he strives in this detachment and [[mysticism]] out of a desire to excel over others, he will not communicate with God, but with [[demon]]s. Also, the human spirit is able to see some things of the future through vision, but on the condition that this spirit be completely upright and very pious and pure, otherwise the vision will come from the devils.<ref name=":0" />

=== Minor works ===
{{Ash'arism}}
From other sources we know of several other works, primarily composed during the time he spent in North Africa and [[Al-Andalus]]. His first book, ''[[Lubābu l-Muhassal]]'', a commentary on the [[Islamic theology]] of [[Fakhr al-Din al-Razi]], was written at the age of 19 under the supervision of his teacher [[Al-Abili]] in Tunis. A work on [[Sufism]], ''Shifā'u l-Sā'il'', was composed around 1373 in [[Fes, Morocco]]. Whilst at the court of [[Muhammed V, Sultan of Granada]], Ibn Khaldūn composed a [[Logic in Islamic philosophy|work on logic]], ''ʻallaqa li-s-Sulṭān''.

== Legacy ==
[[File:LafferCurve.svg|thumb|A [[Laffer Curve]] with a maximum revenue point at around a 70%, as estimated by Trabandt and Uhlig (2009).<ref name=howfar>[http://www.nber.org/papers/w15343 "How Far Are We From The Slippery Slope? The Laffer Curve Revisited"] by Mathias Trabandt and Harald Uhlig, NBER Working Paper No. 15343, September 2009.</ref> [[Arthur Laffer|Laffer]] cites Ibn Khaldun's observation that "at the beginning of the dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the dynasty, taxation yields a small revenue from large assessments."<ref name=Heritage>{{cite web |last=Laffer |first=Arthur |title=The Laffer Curve: Past, Present, and Future |url=http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2004/06/the-laffer-curve-past-present-and-future |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100315022243/http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2004/06/The-Laffer-Curve-Past-Present-and-Future |url-status=unfit |archive-date=15 March 2010 |publisher=The Heritage Foundation |access-date=4 July 2012 |author-link=Arthur Laffer }}</ref><ref name=Brederode>{{cite book|last=Brederode|first=Robert F. van|title=Systems of general sales taxation : theory, policy and practice|year=2009|publisher=Wolters Kluwer Law & Business|location=Austin [Tex.]|isbn=978-90-411-2832-4|page=117}}</ref> ]]

=== Egypt ===
Ibn Khaldun's historical method had very few precedents or followers in his time. While Ibn Khaldun is known to have been a successful lecturer on jurisprudence within religious sciences, only very few of his students were aware of, and influenced by, his Muqaddimah.<ref name="Simon">{{cite book|last1=Simon|first1=Robert|title=Ibn Khaldun: History as Science and the Patrimonial Empire|date=2002|publisher=Akadémiai Kiadó|location=Budapest|isbn=978-963-05-7934-6|pages=18–20, 22–24|ref=Simon}}</ref> One such student, [[Al-Maqrizi]], praised the Muqaddimah, although some scholars have found his praise, and that of others, to be generally empty and lacking understanding of Ibn Khaldun's methods.<ref name=Simon />

Ibn Khaldun also faced primarily criticism from his contemporaries, particularly [[Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani]]. These criticisms included accusations of inadequate historical knowledge, an inaccurate title, disorganization, and a style resembling that of the prolific Arab literature writer, [[Al-Jahiz]]. Al-Asqalani also noted that Ibn Khaldun was not well-liked in Egypt because he opposed many respected traditions, including the traditional judicial dress, and suggested that this may have contributed to the reception of Ibn Khaldun's historical works.<ref name=Simon /> The notable exception to this consensus was [[Ibn al-Azraq]], a jurist who lived shortly after Ibn Khaldun and quoted heavily from the first and fourth books of the Kitab al-‘Ibar, in developing a work of mirrors for princes.<ref name=Simon />

=== Ottoman Empire ===
Ibn Khaldun's work found some recognition with [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] intellectuals in the 17th century. The first references to Ibn Khaldun in [[Turkish literature|Ottoman writings]] appeared in the middle of the 17th century, with historians such as [[Kâtip Çelebi]] naming him as a great influence, while another Turkish Ottoman historian, [[Mustafa Naima]], attempted to use Ibn Khaldun's cyclical theory of the rise and fall of empires to describe the Ottoman Empire.<ref name=Simon /> Increasing perceptions of the decline of the Ottoman Empire also caused similar ideas to appear independently of Ibn Khaldun in the 16th century, and may explain some of the influence of his works.<ref name=Simon />

=== Europe ===
In Europe, Ibn Khaldun was first brought to the attention of the [[Western world]] in 1697, when a biography of him appeared in [[Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville]]'s ''Bibliothèque Orientale''. However, some scholars believe that Ibn Khaldun's work may have first been introduced to Europe via Ibn Arabshah's biography of Tamerlane, translated to Latin, which covers a meeting between Ibn Khaldun and Tamerlane.<ref name="Alatas">{{cite book|last1=Alatas|first1=Syed Farid|title=Ibn Khaldun|date=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New Delhi|isbn=978-0-19-809045-8|pages=106–109}}</ref> According to Ibn Arabshah, during this meeting, Ibn Khaldun and Tamerlane discussed the Maghrib in depth, as well as Tamerlane's genealogy and place in history.<ref name="Fischel">{{cite book|last1=Fischel|first1=Walter|title=Ibn Khaldun and Tamerlane: Their Historic Meeting in Damascus, A.D. 1401 (A.H. 803)|date=1952|publisher=University of California Press|location=Los Angeles}}</ref> Ibn Khaldun began gaining more attention from 1806, when [[Silvestre de Sacy]]'s ''Chrestomathie Arabe'' included his biography together with a translation of parts of the ''Muqaddimah'' as the ''Prolegomena''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ibn Khaldun: His Life and Works|first=Muhammed Abdullah|last=Enan|publisher=The Other Press|year=2007|isbn=978-983-9541-53-3|page=118}}</ref> In 1816, de Sacy again published a biography with a more detailed description on the ''Prolegomena''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ibn Khaldun: His Life and Works|first=Muhammed Abdullah|last=Enan|publisher=The Other Press|year=2007|isbn=978-983-9541-53-3|pages=118–119}}</ref> More details on and partial translations of the ''Prolegomena'' emerged over the years until the complete Arabic edition was published in 1858. Since then, the work of Ibn Khaldun has been extensively studied in the Western world with special interest.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ibn Khaldun: His Life and Works|first=Muhammed Abdullah|last=Enan|publisher=The Other Press|year=2007|isbn=978-983-9541-53-3|pages=119–120}}</ref> [[Reynold A. Nicholson]] praised Ibn Khaldun as a uniquely brilliant Muslim sociologist, but discounted Khaldun's influence.<ref name="Alatas" /> Spanish Philosopher [[José Ortega y Gasset]] viewed the conflicts of North Africa as a problem that stemmed from a lack of African thought, and praised Ibn Khaldun for making sense of the conflict by simplifying it to the relationship between the nomadic and sedentary modes of life.<ref name="Alatas" />

=== Modern historians ===
British historian [[Arnold J. Toynbee]] has called Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah "the greatest work of its kind."<ref name=Britannica>''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', 15th ed., vol. 9, p. 148.</ref> [[Ernest Gellner]], once a professor of philosophy and logic at the [[London School of Economics]], considered Khaldun's definition of government{{NoteTag|name=Government}} the best in the history of political theory.<ref>Ernest Gellner, ''Plough, Sword and Book'' (1988), p. 239</ref>

More moderate views on the scope of Ibn Khaldun's contributions have also emerged.

[[Arthur Laffer]], for whom the [[Laffer curve]] is named, acknowledged that Ibn Khaldun's ideas, as well as others, precede his own work on that curve.<ref name="Laffter at Heritage">{{cite web |url = http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/bg1765.cfm |author=[[Arthur Laffer]] |date = 1 June 2004 |title = The Laffer Curve, Past, Present and Future |publisher = Heritage Foundation |access-date=11 December 2007 |url-status=unfit |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071201225944/http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/bg1765.cfm |archive-date=1 December 2007 }}</ref>

Economist [[Paul Krugman]] described Ibn Khaldun as "a 14th-century Islamic philosopher who basically invented what we would now call the social sciences".<ref>{{cite web |last = Krugman |first = Paul |title = Opinion {{!}} The Decline of E-Empires |url = https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/opinion/krugman-the-decline-of-e-empires.html |website = The New York Times |language=en |date=26 August 2013 }}</ref>

19th century Scottish theologian and philosopher [[Robert Flint (theologian)|Robert Flint]] praised him strongly, "as a [[theorist]] of history he had no equal in any age or country until [[Giambattista Vico|Vico]] appeared, more than three hundred years later. [[Plato]], [[Aristotle]], and [[Augustine]] were not his peers, and all others were unworthy of being even mentioned along with him". Ibn Khaldun's work on evolution of societies also influenced [[Egon Orowan]], who introduced the concept of ''socionomy''.<ref>{{cite book |url = http://www.nap.edu/html/biomems/eorowan.pdf |title = Egon Orowan. 1901–1989. A Biographical Memoir |author1 = F.R.N. Nabarro |author2= A.S. Argon |year = 1996 |publisher = National Academies Press |location = Washington, D.C. }}</ref> While Ibn Khaldun's record-keeping is usually passed over in favor of recognizing his contributions to the science of history, Abderrahmane Lakhsassi wrote "No historian of the Maghreb since and particularly of the [[Berber people|Berbers]] can do without his historical contribution."<ref>{{cite book |author = A. Lakhsassi |year=1996 |editor1 = S.H. Nasr |editor2= O. Leaman |title = History of Islamic Philosophy |location=London |publisher=Routledge |chapter=25 – Ibn Khaldun |pages=350–364 |chapter-url = http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/rep/H024.htm }}</ref>

=== Public recognition ===
Public recognition of Ibn Khaldun has increased in recent years. In 2004, the [[Tunisian Community Center]] launched the first Ibn Khaldun Award to recognize a Tunisian/American high achiever whose work reflects Ibn Khaldun's ideas of kinship and solidarity. The Award was named after Ibn Khaldun for the convergence of his ideas with the organization's objectives and programs. In 2006, the [[Atlas Economic Research Foundation]] launched an annual essay contest<ref name="Atlas">{{cite web|title=2008 Ibn-Khaldun Essay Contest|url=http://www.atlasusa.org/V2/main/page.php?page_id=741|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080912062823/http://www.atlasusa.org/V2/main/page.php?page_id=741|url-status=dead|archive-date=12 September 2008|website=www.atlasusa|publisher=Atlas Economic Research Foundation}}</ref> for students named in Ibn Khaldun's honor. The theme of the contest is "how individuals, think tanks, universities and entrepreneurs can influence government policies to allow the free market to flourish and improve the lives of its citizens based on Islamic teachings and traditions."<ref name=Atlas /> In 2006, Spain commemorated the 600th anniversary of the death of Ibn Khaldun by orchestrating an exhibit titled "Encounter of Civilizations:  Ibn Khaldun."<ref>{{cite web|title=Encounter of Civilizations: Ibn Khaldun Exhibit Opens at Headquarters|url=https://www.un.org/press/en/2006/note6056.doc.htm|website=un.org|publisher=United Nations|access-date=25 April 2018}}</ref>

In 2007, [[İbn Haldun Üniversitesi]] has opened in [[Istanbul]], [[Turkey]] to commemorate his name. The university promotes a policy of trilingualism. The languages in question are English, Modern Turkish, and Arabic and its emphasis is on teaching social sciences.

In 1981 U.S. President [[Ronald Reagan]] cited Ibn Khaldun as an influence on his [[supply-side economic]] policies, also known as [[Reaganomics]]. He paraphrased Ibn Khaldun, who said that "in the beginning of the dynasty, great tax revenues were gained from small assessments," and that "at the end of the dynasty, small tax revenues were gained from large assessments." Reagan said his goal is "trying to get down to the small assessments and the great revenues."<ref>{{cite news |last1=McFadden |first1=Robert D. |title=Reagan Cites Islamic Scholar |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/02/us/reagan-cites-islamic-scholar.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2 October 1981}}</ref>

The [[Iraqi Navy]] named [[Iraqi frigate Ibn Khaldun|a frigate]] after Ibn Khaldun.

== Bibliography ==
* Kitāb al-ʻIbar wa-Dīwān al-Mubtadaʼ wa-l-Khabar fī Taʼrīkh al-ʻArab wa-l-Barbar wa-Man ʻĀṣarahum min Dhawī ash-Shaʼn al-Akbār
* Lubābu-l-Muhassal fee Usūlu-d-Dīn
* Shifā'u-s-Sā'il
* ʻAl-Laqaw li-s-Sulṭān
* Ibn Khaldun. 1951 التعريف بإبن خلدون ورحلته غربا وشرقا ''Al-Taʻrīf bi Ibn-Khaldūn wa Riħlatuhu Għarbān wa Sharqān''. Published by Muħammad ibn-Tāwīt at-Tanjī. Cairo (Autobiography in Arabic).
* Ibn Khaldūn. 1958 ''The Muqaddimah : An introduction to history''. Translated from the Arabic by [[Franz Rosenthal]]. 3 vols. New York: Princeton.
* Ibn Khaldūn. 1967 ''The Muqaddimah : An introduction to history''. Trans. Franz Rosenthal, ed. N.J. Dawood. (Abridged).
* Ibn Khaldun, 1332–1406. 1905 '[https://archive.org/details/selectionfrompro00ibnk/ A Selection from the Prolegomena of Ibn Khaldūn]'. Trans. Duncan Macdonald

== See also ==
{{Portal|Society|Philosophy|Islam|History|Biography}}
* [[Al-Zahrawi]]
* [[Chanakya]]
* [[Historical recurrence]]
* [[Historiography of early Islam]]
* [[Ibn Arabi]]
* [[Ibn Tufayl]]
* [[List of Muslim historians]]
* [[List of pre-modern Arab scientists and scholars]]
* [[Sayyid Husayn Ahlati]]
* [[Science in the medieval Islamic world]]
* [[Ibn Inabah]]
* [[Ibn Sufi]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}
{{NoteFoot|30em
|notes =
{{NoteTag|
* "...regarded by some Westerners as the true father of historiography and sociology".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gates |first = Warren E. |title = The Spread of Ibn Khaldûn's Ideas on Climate and Culture |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |year=1967 |volume=28|issue=3|pages=415–422 |doi=10.2307/2708627 |jstor=2708627 }}</ref>
* "Ibn Khaldun has been claimed the forerunner of a great number of European thinkers, mostly sociologists, historians, and philosophers".{{harv|Boulakia|1971}}
* "The founding father of Eastern Sociology".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dhaouadi|first=M.|title=Ibn Khaldun: The Founding Father Of Eastern Sociology |journal=International Sociology |date=1 September 1990 |volume=5|issue=3|pages=319–335 |doi=10.1177/026858090005003007 |s2cid=143508326 }}</ref>
* "This grand scheme to find a new science of society makes him the forerunner of many of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries system-builders such as Vico, Comte and Marx." "As one of the early founders of the social sciences...".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Haddad |first = L. |title = A Fourteenth-Century Theory of Economic Growth And Development |journal=Kyklos |date = 1 May 1977 |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=195–213 |doi = 10.1111/j.1467-6435.1977.tb02006.x }}</ref>
|name=HistoryAndSociology}}

{{NoteTag|
* "He is considered by some as a father of modern economics, or at least a major forerunner. The Western world recognizes Khaldun as the father of sociology but hesitates in recognizing him as a great economist who laid its very foundations. He was the first to systematically analyze the functioning of an economy, the importance of technology, specialization and foreign trade in economic surplus and the role of government and its stabilization policies to increase output and employment. Moreover, he dealt with the problem of optimum taxation, minimum government services, incentives, institutional framework, law and order, expectations, production, and the theory of value".[http://www.ovidius-stec.ro/html/anale/ENG/cuprins%20rezumate/2009%20vol2.pdf Cosma, Sorinel (2009). "Ibn Khaldun's Economic Thinking". Ovidius University Annals of Economics (Ovidius University Press) XIV:52–57]
|name=Economics}}

{{NoteTag|
"an institution which prevents injustice other than such as it commits itself"
|name=Government}}
}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|35em}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Fuad Baali. 2005 ''The science of human social organization : Conflicting views on Ibn Khaldun's (1332–1406) Ilm al-umran''. Mellen studies in sociology. Lewiston/NY: Edwin Mellen Press.
* {{cite journal |first=Jean David C. |last=Boulakia |year=1971 |title=Ibn Khaldûn: A Fourteenth-Century Economist |journal=Journal of Political Economy |volume=79 |issue=5 |pages=1105–1118 |doi=10.1086/259818 |jstor=pss/1830276 |s2cid=144078253 }}
* Walter Fischel. 1967 ''Ibn Khaldun in Egypt : His public functions and his historical research, 1382–1406; a study in Islamic historiography''. Berkeley: University of California Press.
* [[Allen Fromherz]]. 2010 "Ibn Khaldun : Life and Times". Edinburgh University Press, 2010.
* Ana Maria C. Minecan, 2012 "El vínculo comunitario y el poder en Ibn Jaldún" in José-Miguel Marinas (Ed.), ''Pensar lo político: Ensayos sobre comunidad y conflicto'', Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid, 2012.
* Mahmoud Rabi'. 1967 ''The political theory of Ibn Khaldun''. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
* Róbert Simon. 2002 ''Ibn Khaldūn : History as science and the patrimonial empire''. Translated by Klára Pogátsa. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. Original edition, 1999.
* {{cite journal |last=Weiss |first=Dieter |year=1995 |title=Ibn Khaldun on Economic Transformation |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=29–37 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/S0020743800061560 |jstor=176185|s2cid=162022220 }}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
* [[Malise Ruthven]], "The Otherworldliness of Ibn Khaldun" (review of [[Robert Irwin (writer)|Robert Irwin]], ''Ibn Khaldun:  An Intellectual Biography'', Princeton University Press, 2018, {{ISBN|978-0691174662}}, 243 pp.), ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', vol. LXVI, no. 2 (7 February 2019), pp.&nbsp;23–24, 26.  "More than six centuries after Ibn Khaldun's death the modern world has much to learn from studying him.  After the ''[[Muqaddima]]'' itself, Irwin's intellectual biography... is an excellent place to begin."

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Ibn Khaldun}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{wikisource|ar|مؤلف:ابن خلدون|Ibn Khaldun}}

=== English ===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130913010235/http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/klf.htm Ibn Khaldun: His Life and Work, by Muhammad Hozien]
* {{In Our Time|Ibn Khaldun|b00qckbw|Ibn_Khaldun}}
* {{cite encyclopedia | last = Rosenthal | first = Franz | title=Ibn Khaldūn  | url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830902289.html |  encyclopedia = [[Dictionary of Scientific Biography|Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography]] | publisher = Encyclopedia.com | orig-year=1970–80 | year = 2008 }}
* [http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/Muqaddimah/ Complete Muqaddimah/Kitab al-Ibar in English (without Chapter V, 13)]
* {{usurped|1=[https://archive.today/20130416001413/http://www.tunisiancommunity.org/ The Tunisian American Center (US)]}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040624080750/http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/ibnkhaldun/ Ibn Khaldun on the Web]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040430064720/http://www.ummah.net/history/scholars/KHALDUN.html Muslim Scientists and Scholars – Ibn Khaldun]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061014162414/http://www.dinarstandard.com/management/IbnKhaldun_Mgmt100206.htm Ibn Khaldun’s Philosophy of Management and Work]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060831233452/http://home.online.no/~al-araki/index.html Ibn Khaldun (al-Muqaddimah): Methodology & concepts of economic sociology]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928013846/http://www.ibnjaldun.com/index.php?L=7 Ibn Khaldun. The Mediterranean in the 14th century: Rise and fall of Empires]. ''Andalusian Legacy'' exhibition in the [[Alcazar of Seville]]
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20210225160323/http://www.tunisiancommunity.org/wordpress/?page_id=834 The Ibn Khaldun Community Service Award©]}}
* [http://cliodynamics.ru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=151&Itemid=70 Ibn Khaldun meets Al Saud]

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