Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddima: a theory of civilisation
Muqaddima de Ibn Jaldún: teoría de la civilización
- Date
- 1377 · confidence high
- Place
- Qal'at Ibn Salama, Tiaret, Algeria
- Credited to
- Ibn Khaldun
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
The introduction to his universal history, written in a rural retreat, which lays out a science of society: cycles of rise and fall of dynasties, tribal cohesion (asabiyya), and economy and demography as historical causes.
Ibn Khaldun was born in Tunis and wrote the Muqaddima in 1375-1377 at Qal'at Ibn Salama, near Frenda; he later revised it in Tunis and Cairo. Comparisons with modern sociology are anachronistic though common.
What it led to
- a forerunner of modern sociology, historiography and political economy
- an economic reading of history (division of labour, taxation)
- influence on Ottoman and, from the 19th century, European historiography