Contents
- INTRODUCTION
- “THE INTRODUCTION”: MUQADDIMAH
- ASABIYYAH
- HUMAN CIVILIZATION / PUBLIC SOCIOLOGY
- BEDOUIN CIVILIZATION
- DYNASTIES, ROYAL AUTHORITY AND THE CALIPHATE
- SEDENTARY CIVILIZATION
- CRAFTS & WAYS OF MAKING A LIVING / SOCIOLOGY OF ECONOMICS
- THE SCIENCES; THEIR ACQUISITION & STUDY / SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
- CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
Ibn Khaldun, also known as Wali ad-Din Abu Zaid 'abdar- Rahman Muhammad (born 1332; died 1406 A. D.), is regarded by many contemporary writers as one of the greatest Muslim thinkers of the fourteenth century. He is regarded as one of the most significant Muslim historians, scholars, and sociologists. He was regarded as the originator or a forerunner in the philosophy of history and the study of society (creator of contemporary sociology). Although he is well-known both in the Muslim and Western worlds, he has been viewed more as a forerunner of the many current social sciences and as a source of historical data and information than as a tool for the creation of theoretical viewpoints.
Despite the fact that social thinking has always been a part of humans, the study of human societies did not become a scientific field of study until much later. Ibn Khaldun was well-known in this area because it was he who established the foundations of this new science and innovated it, identifying the ideas, topics, and goals of sociology (El-Sergany, 2015). In terms of sociology, he developed a dynamic theory of history that took into account conceptualizations of social conflict and social change. This theory is presented in his work "Muqaddimah" (later translated as Prolegomena in Latin) as the concept of "asabiyyah," which we now refer to as "nationalism" in a modern context.
This study may have been the first to enhance social science thinking about social conflict and cohesion. Tribes and other tiny family groups naturally develop social cohesion, often known as "group solidarity" or "tribalism." T
In particular, the idea of Asabiyyah, which is intimately related to the seven schools of contemporary sociology, will be highlighted in this paper's presentation of Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah. We will discuss briefly its framework, which includes: Human civilization—which is equivalent to public sociology—Bedouin civilization—which is equivalent to political sociology—Sedentary civilization—On the various aspects of making a living, such as profit and crafts—which is equivalent to economic sociology—and the various kinds of sciences—which is now the sociology of education.
“THE INTRODUCTION”: MUQADDIMAH
Based on Ibn Khaldun's distinctive perspective and creative contribution, the Muqaddimah, also known as the "Prolegomena," became a classic of literature on philosophy, history, and sociology. He penned it in 1377 when sequestered in Sultan Abu Hamu's palace close to Tujin for just five months (Enan, 1975). The original author of "The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History," Ibn Khaldun, best described it as "rational in its approach, analytical in its method, encyclopaedic in detail, it representsalmost complete departure from traditional historiography, discarding conventionalconcepts and clichés and seeking, beyond the mere chronicle of events, an explanation of history" in Franz Rosenthal's translation of it in 2005.
Identification of the psychological, economic, environmental, and social factors that promote human civilization and the trends of history was the main goal of this massive book. In this context, he examined the dynamics of group interactions and demonstrated how group emotions, or Al'Asabiyya, lead to the rise of a new civilisation and political power and how, later, their diffusion into a more universal civilization pave the way for the appearance of a still more fresh Al'Asabiyya. He created a cyclic theory based on the fusion of al 'Asabbiyah, which refers to the excitement of a group, nation, or tribe among people who live on the outskirts of powerful civilizations.
The ability to capture more elite and cultured towns was made possible by this, which increased people's inner strength and energy beyond their numbers. But as a result of civilisation, the conquerors themselves were more open to subsequent conquest.
ASABIYYAH
The Arabic word asabiyyah means to bind, link, fold, or conceive. It stems from the same origins as Asâbiyyet and Taâssub, which indicate safeguarding, protecting, and aiding. In Arabic, the phrase "they gathered around the man and helped him" is used again from the same root (Stauth, 2007). In the entire translation of the Muqaddimah, Franck Rosenthal interpreted the idea of asabiyyah as "a group emotion" (Rosenthal, 2005). Ibn Khaldun uses the term "asabiyyah" to refer to the ties that bind people together as they establish a community.
Any level of civilization, from nomadic society to governments and empires, can experience the tie known as "asabiyyah." The strength of asabiyyah is greatest during the nomad phase and declines as civilization develops. History chronicles these cycles of "asabiyyah" as they unfold as civilizations develop and fall. As one "asabiyyah" collapses, another, more compelling "asabiyyah" can take its place (Bassam, 1997). Ibn Khaldun describes this cycle of "asabiyyah" in detail when he discusses dynasties and government. He contends that every dynasty possesses the seeds of its own destruction. He explains that ruling houses typically arise on the outskirts of large empires and take advantage of the unity offered by those regions to bring about a change in leadership.
The new emperors become more careless and preoccupied with sustaining their lives as they become the centre of their empire. As a result, a new dynasty may arise at the edge of their influence and bring about a leadership transition, restarting the cycle.
HUMAN CIVILIZATION / PUBLIC SOCIOLOGY
The Muqadimmah describes the ways in which people interact with their environment. Ibn Khaldun researched social phenomena and the laws that govern them. By generalising about people for various causes, he provides general facts about human civilisation. He occasionally discusses how climate affects people's personalities, as well as the availability or scarcity of food. Prior to discussing inspiration and dream visions, he also discusses the many types of people that have supernatural perception, either naturally or through effort.
In his thesis, Ibn Khaldun discussed the wants of people. He understood that human needs come from a man's nature. Man needs food and liquids. Additionally, he needs to acquire some clothing and find housing. Due to the nature of man, there are some natural wants. These demands can also be referred to as fundamental and elementary needs. His knowledge and intelligence are further used in an effort to satisfy these desires. As a result, secondary requirements develop. As the intelligence acquires the required items, tools are employed as weapons. This is followed by the development of civilization. A man would be losing for luxury at this point. He would need to be smarter for this.
Thus, civilisation develops. Keep in mind that Khaldun never intended for civilisation to be founded only on material requirements. Thus, the growth of wants leads to the development of civilisation. The Maslow Theory of Hierarchical Needs, a recent management theory, emphasises a similar principle (Fahri, 2001).
BEDOUIN CIVILIZATION
After careful research and observation, Ibn Khaldun identified the traits of Bedouin civilization and declared it to be the forerunner and ancestor of urban civilization. His main concern is with sedentary and Bedouin people, not with the Arab and Muslim nature of his time and place. He claims that both groups are organic because they emerged from organic organizations. He composes;
“It should be known that differences of condition among people are the result of the different ways in which they make their living. Social organization enables them to cooperate toward that end and to start with the simple necessities of life, before they get to conveniences and luxuries.”(Khaldun b., “the Muqaddimah”, translated by Franz Rosenthal, 2005)
Ibn Khaldun claims that despite the fact that both groups are naturally occurring, Bedouins are superior to sedentary people in many ways, including courage because sedentary people grow accustomed to laziness and ease; their reliance on law destroys their fortitude and power of resistance; and goodness because sedentary people are highly preoccupied with various pleasures. They are used to living in luxury, having success in worldly pursuits, and giving in to worldly wants. It doesn't necessarily follow, though, that Ibn Khaldun prefers Bedouin life to urban civilization in all respects.
Hienrich Simon (1978) argues that Iban Khaldun, on the other hand, sees the cultural stages as having a double face: the first stage is characterised by the moral courage and austerity of the Bedouins, who also had a low standard of living and a low level of material and civilization; the second stage is characterised by urban civilization, which is characterised by wealth and comfort as well as a burgeoning culture; at the same time, it is the evil Babylon
Ibn Khaldun says that sedentary environmental conditions seriously impair both bravery and religiosity. As a result, economic issues are very important in determining the personality and way of life of a society. The sedentary stage of Arab society's evolution, in the opinion of our great Arab sociologist, is linked to civilization's ultimate demise. Numerous social and non-social evils are caused by luxury and wealth (al-taraf). One of them is what contemporary sociologists refer to as societies' "socio-cultural breakdown."
DYNASTIES, ROYAL AUTHORITY AND THE CALIPHATE
The main focus of Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah is on the factors that contribute to national ascent and fall from power. It addresses a variety of political philosophy issues. He contends that the Caliphate, or Islamic state, is the best kind of political community, and that the "perfect state" (Madinatu l-Falah) and neo-Platonic political theories of al-Farabi and Ibn Sina are useless because God's Law, or sharia, has been revealed to take into account the welfare of the general populace and the hereafter. The dynasty uses religion as a tool to increase public support. He contends that the second-most ideal state is one that is founded on fairness and care for the general welfare in this life, but is not governed by religious law and is therefore not conducive to one's afterlife. Ibn Khaldun labels this situation as reproachable. Ibn Khaldun, however, believed that tyranny, in which the state usurps property rights and governs unfairly against the rights of men, was the worst kind of state.
Ibn Khaldun also focuses on this increase and fall in accordance with asabiyyah strength. People are initially reluctant to offer their approval and loyalty, but as the institution gains strength and starts to provide for its citizens, a new kind of sense of community starts to develop. This Ibn Khalduni theory implies that it is simple to establish a dynasty in countries free of group sentiments. The biggest exception to this rule has proven to be Islam.
However, Asabiyyah is not to be limited to its psychological aspects, claims Syed Farid Alatas. Additionally, it has tangible manifestations. Ibn Khaldun claims that mulk, or royal authority, is more than just leadership. Being a chieftain involves being a leader; followers obey him, but he lacks the authority to compel them to follow his orders. Royal authority entails dominance and the ability to impose direct control. The tribesmen follow a tribal chieftain due of 'asabiyyah. Getting royal authorization requires fulfilling this requirement. However, it is not just the psychological sense of unity that allows for royal authority. The chieftain's material position, attained through surpluses appropriated from trade, looting, and pillage, is what contributes to "asabiyyah" and the authority he exercises (Lacoste 1984). According to Atlas, the term "asabiyyah" describes three things: 1) blood relationships, 2) a socially coherent religion like Islam that offers a shared ideology that serves to justify the chieftain's desires for mulk, and 3) the power the chieftain gains through commerce, loot, pillage, and conquest.
The establishment of a dynasty by a tribe causes societal change, which leads to the decline of 'asabiyyah. The deterioration is impacted in at least two different ways. One is a new sedentary habitat where the second generation of tribesmen who formed the dynasty are socialised. Asabiyyah also deteriorates when the "ruler achieves total control over his people, claims royal power exclusively for himself, excludes them, and forbids them from attempting to have a portion in it." In other words, the king is able to do without 'asabiyyah when a tribal group establishes a dynasty and its power is recognised as genuine. He now governs with the assistance of other tribes, who have now become his clients, rather than his own tribesmen. The king tries to keep his people out of power. A fall in asabiyyah eventually threatens the ruler's ability to lead and weakens the state until it is ultimately captured by another tribal group with greater asabiyyah. The cost is the difficulty of preserving the state. The cycle continues, and so it does. (S.F.Alatas)
SEDENTARY CIVILIZATION
Ibn Khaldun stated that urbanism's ultimate purpose is civilization. He argues that societies have lifespans similar to that of individuals and that every state would ultimately collapse because sedentary comforts divert people's attention. This happens when governments start to unfairly tax their people and violate their property rights. Since "injustice undermines civilisation," one dynasty or royal power will eventually be replaced by another in a never-ending cycle.
According to Ibn Khaldun, history is a cycle in which resource-poor, nomadic peoples with strong internal ties and little material culture to lose conquer and plunder stationary, primarily urban civilizations. These urban civilizations are extremely wealthy and culturally advanced, but they are also ostentatious and lacking in both "warrior spirit" and the corresponding social cohesion. This is due to the fact that those qualities are no longer necessary for surviving in an urban setting, as well as the fact that it is nearly impossible for the many diverse groups that make up a multicultural city to achieve the same level of solidarity as a tribe united by kinship, shared traditions, and shared survival experiences. Thus, the nomads conquer the cities before being drawn into civilization's delights. As a result, they lose their sense of community and fall under attack from the subsequent group of rough and abrasive outsiders, and the cycle repeats (Phier, 2009).
CRAFTS & WAYS OF MAKING A LIVING / SOCIOLOGY OF ECONOMICS
Ibn Khaldun demonstrates how the state of the economy affects society. He wrote on political and economic theory in the Muqaddimah, keeping asabiyyah in mind with regard to the division of labour: the higher the social cohesion, the more intricate the division may be, the higher the economic growth (Weiss, 1995). On economic expansion, he wrote:
When civilization [population] increases, the available labour again increases. In turn, luxury again increases in correspondence with the increasing profit, and the customs and needs of luxury increase. Crafts are created to obtain luxury products. The value realized from them increases, and, as a result, profits are again multiplied in the town. Production there is thriving even more than before. And so it goes with the second and third increase. All the additional labour serves luxury and wealth, in contrast to the original labour that served the necessity of life. (Khaldun b., “the Muqaddimah”, translated by Franz Rosenthal, 2005)
Ibn Khaldun believed that wealth had an impact on population expansion. He pointed out that supply and demand are both favourably influenced by growth and development, and that the dynamics of supply and demand are what determine how much anything costs. Additionally, he mentioned the implications of population growth, the expansion of human capital, and technical advancement on development. He was aware that money acted as a unit of account, a means of payment, and a store of value, but he was unaware that the dynamics of supply and demand affected the price of gold and silver (Weiss, 1995).
The labour theory of value was also introduced by him. He defined labour as the source of value, essential for all income and capital accumulation—obvious in the case of craft—and indispensable for all earnings. Even if income "results from something other than a craft, the value of the resulting profit and acquired (capital) must (also) include the value of the labour by which it was obtained," he argued. It couldn't have been acquired without labor. 1988's I. M. Oweiss
Supply-side economics is a further modern economic theory that Ibn Khaldun foresaw (Lawrence, Bruce B. 1983). He "argued that high taxes were frequently responsible for the downfall of empires, with the result that higher rates were not able to raise as much money." Bruce Bartlett (2003). He stated:
“It should be known that at the beginning of the dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the dynasty, taxation yields a smallrevenue from large assessments.”
The idea of the Laffer Curve, which is now widely known, was also introduced by Ibn Khaldun. This idea states that while tax rate hikes initially result in more tax receipts, they eventually result in lower tax revenues. This happens when an excessively high tax rate deters economic production. He described the sociological effects of tax choice using a dialectical technique, which is now a component of economics theory. (Ray Walser, 2010)
THE SCIENCES; THEIR ACQUISITION & STUDY / SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
Ibn Khaldun researched educational practises, methods of knowledge acquisition, and the division of the sciences. Although the position of education in Ibn Khaldun's sociology initially seems dubious, to put it mildly. The Muqaddima only contains fragmentary and partial references to what we now understand by the term "education"—the reproduction of individuals and groups, first at the level of values and then at that of knowledge and know-how. More significantly, Ibn Khaldun doesn't refer to education as a whole.
Ibn Khaldun's theories on education are a part of his encyclopaedic presentation of the sciences. He composes;
“This science then, like all other sciences, whether based on authority or on reasoning, appears to be independent and has its own subject, viz. human society, and its own problems, viz. the social phenomena and the transformations that succeed each other in the nature of society…. It seems to be a new science which has sprung up spontaneously, for I do not recollect having read anything about it by any previous writers. This may be because they did not grasp its importance, which I doubt, or it may be that they studied the subject exhaustively, but that their works were not transmitted to us. For the sciences are numerous, and the thinkers belonging to the different nations are many, and what has perished of the ancient sciences exceeds by far what has reached us.” (Khaldun b., “the Muqaddimah”, Translated by Issawi)
A theory of knowledge and a broad overview of the socio-historical and epistemological foundations of scientific growth are presented in the opening of his presentation of the sciences. According to Rosenthal (2005), teaching the sciences is essential for two reasons: first, gaining a thorough understanding of them necessitates a substantial amount of learning, which can only be accomplished with a teacher's assistance; second, the sciences' very development necessitates that they be communicated to others. Then, the sciences—divided into the rational and traditional—are explained in terms of their subjects, methodology, findings, and evolutionary history. The rational sciences are defined as "those that individuals can perceive by virtue of the very character of mind" and "those built upon authority." The discussion of teaching comes after this list and is covered before the sections on language, language learning, and other literary forms. Ibn Khaldun's presentation has two sides, one dealing with the fundamentals of instruction and the other with its strategies and subject matter. Language acquisition is handled independently. (1983, E. Gellner)
According to Ibn Khaldun, we are completely ignorant at birth and are only "raw material." The knowledge we get through our organs is then used to help us eventually take on "shape." We are fundamentally ignorant, and knowledge is the only way to fully realise who we are as people. Three different levels of knowledge, or as many "degrees of thought," are distinguished by Ibn Khaldun. A knowledge of what we must or must not do and of what is good or evil is something we acquire through our "empirical intelligence" and it directs us in our interactions with others. Then, there is theoretical knowledge of everything that exists in the world, which we conquer by our "speculative intelligence." This knowledge enables us to act in the world in a controlled manner. Only the last form of knowledge, that of the sciences, offers us the chance to achieve spiritual perfection (E. Gellner, 1983).
CONCLUSION
It is clear that Ibn Khaldun made a significant contribution to the sociology that is practised today. It is hardly unexpected that, despite living in the 14th century, his ideas continue to provide insight into contemporary situations. "As a sociologist, his thoughts have reflected their relevance on the history of universal thinking as much as inside the Islamic world," Fahri (2001) said in a lovely description. All of his thoughts are original to him. He has been influenced by the savants who came before him, but he is not a continuation of them. He came up with sincere and original thoughts.
Ibn Khaldun is unquestionably the most significant character in the history of sociology in Islam as a result of these facts. He is one of those bright lights who made a significant contribution to our understanding of civilization. His hypothesis on Asabiyah (collective emotion) and its function in communities is perceptive. His sociological views are all pearls of knowledge in the Umrani science. His most important contribution to humanity and future generations is his "Introduction." Ibn Khaldun's strength, then, was not as a historian in the traditional sense of a chronicler, as Caroline Stone (2006) noted. He was the founder of a brand-new academic field called "umran," or social science, which viewed human civilization and social realities as a cohesive whole and contributed to altering how history was both read and written.
The three main reasons for this, in my opinion, are that he lived at a period of crisis similar to the one that Muslims are currently experiencing, his ideas have received support from Western scientists, and they have contemporary qualities. These factors are what have led to a wide range of interpretations of his ideas starting in the 19th century, including pan-Islamism, nationalism, socialism, and other ideologies that have gained traction in the Arab world. What Ibn Khaldun came to, including his views, continue to be a ground-breaking contribution to social studies in the advancement of human philosophy. Let's not forget that Ibn Khaldun was a thinker and philosopher of his own era. The issue of the historical spectator captivated and alarmed him, as did many other issues with contemporary historiography. But we must be careful not to read too much of contemporary thinking and practises into the Muqaddimah.
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