The Muqaddimah

The Muqaddimah (“Introduction”), completed in 1377 by Ibn Khaldūn at the castle of Qalʿat Ibn Salāma in present-day Algeria and revised for the rest of his life, is the theoretical introduction to his universal history, the Kitāb al-ʿIbar (“Book of Lessons”). Far more than a preface, it is a systematic attempt to discover the laws that govern human society — the rise and fall of dynasties, the contrast of nomadic and urban life, the economics of labour, taxation and trade, and the growth and decline of the sciences. Its author called it a new science, “the science of civilisation” (ʿilm al-ʿumrān); modern scholars have seen in it the beginnings of sociology, historiography, political economy and the philosophy of history.

At a glance

The argument

The errors of historians. Ibn Khaldūn begins with history’s failures. Historians, even great ones like al-Masʿūdī, repeated reports that could not be true: that Moses’ army numbered 600,000 men, too many to be deployed or supplied; legends of fabulous cities; slanders against the Abbasid caliphs. The cause was partisanship, overconfidence in sources, ignorance of how reports were distorted, the desire to flatter the powerful, and, above all, ignorance of the nature of civilisation. A report must be judged first by whether the event it describes is possible, given what we know of how societies work. History is “information about human social organisation, which itself is identical with world civilisation. It deals with such conditions affecting the nature of civilisation as savagery and sociability, group feelings, and the different ways by which one group of human beings achieves superiority over another”.

Civilisation and geography. Human beings are by nature social: alone, they cannot feed or defend themselves. Society requires a restraining influence, royal authority, to prevent mutual aggression. The book surveys the seven climatic zones of the known world, arguing that the temperate middle zones produce the most balanced peoples and civilisations, while extremes of heat and cold affect character, colour and customs — a theory of environmental influence that later writers, including Montesquieu, developed independently.

Desert and city. The second chapter contrasts Bedouin (badw) life — in deserts, mountains and countryside, limited to necessities — with sedentary (ḥaḍar) life in cities, which adds conveniences and luxuries. Desert life comes first; cities are its goal. Desert peoples are nearer to goodness, less corrupted by habits of luxury; braver, since they defend themselves rather than relying on walls and soldiers; and more self-reliant, while city-dwellers, ruled by laws and teachers, lose their fortitude. Above all, the desert fosters ʿaṣabiyya, the solidarity of people bound by kinship or close association, which gives them the ability to defend, attack and conquer.

Royal authority. “The goal of ʿaṣabiyya is royal authority.” A group with superior solidarity subdues others and founds a dynasty. Religion can multiply ʿaṣabiyya, uniting a people’s hearts and removing envy, as Islam did for the Arabs, who had previously been incapable of founding an empire; but religious propaganda without ʿaṣabiyya fails. Once royal authority is established, the ruler seeks to claim all glory for himself and to suppress the solidarity of his own kinsmen, replacing them with clients and mercenaries.

The life of a dynasty. Like individuals, dynasties have natural lifespans. A dynasty passes through stages: conquest, in which the ruler shares glory with his people; consolidation of absolute authority; leisure and tranquillity, in which the fruits of power — taxes, buildings, monuments — are enjoyed; contentment and imitation of predecessors; and finally waste and squandering, in which the ruler destroys what his forebears built, alienates his followers, and the dynasty decays. “The builder of the family’s glory knows what it cost him to do the work… His son, who comes after him, learned from his father, but was not present when the work was done. The third generation contents itself with imitation and reliance upon tradition. The fourth generation is inferior in every respect.” Thus prestige lasts four generations at most, a dynasty three: about 120 years.

Cities and economics. Cities are the creation of dynasties, and decline with them. In cities, cooperation and the division of labour produce more than the workers need, and the surplus supports luxuries, crafts and sciences; the larger the city, the more prosperous its people. “Labour is the origin of all profit.” Prices rise with prosperity; crafts multiply; but luxury breeds vice and expense. The state’s finances follow the cycle: “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.” When rulers raise taxes, seize property or engage in trade themselves, enterprise collapses and so does revenue: “injustice brings about the ruin of civilisation”.

Crafts and sciences. The last chapters classify the crafts — agriculture, building, carpentry, weaving, medicine, writing, singing — and the sciences — Qurʾān, hadith, law, theology, Sufism, dream interpretation, logic, mathematics, astronomy, physics, metaphysics, magic, alchemy, Arabic linguistics and poetry. Sciences flourish where civilisation is abundant, and decline as it declines; they had declined, he thought, in the Maghreb and al-Andalus, and still flourished in the East. He criticises the philosophers’ claim that reason can grasp metaphysical truths, and attacks astrology and alchemy as worthless and harmful.

Imitation of the conqueror. Among the book’s many observations: “the vanquished always want to imitate the victor in his distinctive mark, his dress, his occupation, and all his other conditions and customs”, because they believe the victor’s superiority lies in his ways.

Reception

Little read in the medieval Arab world, the Muqaddimah was studied by Ottoman historians in the seventeenth century and translated into Turkish, and rediscovered by Europeans in the nineteenth. It has since been compared to the work of Vico, Montesquieu, Adam Smith, Marx, Durkheim and Weber. Toynbee called it “the greatest work of its kind that has ever yet been created by any mind in any time or place”.

In conversation

• The four generations — builder, witness, imitator, destroyer.
• “The vanquished always imitate the victor” — conquest and culture.
• Large revenue from small assessments — the cycle of taxation.