Name Mazhar khaliq khan Yousafzai.

Assignment Book Review (The Muqaddimmah)

Subject Politics of Pakistan (1947 to Date).

Submitted to DR Saeed Ahamad Rid Sb.

Department NIPS.

University Quaid-I-Azam University Islamabad.

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 Book Review

Title: The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History

Author: Abd-ar-Rahman Ibn Khaldun
Translation: Franz Rosenthal
Abridged and Edited By: N. J. Dawood
Pages: 465 pp.
Publisher: Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford

The „Muqaddimah‟, or introduction, is a seminal work of Abd-ar-Rahman Ibn Khaldun a

fourteenth century social scientist from North Africa, who is considered a pioneer and forerunner
of social science, philosophy of history and early economic theory. The Muqddimah, originally
written in Arabic, has had a great influence on seventeenth century scholars who used the
theories of Ibn Khaldun to analyze the rise and fall of Otomon Empire. While in nineteenth
century Europe, after translation of The Muqaddimah in French by W. MacGuckin, Baron de
Slane (Paris 1862-8), the western scholars acknowledged the significance of his works and
considered Ibn Khuldun greatest philosopher of the middle ages.

While leafing through „From the Translator’s Introduction‟, the readers unacquainted with
Arabic, like the present reviewer, can‟t help appreciating the arduous approach which Franz
Rosenthal adopted in translating the Muqddimah into English. A fine combination of the
following three ways as stated by the translator was adopted in translation.

“A work such as the Muqaddimah, modern in thought yet alien in language and style, may be
presented to the modern reader in one of three ways. It may be translated as the second language
permits. The translator may go further and use modern phraseology and style. Or, finally, the work
may be recast and given the form it would have had it been written by contemporary author in the
second language.” (p. xxix)

In the „Muqddimah‟, while taking the historical events as an outcome of some contributing
factors, Ibn Khaldun declares a new science, ilm-ul-Umran, the science of social organization. In
dealing with events of the past, Ibn Khaldun underlines the significance of identifying the
recurring patterns and causation in the course of history. Instead of succumbing to conventional
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convenience of taking the events of past on their face value, Ibn Khaldun rather delved into
serious intellectual rigors by dissecting the factors of geography, religious, political, economic,
military and cultural spheres of life to demonstrate the need for management of social behaviors
and social dynamics. His ideas pertaining to the science of social organization later served the
likes of Machiavelli, Vico, Comte, Durkheim, Spengler and Virth.

The present review offers brief introduction to Ibn Khaldun‟s key idea and opinions about human
civilization; social organization; geography and civilization; food and its impact on human
beings; group solidarity in battles; rise and fall of empires, etc. given in his magnum opus, the
Muqddimah.

Ibn Khaldun finds physical vulnerability of homo-sapiens at the center of cooperation and social
organization among the human beings. Since the man is far more fragile compared to many
other animals, Ibn Khaldun, contends, God has bestowed the man with something that even
better than claws and fangs—thought—which enabled him to cooperate with fellow beings and
live in communities. According to Ibn Khaldun, social organization is quite critical for the
security and survival of human beings. It helps human beings not only in defending themselves
against the strong and mighty predators but also support them in meeting basic needs like food,
shelter, etc. (p. 46).

The man‟s ability to think, or say think abstractly, along with dexterity of his hands has enabled
him to make different tools and crafts. It earned the man a status far more superior than the
animals‟. It might have helped him better defend against the dangerous animals but the man‟s
penchant for aggression makes him far more vulnerable to violence by his fellow human beings.
To restrain the man‟s primal aggression and maintain the peace, Ibn Khaldun, underlines the
significance of a strong authority.

Habitats, or say the geographical conditions, as argued by Ibn Khaldun, have been of critical
importance in the development of human civilizations. From the author‟s perspective, some
climatic conditions have been more hospitable and conducive than others in fulfilling the
requirements for survival of human beings. Temperate climates like Iraq and Syria provided the

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conditions for development of great civilizations. The people living in temperate climatic
conditions tend to have temperate body and mind and moderate lifestyle.

Climatic conditions have been assigned significant importance in determining the character of
local inhabitants. Heat, according to the author, expands what he calls the animal spirit, causing
the local inhabitants to joy. However its contraction, due to the cold, instills gloomier thoughts in
human being. The behaviors of Egyptians and Moroccan are given as an example of the
influence of climatic conditions on the character of people. The Egyptians, according to the
author, are more carefree, joyful and least concerned about the insecurities of future due to their
proximity to the see, giving damn care saving anything for future. The people of Fez, in contrast,
are gloomier due to living in the closed vicinity of cold of Moroccan hills. They tend to be more
prone to hoarding food. Apart from the geographic conditions, food has also been studied as a
critical determinant of man‟s physical structure as well as mind e.g. people subsisting on the
milk and meat of camels develop certain features camel.

Ibn Khaldun analyses the role of group solidarities in the time of conflict with an external group.
Tribes, particularly the endogamous groups, usually believe in a common ancestry and sharing a
blood line. That belief in common ancestry and common bloodline makes the members of a
group develop solidarity with their fellow tribesmen or group members. The group solidarity,
according to author, is quite crucial in defining the success of a civilization in battle. Group
feelings largely depend upon the intimacy of the group members. Greater the intimacy between
the group members, larger will be cooperation and solidarity among them. Attributing one‟s
defeat to victor‟s perfection is a fallacy defeated groups usually fall prey. However Ibn Khaldun
is of the view that lack of group feelings or solidarity causes the defeat of a group in battles.

Royal authority, according to the author, is of critical importance for maintaining the moral order
in a society. God created human as a moral being. However man is imbued with both the power
to commit acts of kindness and evil. Since good and evil have different origin, evil stems from a
failure to let religion guide our lives and customs. The question here arises as to what helps in
curbing this innate evil? The answer is through royal authority. By yielding to an authority,
commission of bad deeds can be avoided. According to Ibn Khaldun, ideally a single royal

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leader, by virtue of his royal birth, inspires maximum group feeling and enjoys the support of the
entire group. However in reality, royal authority is granted to the leaders who dominate their
subjects, collect unjust taxes, send out military expeditions, protect the frontier regions and prove
themselves superior to all challengers.

Here Ibn Khaldun analyses the rise and fall of royal authority, which according to him, generally
lasts in a family or a tribe for four generations. First generation of the royal authority comes as
the builder, or the conqueror; then comes the second generation having personal contact with the
builder; next comes the one who relies on tradition; and finally, there comes the destroyer. For
the royal authority to succeed, Ibn Khaldun suggest, it must be careful in its methods, and be
guided by the goodness of religion, not by the urge to dominate and suppress the subjects for the
sake of its comforts and status. The rulers, or say emperors, with suppressive laws, undermine
the content of the ruled. That is why royal leaders, overstepping their moral limits acting
unkindly are soon overthrown. However the royal leaders guided by religion, he argues, can
maintain control without resorting to unnecessary coercive measures.

Settled, sedentary life, according to the author, makes both the tribes and royal authority lazy and
corrupt. Nomadic in their lifestyle, early human communities moving around in search of food,
eventually settled down and adopted a sedentary life. Thus began the process of urbanization,
leading to sedentary life. It gave civilizations the ability to defend themselves more easily and
acquire resources efficiently. But urbanization led to a sedentary lifestyle, which ultimately
proved self-destructive. The pursuit of luxuries made the people lazy and corrupt, destroying
royal authority.

The author gives five stages in the life of a dynasty. First is „success‟, the toppling of opposition
after which the ruler serves as role model. Next comes the stage of „control‟, where the ruler
assumes complete control and claims royal authority for himself. It is followed by „leisure‟,
when the fruits of royal authority are enjoyed; monuments and other grand buildings are built
and financial security is established. Then there‟s „peacefulness‟. The ruler is satisfied with what
he and his predecessors have built, and contends himself by following tradition. Last stage of the
cycle is „squander‟, when the ruler wastes his resources on pleasures and amusements, seeks the

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counsel of bad advisors and tries to destroy trade partners and the followers of his predecessors.
Over the time, his followers come to hate him and retract their support. The dynasty splits into
the current ruler‟s party and a conglomerate of his opponents during the period of squander. This
is exactly what happened to the Umayyads when they lost control of their kingdom and the
Abbasids took over.
Critical Analysis.
Adam Smith is considered to be the „father of capitalism‟. However while leaving through the
Muqaddimah, one can draw similarities between fourteenth-century Islamic thinking and
modern-day capitalism. Indeed, people strive to accumulate things and make a profit, that is,
income acquired by labor, not by mere chance. And when people pool their labor, it results in
greater profits. If this profit corresponds to needs and necessities, it will constitute a person‟s
livelihood. If it exceeds his needs, he will begin to accumulate capital. Trade in Arab world was
not aimed at earning the mere livelihood. Rather we see how the merchants traveling across the
desert from Morocco to Sudan were accumulating capital.

Man and animal may have many features in common. However unlike animals, the man also
possesses some superior qualities. At the heart of this distinction lies the man‟s ability to think,
or think abstractly. Human behavior is well organized and orderly because man‟s actions are an
outcome of his thought. The thought enables us to perceive the order that already exists, either
due to nature or arbitrary arrangement. In contrast, the animal behaviors are far less organized
since they lack the faculty of thinking. Man‟s ability to think leads him to the accumulate
knowledge. Knowledge is not something we are born with. Rather we acquire it through learning
that requires thinking. We may know much about the world through our acquired knowledge.
However, as Ibn Khaldun puts, it is our knowledge as state through which we know the oneness
of God: we‟re just a speck of dust in the universe, created by God, back to Whom we will
ultimately return.

The Muqaddimah, as one of the earliest work on historiography, has much strength to guide the
historians, political theorist and sociologists of medieval and early modern period. However at
many instances the book is replete with over generalizations based on the author‟s knowledge,
experience and observations about the Arab worlds.

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