The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History

“As a result, this book has become unique, as it contains unusual knowledge and familiar if hidden wisdom.”

Although Ibn Khaldun occasionally employs the humility trope commonly used by contemporary writers asking others to correct his poor efforts, more often he writes with unusual confidence and conviction about the importance of his work. Frustrated by the multiplication of poor scholarship, he believes scholarly writing ought only to occur when there is something truly useful to say. Therefore, he asserts he does have something new to say and that it is useful for imparting wisdom to the reader. His theories of morality and human nature may be familiar to those who share his Muslim worldview, but others have failed to see how these lessons are hidden in the processes and Causes of Historical Change.

“The (writing of history) requires numerous sources and much varied knowledge. It also requires a good speculative mind and thoroughness, which lead the historian to the truth and keep him from slips and errors. If he trusts historical information in its plain transmitted form and has no clear knowledge of the principles resulting from custom, the fundamental facts of politics, the nature of civilization, or the conditions governing human social organization, and if, furthermore, he does not evaluate remote or ancient material though comparison with near or contemporary material, he often cannot avoid stumbling and slipping and deviating from the path of truth.”

This lengthy quotation summarizes Ibn Khaldun’s historical methodology. A historian needs to consult many sources critically. Above all, however, he needs to understand how society works and only accept information that conforms to these universal patterns.

“The past resembles the future more than one drop of water another.”

Although Ibn Khaldun traces examples of how roles (such as teachers of religion) have shifted over countries and eras, the core of his scholarly method rests on the assumption that past societies follow the same rules and patterns as contemporary ones, reflecting the Causes of Historical Change. Despite accidental, surface differences, the cycle of human competition and achievement remains fundamentally the same in the past as it is now.

“History refers to events that are peculiar to a particular age or race. Discussion of the general conditions of regions, races, and periods constitutes the historian’s foundation.”

The Muqaddimah does not offer a narrative history of events. This quotation explains why. Although history normally does narrate a series of events for a people or region (with explanation of them), it is impossible to engage in accurate evaluation of the evidence without understanding the basic patterns of society. This foundation allows the historian to accurately judge the reliability of evidence and to understand underlying causation.

“It should be known that history, in matter of fact, is information about human social organization, which itself is identical with world civilization.”

In contrast with narratives of history that privilege the decisions and achievements of “Great Men,” Ibn Khaldun insists that what propels history are the deep patterns in how people interact in society. Therefore, civilization itself is not just a collection of achievements, but rather the way all people in society are connected together in an organized way. Describing that organization, tracing its evolution, and explaining differences over place and time is the task of history.

“We say that man is distinguished from other living beings by certain qualities peculiar to him, namely: (1) The sciences and crafts which result from that ability to think which distinguishes man from other animals and exalts him as a thinking being over all creatures. (2) The need for a restraining influence and strong authority, since man, alone of all the animals, cannot exist without them.”

Ibn Khaldun here follows the Aristotelian definition of humans as rational animals. He also sees humans as naturally political animals but, in contrast to Aristotle, locates that political nature in the sinfulness of human nature as much as in the need to cooperate to survive. Since people naturally are greedy, proud, and willing to fight with or steal from each other, cooperation is only possible with a ruler (or other forces, such as religion) to compel them to work together.

“Man seeks first the bare necessities. Only after he has obtained the bare necessities does he get to comforts and luxuries. The toughness of the desert life precedes the softness of sedentary life. Therefore, urbanization is found to be the goal to which the Bedouin aspires.”

This progression from simplicity to sophistication and luxury is one of the core tenets of Ibn Khaldun’s worldview, embodying the kind of reasoning he uses in The Muqaddimah. In explaining why society follows certain patterns, he reasons from simple observations (e.g., we need food before superfluous things) to more complex patterns (e.g., cities come after nomadic life). He has no historical evidence for this assertion but is still confident it is rational speculation.

“As a rule, man must by necessity be dominated by someone else. If the domination is kind and just and the people under are not oppressed by its laws and restrictions, they are guided by the courage or cowardice they possess in themselves.”

Ibn Khaldun argues that people need to be forced to cooperate and restrained from hurting each other. However, unlike some theorists of strong government from Chinese Legalists to Thomas Hobbes, Ibn Khaldun combines that view with the Muslim political tradition that insists on the primacy of justice in how a ruler governs and is suspicious of royal tyranny.

“Aggressive and defensive strength is obtained only through group feeling which means affection and willingness to fight and die for each other.”

This sentence is the linchpin of the first half of Ibn Khaldun’s theory of dynastic change: Group feeling above all else allows a leader and his followers to triumph. The second half of Ibn Khaldun’s theory is that the luxuries of a successful dynasty corrupt it, causing it to lose this essential group feeling.

“Only by God’s help in establishing religion do individual desires come together in agreement to press their claims, and hearts become united.”

Ibn Khaldun is clear throughout his work on the power of religion to unite people and restrain their natural selfishness. The first part of the sentence—“Only by God’s help”—is also key, reflecting The Links Between Religion and Philosophical Sciences. He sees God as an active force in history: Only outside intervention by a divine force can explain the ways that religion overcomes the limits of sinful human nature.

“Luxury corrupts the character, through luxury the soul acquir[es] diverse kinds of evil and sophisticated customs.”

Ibn Khaldun acknowledges the almost universal appeal of luxury, comfort, and wealth, but sees these desires as destroying those who obtain them. Even having sufficient food makes a person more vulnerable to illness or famine than people used to lean rations. People living in luxury tend to grow greedier and proud, and then indulge their desire for more things or higher status at the expense of other people in a manner that eventually harms all of society.

“In the course of these three generations, the dynasty grows senile and is worn out. Therefore, it is in the fourth generation that (ancestral) prestige is destroyed […] In this way, the life span of a dynasty corresponds to the life span of an individual; it grows up and passes into an age of stagnation and thence into retrogression.”

Ibn Khaldun supports his theory of a dynastic cycle by linking it to the natural cycle of a human life. If it is natural for a person to age and eventually die, then (by analogy) it makes sense that a human creation such as a dynasty would have a similar progression through growth, maturity, and then decay.

“The concomitants of good rulership are kindness to, and protection of, one’s subjects. The true meaning of royal authority is realized when the ruler defends his subjects.”

Ibn Khaldun’s rocky political career exposed him to a variety of rulers and he himself was often on the receiving end of unjust royal suspicion. As a jurist, he also knew Muhammad’s critique of unjust kings quite well. This quotation is his attempt to hold up an ideal of how a ruler should act, even as he pessimistically expected corruption to lead dynasties away from this ideal. Nonetheless, by saying how a ruler should act, he creates a yardstick with which to measure the failure of senile dynasties.

“Attacks on people’s property remove the incentive to acquire and gain property. People, then, become of the opinion that the purpose and ultimate destiny of acquiring property is to have it taken from them […] 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. When people no longer do business in order to make a living, and when they cease all gainful activity, the business of civilization slumps, and everything decays.”

Ibn Khaldun often integrates different disciplines into a single analysis. Here he combines ethics and jurisprudence with political science and economics. Acting unethically and without regard to property rights undermines the government because it discourages private business and destroys the economy. Attacks on property include arbitrary seizures and fines, as well as imposing high and unprecedented taxes.

“When the strength of a man and then his character and religion are corrupted, his humanity is corrupted, and he becomes, in effect, transformed into an animal.”

While Ibn Khaldun meditates more often on the vices prevalent in human nature, he does believe that God created people for a higher purpose and can bring them to virtue and eternal paradise. Humanity finds its perfection in fulfilling that divine plan. Therefore, abandoning virtue and God’s revelation implicitly mean renouncing one’s humanity.

“Profit results from the effort to acquire (things) and the intention to obtain them. Sustenance requires effort and work. The effort to (obtain sustenance) depends on God’s determination and inspiration. Everything comes from God. But human labour is necessary for every profit and capital accumulation.”

Ibn Khaldun acknowledges that human and natural resources preexist individuals; this, for him, is God’s goodness evidenced in creation. The basis of the economy, however, is individual labor. Labor is what creates value out of unformed resources.

“All other things are subject to market fluctuations, from which (gold and silver) are exempt. They are the basis of profit, property, and treasure.”

Ibn Khaldun argues that all capital and profit can be measured in terms of gold and silver, as these have intrinsic and stable value. While a popular view of the medieval and early modern era, this is a claim modern economists and global economic historians have disproven.

“Commerce means the attempt to make a profit by increasing capital, through buying goods at a low price and selling them at a high price, whether these goods consist of slaves, grain, animals, weapons, or clothing material. The accrued (amount) is called ‘profit.’”

Ibn Khaldun has a philosopher’s care in defining technical terms, including ones (like profit) that are used every day without most people thinking about their specific definition. Although not unique to him, his maxim of “buy low, sell high” remains one of the staple laws of business and finance today.

“A merchant must concern himself with buying and selling, earning money and making a profit. This requires cunning, willingness to enter into disputes, cleverness, constant quarreling, and great persistence. These are things that belong to commerce. They are qualities detrimental to and destructive of virtuousness and manliness, because it is unavoidable that actions influence the soul.”

This quotation describes specific ways in which the quest for profit and luxuries in civilization corrupts people. Ibn Khaldun argues that this corruption is not a matter of individual choice, but rather the natural outcome of how people make a living within the structure of society. His gender bias is also apparent in his equation of virtue with masculinity.

“God distinguished man from all the other animals by an ability to think which He made the beginning of human perfection and the end of man’s noble superiority over existing things.”

Chapter 6 describes the summit of human civilization: the sciences (including religious knowledge). Ibn Khaldun’s book is a work of rational philosophical science, but it is rooted in The Links Between Religion and Philosophical Sciences, as he believes that all his insights and scholarship are possible only with God’s help. Therefore, he opens this chapter with a clear statement of the importance of reason and, in accord with both contemporary Christian and Muslim doctrine, asserts that this is God’s gift.

“Thinking perceives the order that exists among the things that come into being either by nature or through arbitrary arrangement. When it intends to create something, it must understand the reason or cause of that thing, or the conditions governing it, for the sake of the order that exists among the things that come into being.”

This quotation summarizes a key part of Ibn Khaldun’s epistemology: Thinking comes from perceiving things and then abstracting patterns out of them. Rational action is based on understanding causation. Implicitly, this key role of understanding causation justifies Ibn Khaldun’s assertion at the beginning of The Muqaddimah that true history must be about the Causes of Historical Change and not just a description of events.

“It should be known that the storehouse of human science is the soul of man.”

Ibn Khaldun has already asserted that our rational nature is what separates people from animals and is a key part of God’s plan. Therefore, it is logical to see science (both religious and philosophical) as laying at the heart of our humanity.

“Severe punishment in the course of instruction does harm to the student, especially to little children […] It makes them feel oppressed and causes them to lose their energy. It makes them lazy and induces them to lie and be insincere […] This is what happened to every nation that fell under the yoke of tyranny and learned through it the meaning of injustice.”

Ibn Khaldun offers many practical pieces of advice for teaching, since sciences—like his new historiography—are useless if they cannot be communicated. As this passage makes clear, he sees how people approach teaching as part of a wider pattern of human behavior: Injustice toward a student has the same evil effects as a ruler’s injustice toward his subjects. Since beating young students was a very common premodern pedagogical practice, this advice is bold in Ibn Khaldun’s contemporary context.