The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History

Ibn Khaldun justifies his work by appealing to the widespread popularity of historiography. He distinguishes between “surface” history that merely recounts events and the “inner” meaning of history, which seeks to understand why things happen and the structure of evolving society. This kind of history is an important and difficult branch of philosophy. However, despite admirable efforts by some early Muslim historians, other historians have injected gossip and lies into written history. Later historians, following humanity’s natural tendency to blindly reverence tradition, have uncritically passed on these errors. Moreover, recent historians are guilty of two further sins: not trying to understand how society has changed since early Islam, and being stupendously dull writers.

Ibn Khaldun promises his readers a more engaging history that uses an original and systematic method to deeply understand civilization and how it changes. He will focus on his native North Africa (the Maghrib) and its two main ethnic groups: Arab and “Berber” (Amazigh) groups. His Introduction will discuss proper historiography and the history his work will cover: the characteristics of civilization; Arab groups; and the “Berbers” (Imazighen). Based on his travels to the “East,” he also has added information on Persians and Turkish people to compose “an exhaustive history of the world” (9). He closes by admitting his fallibility and humbly asking learned scholars to correct his inadvertent errors.

History offers us important examples to guide our lives both in secular and religious matters. Unfortunately, written histories are full of fabrications. These can be uncovered by critically examining the origin of their information or by weighing claims against what we know through reason to be true about people, society, and geography. For example, numbers in ancient sources often exaggerate: The scriptures claim that Moses led 600,000 people through the desert, but we know that even centuries later that region of Egypt and Syria cannot support that many people.

We can also weigh the truth of stories against human character. For example, in one example of the genre of scandalous stories about the Abbasid caliphate that explains their rise and fall in terms of harem politics, the princess al-‘Abbâsah supposedly seduced the caliph’s Persian advisor Ja’far after drinking wine (despite alcohol being forbidden in Islam) and this led the caliph to turn against Ja’far. However, one can hardly believe that such a high-ranking lady—descended from the Prophet Muhammad’s uncle, an “unsullied” Arab man, and separated from pure old Arab life by only a few generations—would behave immorally. Rather, Ja’far fell from favor due to jealousy of his political and financial power. This kind of fabrication hurts contemporary people, since they use stories like this to justify their own sinful addictions.

Besides evaluating sources and comparing them with known facts, historians need to understand that nations and institutions change over time. Different ethnic groups come into power, such as Turkish dynasties replacing Arab ones in the Middle East who had earlier replaced Persian rulers. Each keeps some customs but introduces new ones. The common people follow the lead of their rulers. Ancient states therefore functioned differently from modern ones in some ways. History therefore focuses on events in the area or people being studied but is built upon a thorough understanding of the characteristics of different regions, races, and eras.

Ibn Khaldun repeats many of the ideas of his general Introduction in the first book of his planned historiographical trilogy. Historians need to understand human social organization to understand civilization. This includes the significance of “group feeling”—a key term which he will later elaborate. To combat the limits of witnesses, the historian should first judge the plausibility of their assertions according to the nature of human society and only then consider their character, since an honest witness might still misinterpret information or innocently pass on information from an unreliable narrator. He gives several examples of fantastic legends involving monsters or other clear fabrications entering into serious history. In this way, the philosophy of history is the opposite of religious scholarship, which accepts the truths given by God without question and therefore prioritizes establishing the reliability of witnesses (“personality criticism”) to make sure they are genuinely reporting the words given through the Prophet Muhammad (hadith).

Therefore, this first book will investigate the nature of civilization to separate its essential nature from its variable, accidental characteristics. This is an entirely original science created by Ibn Khaldun with God’s help. Even Aristotle has not covered it, though elements of rhetoric, jurisprudence (study of the law), and politics overlap with it. Humans are distinguished from animals by their: (1) rational ability to pursue sciences and crafts; (2) need for authority; (3) need to make a living; and (4) dwelling together in civilization (either desert or sedentary). Ibn Khaldun will cover these with six chapters that begin with civilization in general and then describe, following the historical order in which they arose, desert society, dynasties, sedentary civilization, the crafts, and finally the sciences.