The New Nation - Internet Edition

S. Aminul Islam

Ibn Khaldun, who has been described as one of the finest historians of civilizations and the real father of sociology, was born on May 27, 1332, in Tunis. The year 2006 marked the sixth centenary of his death. Khaldun had a truly extraordinary career as a courtier', politician, and scholar. In 1377 at the age of 45 Khaldun whose full name is Wali al -Din Abd al-Rahman Ibn Muhammad Ibn Khaldun al-tunisi al-hadrami (1332-1406) took refuge with the tribe of Awlad Arif and found hospitality in the castle, Qalat ibn Salamah, near the present town of Frenda, Algeria. Here in the solitude of the castle he wrote his masterpiece, the Muqaddimah , an introduction to history- a book which has been described by Arnold Toynbee , the famous historian of civilizations as "a philosophy of history which is undoubtedly the greatest work of its kind that has ever yet been created by any mind in any time or place." His deep insight into the nature of society and social change propelled him towards what he envisioned as a new science --the science of society and culture. Many centuries before Darwin, Khaldun wrote that mankind developed from the 'world of monkeys' through a process in which species become 'more numerous.' Nearly half a millennium before Marx, he outlined systematic implications of the labour theory of value.

The master concept that Khaldun deploys for his study of what he describes in the forward of the Muqaddimah is 'the inner meaning of history…subtle explanations of the causes and origins of existing things, and deep knowledge of how and why of events' and for exploring the 'hidden truth of history' is asabiya- a term which has been used over 500 times in the book in a variety of meanings. It has been translated as public spirit, social solidarity, group feeling and so on. Yet the meaning of the term is far from clear. Yves Lacoste argues that it is a culture-specific term which Khaldun used it for North Africa. In spite of such differences of opinion, it is possible to view the term as group solidarity which inheres in a tribe or rural society.

The history of human society is the history of display and decline of asabiya which in its train lead to the rise and fall of states.' Desert habits (umran badawi), writes Khaldun, preserve the power of group feeling and habits of luxury wear it out.' Asabiya is grounded in a feeling of identity with fellow human beings-kinsmen, clients, and people who live nearby, share common language and experience common dangers. Social solidarity, according to Khaldun, is strong in a tribe and weak in urban society. The 'hard and hungry home' of the nomads trains them to be brave and resourceful and interdependent with their fellowmen. The urbanites crave for luxuries which make them feeble and individualistic that leads to the destruction of asabiya. This destruction occurs through a complex process. The formation of sate ensures domination of many by one person who tries to curtail their will. The subjects become docile and loose interest in the fortunes of the state. The state demands more taxes and as a consequence business suffers. In this way the urban society becomes an easy prey for the invading nomads. Ultimately human history is the history of the rise and fall of civilizations. In fact Khaldun, takes three generations as the lifespan of a state- a theme that Thomas Mann used for the rise and fall of families in the Buddenbrooks. For Khaldun the city was like a flower that was destined to wither away within a short time.

Khaldun thus provided a cyclical theory of social change that showed that laws of social change can be discovered and tested empirically in terms of physical and social environment and developed a comprehensive theory of the dynastic cycle which provides a superb analysis of the rise and fall of ruling dynasties in the context of political economy, culture, urbanization, religion and education. He showed that social inequality was a key factor in the decline of a dynasty as well as civilization. Thus Khaldun has a bleak view of history. There is no progress or evolution of human society. There is only rise and fall of civilizations.

In spite of acquaintance with his works by some early sociologists, a complete translation of his book was only done by de Stacy in 1856. It took more than a century for it to be translated into English by Rosenthal. Over 19th and 20th centuries Ibn Khaldun featured rarely in the Western discourse of sociology. Harry E. Barnes' 960 pages long and perhaps the most comprehensive history of the discipline allots little over 300 words for him. But in recent years there has been a remarkable resurgence of interest in Ibn Khaldun. Social scientists are becoming increasingly attracted to a cyclical theory of history and social change. One such implicit theory is the shift of civilization from its early development in the Indian Ocean region to the Mediterranean Sea, the fluorescence of capitalism centred on the Atlantic Ocean and the recent rise of the Pacific basin as the powerhouse of economic growth. The fast economic growth of India in the past two decades may signal the emergence of the Indian Ocean region as a new growth pole. More importantly, Ibn Khaldun is the first theorist of social capital. In the urbanized post-modern world described by Berman as a' world in perpetual disintegration' Ibn Khaldun has become more important for analyzing the urban pathos and fragmented life -world than some of the canonical figures of early sociology.

(The contributor is Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Dhaka )