154 - The Philosophy of History: Ibn Khaldūn | History of Philosophy without any gaps

Posted on 15 December 2013

The historian Ibn Khaldūn applies the methods of philosophy to understand the rise and fall of political regimes.

Themes:

History writing

Political Philosophy

War and Violence

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podcast

Hi,

For the past few weeks I am having difficulty getting the player to work. It takes a few minutes to start. Does anyone else have this problem?

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Hi -

It works ok for me so unless someone else is having trouble maybe it is your connection?

Thanks,

Peter

download!

Playback is always better with local/downloaded files.

Is there a name for Ibn Khaldun's theory of nomadic-sedentary cycle? I feel "asabiyya" doesn't quite catch it because it refers to the "solidarity" within the conquering group, not to the cycle itself.

Also, I guess this cycle stopped at some point in history? I mean, recent superpowers such as the Spanish empire, British empire, Soviet Union, United States, etc. did not originate as nomadic tribe with strong cohesion as Ibn Khaldun says. And they all (except the US) collapsed not due to nomadic invasion, but rather they were replaced by a stronger "sedentary" power. How would a follower of Ibn Khaldun respond to this? Is it fair to say that at some point, technological advantages of being sedentary renders Ibn Khaldun's theory obsolete?

Asabiyya

I don't know that there is a fixed title for the theory as such; you're right that asabiyya is the supposed causal explanation of the cycle, not a name for the cycle as such.

If we give Ibn Khaldun credit for observing a genuine pre-modern phenomenon - and of course it is disputable whether his model applies to all or even most dynastic change up to his own time - then I agree, the emergence of advanced military technology would surely make it harder, or even impossible, for sheer group identity to lead to the toppling of empires. But I think it remains intriguing and even relevant, just think of the many major powers who have trouble keeping separatist areas or populations under control, even with all the modern armaments!

Logic

In the Muqqadmiah, in a chapter called ‘the various kinds of sciences’, Ibn Khaldun outlines the eight canonical works of Aristotelian logic studied by Muslim scholars. He mentions a book called Kitab al-Burhan, translated as Apodeictica, which covers determinatives and definitions. I’m kinda confused as to which book exactly he’s referring to, can anyone help me out? Plus, are there any decent translations of Islamic logical works/abridgements/commentaries?

Burhan

"Burhān" (Demonstration) is Aristotle's Posterior Analytics (the Prior Analytics is Qiyās). The title was also borrowed for works on demonstration by Farabi, Avicenna and others but Ibn Khaldun would, as you say, be referring to Aristotle's logical works.

There is a translation by Majid Fakhry of Farabi's paraphrase of the Posterior Analytics, and Avicenna's Najat and Isharat have had their logical sections translated which would probably be the best things to check out. Have a look at the Stanford Encyclopedia page on logic in Arabic which has extensive bibliography.

Ibn Khaldun

Hello there, I love this website and have my students use it. I was wondering whether you wanted to add a special issue on Ibn Khaldun I guest-edited for Philosophy East & West: Politics, Nature, and Society - The Actuality of North African Philosopher Ibn Khaldūn, ed. by Tamara Albertini, Special Issue, PEW 69, 3 (2019).

For more information, see: https://www.academia.edu/41662403/Guest_Ed._Politics_Nature_and_Society_-_The_Actuality_of_North_African_Philosopher_Ibn_Khald%C5%ABn_Special_Issue_Table_of_Contents_