Ibn Khaldun By Syed Farid Alatas (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2013. 160 pages.)

Abstract

Syed Farid Alatas’ Ibn Khaldun is a welcome addition to an emerging Khaldunian
sociology. It represents one of the few socio-historical studies of his
thought that pays attention to this North African thinker’s historical milieu
and life. Regarded by many scholars as a precursor of sociology, Ibn Khaldun
(1332-1406) is also known for his contributions to the philosophy of history.
His pioneering work, Kitāb al-‘Ibar, is more than just a historical account of
the Arabs and Berbers. Popularly known as the Universal History, it contains
the important Muqaddimah (Prolegomenon) that details his “science of human
society” (‘ilm al-ijtimā‘ al-insānī) or “science of human social organization”
(‘ilm al-‘umrān al-basharī).
This six-chapter book opens with “Ibn Khaldun’s Autobiography and His
Character,” which outlines his life and presents other biographies that provide
the socio-intellectual context of his thought. The second chapter, “Ibn Khaldun’s
Science of Society,” focuses on his founding of the science of human
society and is followed by “Ibn Khaldun on Education and Knowledge,”
which examines his modern educationist views of pedagogy and knowledge
in terms of its social, political, and economic aspects. Alatas shows that Ibn
Khaldun’s perspective on education, as seen through the various lenses of history
and sociology, was refreshingly different from the then dominant perspectives
of philosophers, theologians, moralists, and jurists.
The ensuing chapter, “The Reception of Ibn Khaldun,” situates him in the
evolution of Islamic thought and contemporary social sciences, whereas the
two final chapters, “The Significance of Ibn Khaldun for the Modern Social
Sciences” and “Further Reading and Works Cited,” encapsulate Alatas’ suggestions
for developing a Khaldunian sociology and include a list of further
readings, alongside discussions on works ranging from Ibn Khaldun’s biography
to critiques of his methodology.
In the introductory chapter, which provides the context for the formation
of Ibn Khaldun’s thought, readers are better able to appreciate his empirically
oriented scholarship. Embedded in the politically fragmented Maghrebian society,
his political career as a judge and government official required him to
shift his political loyalties consistently. This played a determining role in developing
his ideas on how states rise and decline. Alatas highlights Ibn Khaldun’s
political involvement as instrumental in his systematic uncovering of the
flaws in existing historical works. Ibn Khaldun himself identifies seven causal ...