Ibn Khaldun

Ibn Khaldun (ĭ`bən khäldn`), 1332–1406, Arab historian, b. Tunis. He held various offices under the rulers of Tunis and Morocco and served (1363) as ambassador of the Moorish king of Granada to Peter the Cruel of Castile. In 1382 he sailed to Cairo, where he spent most of the rest of his life as a teacher and lecturer. Many times grand Maliki cadi (judge) of Cairo, he made the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1387. In 1400 he accompanied the Egyptians in their campaign against Timur, and he was sent to arrange for the capitulation of Damascus to Timur. Ibn Khaldun is generally considered the greatest of the Arab historical thinkers. In his great work, the Kitab al-Ibar [universal history], he attempts to treat history as a science and outlines a philosophy of history, setting forth principles of sociology and political economy. He wrote an autobiography, completed in 1394, but expanded a few months before he died.

Bibliography

See studies by M. Mahdi (1957), W. J. Fischel (1967), and Y. Lacoste (1984).

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Ibn Khaldun

 orig. Abu Zayd 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Khaldun

(born May 27, 1332, Tunis, Tun.—died March 17, 1406, Cairo, Egypt) Noted Arab historian. He was employed in court posts by various rulers in Tunis, Fès, and Granada. After retiring from politics in 1375, he wrote his masterpiece, the Muqaddimah (“Introduction”), in which he examined the nature of society and social change and developed one of the earliest rational philosophies of history. He also wrote a definitive history of Muslim North Africa, Kitab al-'Ibar. In 1382 he went to Cairo, where he was appointed professor of law and religious judge. In 1400 he was trapped in Damascus during that city's siege by Timur, spending seven weeks in the Central Asian conqueror's camp before securing his own release and that of a number of colleagues. He is regarded as the greatest premodern Arab historian.