The Contemporary Significance of Ibn Khaldun for Decolonial Sociology: Methodological and Theoretical Dimensions
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Abstract
This paper discusses the significance of Ibn Khaldun for the social sciences with
reference to a number of methodological and theoretical dimensions. The discussion
revolves around what I refer to as the levels of scholarship on Ibn Khaldun, which range
from the meta-theoretical to the empirical and applied. It is claimed that in order for Ibn
Khaldun to be taken seriously by the major disciplines in the social sciences, more work
of a meta-theoretical and theoretical nature on his writings needs to be done. It is further
argued that when considered in terms of all the levels of scholarship, Ibn Khaldun’s work
should be viewed as an exemplar for a modern social science that is rooted in Islamic
tradition. The paper makes the case for Khaldunian sociology as an aborted tradition in
the modern social sciences, introduces the levels of scholarship, and discusses the levels
at which Khaldunian scholarship is more and less prominent. The paper also raises a
methodological and theoretical issue in relation to Ibn Khaldun’s work.
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Keywords
Ibn KhaldunDecolonialSociologyMethodTheory
References
References
Abdel-Malek, Anouar. “Orientalism in Crisis,” Diogenes, Vol. 44 (1963).
Abdesselem, Ahmed. Ibn Khaldun et ses lecteurs. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France,
1983.
Alatas, Syed Farid. “Ibn Khaldun and Contemporary Sociology,” International Sociology Review
of Books, Vol. 21, No. 6 (2006).
______. Alternative Discourses in Asian Social Science: Responses to Eurocentrism. New
Delhi: Sage, 2006.
______. “A Khaldunian Exemplar for a Historical Sociology,” Current Sociology, Vol. 54, No. 3
(2006).
______. “The Historical Sociology of Muslim Societies: Khaldunian Applications,” International
Sociology, Vol. 22, No. 3 (2007).
______. “Teaching Social Theory as Alternative Discourse,” Economic and Political Weekly,
XLVI, Vol. 46 (2011).
______. Ibn Khaldun. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2013.
______. Applying Ibn Khaldun: The Recovery of a Lost Tradition in Sociology. London:
Routledge, 2014.
______ and Sinha, Vineeta. “Teaching Classical Sociological Theory in Singapore: The Context
of Eurocentrism,” Teaching Sociology, Vol. 29, No. 3 (2001).
Aldila Isahak. Ibn al-Azraq’a Political Thought: A Study of Bada‘i al-Silk fi Taba‘i al-Mulk.
Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2010.
Al-Azraq, Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad bin. Bada`i‘ al-Silk fi Taba’i‘ al-Mulk. Tunis: Dar al-
‘Arabiyyah li al-Kitab, 1976.
Al-Jabiri, Muhammad `Abid. “Ibistimulujiya al-Maqul wa al-Lamaqul fi Muqaddimah Ibn
Khaldun.” In A`mal Nadwah Ibn Khaldun, 73-132. Rabat: Faculty of Letters and Human
Sciences, 1979.
Al-Tabari, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad bin Jarir. Tarikh al-Tabari: Tarikh al-Umam wa al-Muluk.
Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyah, 1417/1997.
Baali, Fuad. “Ilm al-Umran and Sociology: A Comparative Study,” Annals of the Faculty of Arts,
Kuwait University, 36th Monograph, Vol. 7 (1986).
Barnes, Harry Elmer. “Sociology before Comte: A Summary of Doctrines and an Introduction
to the Literature,” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 23, No. 2 (1917).
______. “Ancient and Medieval Social Philosophy.” In Barnes, (ed.), An Introduction to the History of Sociology, 3-28. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948.
Becker, Howard and Barnes, Harry Elmer. Social Thought from Lore to Science. New York:
Dover Publications, 1961.
Bousquet, G. H. “Marx et Engels se sont-ils intéressés aux questions Islamiques?,” Studia
Islamica, Vol. 30 (1979).
Buzpınar, Ş. Tufan. “The Question of Caliphate under the last Ottoman Sultan.” In Ottoman
Reform and Muslim Regeneration. I. Weismann & F. Zacks, (eds.). London: I.B. Tauris, 2005.
Carré, Olivier. “Ethique et politique chez Ibn Khaldûn, juriste musulman : Actualité de sa
typologie des systèmes politiques,” L’Année sociologique, Vol. 30 (1979-1980).
______. “A propos de vues Néo-Khalduniennes sur quelques systèmes politiques Arabes
actuels,” Arabica, Vol. 35, No. 3 (1988).
Cohen, Morris R. and Nagel, Ernest. An Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method. New York:
Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1934.
Dale, Stephen Frederic. “Ibn Khaldun: The Last Greek and the First Annaliste Historian,”
International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 38 (2006).
Dhaouadi, Mahmoud. “Ibn Khaldun: The Founding Father of Eastern Sociology,” International
Sociology, Vol. 5, No. 3 (1990).
Engels, Frederick. “On the History of Early Christianity.” In Marx, Karl & Engels, Frederick, On
Religion, 275-300. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1894-95/1975.
Fleischer, Cornell. “Royal Authority, Dynastic Cyclism, and ‘Ibn Khaldunism’ in Sixteenth-
Century Ottoman Letters,” Journal of Asian and African Studies, Vol. 18, No. 3-4 (1983).
Flint, Robert. History of the Philosophy of History in France, Belgium, and Switzerland.
Edinburgh, 1893.
Gellner, Ernest. Muslim Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
Gråberg di Hemsö, Jacob. “An Account of the Great Historical Work of the African Philosopher
Ibn Khaldun,” Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 3, No.
3 (1834).
Gumplowicz, Ludwig. “Ibn Chaldun, ein arabischer Soziolog des XIV. Jahrhunderts.” In
Gumplowicz, Ludwig. Soziologische Essays, Soziologie und Politik, IV of Ludwig Gumplowicz
Ausgewählte Werke Band IV, 90-119. Innsbruck: Universitäts-Verlag Wagner, 1928.
Hammer-Purgstall, J. von. Über den Verfall des Islam nach den ersten drei Jahrhuderten der
Hidschra. Vienna, 1812.
Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization, Vol. 2. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1974.
Ibn Khaldun. ‘Abd al-Rahman. Al-Muqaddimah, 5 vols., Abd al-Salam al-Shaddadi [Abdesselam
Cheddadi]. Casablanca: Bayt al-Funun wa al-‘Ulum wa al-Adab, 2005.
______. Ibn Khaldun: The Muqadimmah-An Introduction of History, 3 vols., translated from the
Arabic by Franz Rosenthal. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1967.
______. Tarikh Ibn Khaldun al-Musamma bi Kitab al-‘Ibar wa Diwan al-Mubtada’ wa al-Khabar
fi Ayyam al-’Arab wa al-’Ajam wa al-Barbar wa man ‘asarahum min dhawi’ al-sultan al-akbar,
Vol. 4. Beirut: Mu’assasat Jammal li Tiba‘at wa al-Nashr, 1979.
______. Discours sur l’histoire universelle: Al-Muqaddima, traduit de l’arabe, présenté et
annoté par Vincent Monteil, 3rd ed. Paris: Sindbad, 1997.
Isahak, Aldila. “The Influence of Ibn Khaldun’s Political Thought on Ibn al-Azraq: A Comparative
Exposition of the Muqaddimah and Bada`i‘ al-Silk fi Taba’i‘ al-Mulk.” International Conference:
Ibn Khaldun’s Legacy and its Contemporary Significance, 20-22. Kuala Lumpur: International
Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), November 2006.
Issawi, Charles. “Introduction.” In Issawi, Charles, (trans.), An Arab Philosophy of History:
Selections from the Prolegomena of Ibn Khaldun of Tunis (1332-1406). London: John Murray,
1950.
Lacoste, Yves. Ibn Khaldun: The Birth of History and the Past of the Third World. London:
Verso, 1984.
Maunier, René. “Les idées économiques d’un philosophe arabe au XIVe siècle,” Revue
d’histoire économique et sociale, Vol. 6 (1913).
Michaud, Gérard. “Caste, confession et société en Syrie: Ibn Khaldoun au chevet du
‘Progressisme Arabe,’” Peuples Méditerranéens, Vol. 16 (1981).
______. “Le mouvement islamique en Syrie (1963-1982).” In Olivier Carré & Michel Seurat,
Les Frères Musulmans (1928-1982), 123-203. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2001.
Oppenheimer, Franz. System der Soziologie. Zweiter Band, Der Staat. Jena: Verlag von
Gustav Fischer, 1926.
______. “Tendencies in Recent German Sociology,” Sociological Review, Vol. 24 (1932).
Ortega y Gasset, José. “Abenjaldun nos revela el secreto,” Revista del Instituto Egicio de
Estudios Islámicos en Madrid, Vol. 19 (1934/1976-1978).
______. Ibn Khaldun Reveals His Secrets to US. Translated from the Spanish by Saida del
Moral Llobat, unpublished manuscript. Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought
and Civilization (ISTAC), 2000.
Oumlil, Ali. L’Histoire et son discours. Essai sur la méthodologie d’Ibn Khaldoun. Rabat:Éditions techniques nord-africaines, 1979.
Ritter, Hellmut. “Irrational Solidarity Groups: A Socio-Psychological Study in Connection with
Ibn Khaldûn,” Oriens, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1948).
Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1979.
Salama, Mohammad R. Islam, Orientalism and Intellectual History: Modernity and the Politics
of Exclusion Since Ibn Khaldun. London: I. B. Tauris, 2011.
Schmidt, Nathaniel. Ibn Khaldun: Historian, Sociologist and Philosopher. New York, 1930.
Talbi, M. “Ibn Khaldun.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, B. Lewis, V.L. Ménage,
Ch. Pellat & J. Schach, (eds.), Vol. III, 825-831. Leiden: E. J. Brill & London: Luzac & Co.,
1971.
Tibawi, A. L. “English Speaking Orientalists,” Muslim World, Vol. 53 (1963).
______. “Second Critique of English-Speaking Orientalists and Their Approach to the Islam
and the Arabs,” Islamic Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 1 (1979).
Turner, B. S. “Sociological Founders and Precursors: The Theories of Religion of Emile
Durkheim, Fustel de Coulanges and Ibn Khaldun,” Religion, Vol. 1 (1971).
von Kremer, Alfred. “Ibn Chaldun und seine Kulturgeschichte der Islamischen Reiche,”
Sitzunsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Philosoph.-histor. Klasse)
(Vienna) 93 (1979).
Ward, Lester F. Pure Sociology: A Treatise on the Origin and Spontaneous Development of
Society. London: Macmillan, 1919.
Weber, Alfred. History of Philosophy. Frank Thilly, (trans.). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons,
1925.
Abdel-Malek, Anouar. “Orientalism in Crisis,” Diogenes, Vol. 44 (1963).
Abdesselem, Ahmed. Ibn Khaldun et ses lecteurs. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France,
1983.
Alatas, Syed Farid. “Ibn Khaldun and Contemporary Sociology,” International Sociology Review
of Books, Vol. 21, No. 6 (2006).
______. Alternative Discourses in Asian Social Science: Responses to Eurocentrism. New
Delhi: Sage, 2006.
______. “A Khaldunian Exemplar for a Historical Sociology,” Current Sociology, Vol. 54, No. 3
(2006).
______. “The Historical Sociology of Muslim Societies: Khaldunian Applications,” International
Sociology, Vol. 22, No. 3 (2007).
______. “Teaching Social Theory as Alternative Discourse,” Economic and Political Weekly,
XLVI, Vol. 46 (2011).
______. Ibn Khaldun. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2013.
______. Applying Ibn Khaldun: The Recovery of a Lost Tradition in Sociology. London:
Routledge, 2014.
______ and Sinha, Vineeta. “Teaching Classical Sociological Theory in Singapore: The Context
of Eurocentrism,” Teaching Sociology, Vol. 29, No. 3 (2001).
Aldila Isahak. Ibn al-Azraq’a Political Thought: A Study of Bada‘i al-Silk fi Taba‘i al-Mulk.
Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2010.
Al-Azraq, Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad bin. Bada`i‘ al-Silk fi Taba’i‘ al-Mulk. Tunis: Dar al-
‘Arabiyyah li al-Kitab, 1976.
Al-Jabiri, Muhammad `Abid. “Ibistimulujiya al-Maqul wa al-Lamaqul fi Muqaddimah Ibn
Khaldun.” In A`mal Nadwah Ibn Khaldun, 73-132. Rabat: Faculty of Letters and Human
Sciences, 1979.
Al-Tabari, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad bin Jarir. Tarikh al-Tabari: Tarikh al-Umam wa al-Muluk.
Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyah, 1417/1997.
Baali, Fuad. “Ilm al-Umran and Sociology: A Comparative Study,” Annals of the Faculty of Arts,
Kuwait University, 36th Monograph, Vol. 7 (1986).
Barnes, Harry Elmer. “Sociology before Comte: A Summary of Doctrines and an Introduction
to the Literature,” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 23, No. 2 (1917).
______. “Ancient and Medieval Social Philosophy.” In Barnes, (ed.), An Introduction to the History of Sociology, 3-28. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948.
Becker, Howard and Barnes, Harry Elmer. Social Thought from Lore to Science. New York:
Dover Publications, 1961.
Bousquet, G. H. “Marx et Engels se sont-ils intéressés aux questions Islamiques?,” Studia
Islamica, Vol. 30 (1979).
Buzpınar, Ş. Tufan. “The Question of Caliphate under the last Ottoman Sultan.” In Ottoman
Reform and Muslim Regeneration. I. Weismann & F. Zacks, (eds.). London: I.B. Tauris, 2005.
Carré, Olivier. “Ethique et politique chez Ibn Khaldûn, juriste musulman : Actualité de sa
typologie des systèmes politiques,” L’Année sociologique, Vol. 30 (1979-1980).
______. “A propos de vues Néo-Khalduniennes sur quelques systèmes politiques Arabes
actuels,” Arabica, Vol. 35, No. 3 (1988).
Cohen, Morris R. and Nagel, Ernest. An Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method. New York:
Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1934.
Dale, Stephen Frederic. “Ibn Khaldun: The Last Greek and the First Annaliste Historian,”
International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 38 (2006).
Dhaouadi, Mahmoud. “Ibn Khaldun: The Founding Father of Eastern Sociology,” International
Sociology, Vol. 5, No. 3 (1990).
Engels, Frederick. “On the History of Early Christianity.” In Marx, Karl & Engels, Frederick, On
Religion, 275-300. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1894-95/1975.
Fleischer, Cornell. “Royal Authority, Dynastic Cyclism, and ‘Ibn Khaldunism’ in Sixteenth-
Century Ottoman Letters,” Journal of Asian and African Studies, Vol. 18, No. 3-4 (1983).
Flint, Robert. History of the Philosophy of History in France, Belgium, and Switzerland.
Edinburgh, 1893.
Gellner, Ernest. Muslim Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
Gråberg di Hemsö, Jacob. “An Account of the Great Historical Work of the African Philosopher
Ibn Khaldun,” Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 3, No.
3 (1834).
Gumplowicz, Ludwig. “Ibn Chaldun, ein arabischer Soziolog des XIV. Jahrhunderts.” In
Gumplowicz, Ludwig. Soziologische Essays, Soziologie und Politik, IV of Ludwig Gumplowicz
Ausgewählte Werke Band IV, 90-119. Innsbruck: Universitäts-Verlag Wagner, 1928.
Hammer-Purgstall, J. von. Über den Verfall des Islam nach den ersten drei Jahrhuderten der
Hidschra. Vienna, 1812.
Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization, Vol. 2. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1974.
Ibn Khaldun. ‘Abd al-Rahman. Al-Muqaddimah, 5 vols., Abd al-Salam al-Shaddadi [Abdesselam
Cheddadi]. Casablanca: Bayt al-Funun wa al-‘Ulum wa al-Adab, 2005.
______. Ibn Khaldun: The Muqadimmah-An Introduction of History, 3 vols., translated from the
Arabic by Franz Rosenthal. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1967.
______. Tarikh Ibn Khaldun al-Musamma bi Kitab al-‘Ibar wa Diwan al-Mubtada’ wa al-Khabar
fi Ayyam al-’Arab wa al-’Ajam wa al-Barbar wa man ‘asarahum min dhawi’ al-sultan al-akbar,
Vol. 4. Beirut: Mu’assasat Jammal li Tiba‘at wa al-Nashr, 1979.
______. Discours sur l’histoire universelle: Al-Muqaddima, traduit de l’arabe, présenté et
annoté par Vincent Monteil, 3rd ed. Paris: Sindbad, 1997.
Isahak, Aldila. “The Influence of Ibn Khaldun’s Political Thought on Ibn al-Azraq: A Comparative
Exposition of the Muqaddimah and Bada`i‘ al-Silk fi Taba’i‘ al-Mulk.” International Conference:
Ibn Khaldun’s Legacy and its Contemporary Significance, 20-22. Kuala Lumpur: International
Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), November 2006.
Issawi, Charles. “Introduction.” In Issawi, Charles, (trans.), An Arab Philosophy of History:
Selections from the Prolegomena of Ibn Khaldun of Tunis (1332-1406). London: John Murray,
1950.
Lacoste, Yves. Ibn Khaldun: The Birth of History and the Past of the Third World. London:
Verso, 1984.
Maunier, René. “Les idées économiques d’un philosophe arabe au XIVe siècle,” Revue
d’histoire économique et sociale, Vol. 6 (1913).
Michaud, Gérard. “Caste, confession et société en Syrie: Ibn Khaldoun au chevet du
‘Progressisme Arabe,’” Peuples Méditerranéens, Vol. 16 (1981).
______. “Le mouvement islamique en Syrie (1963-1982).” In Olivier Carré & Michel Seurat,
Les Frères Musulmans (1928-1982), 123-203. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2001.
Oppenheimer, Franz. System der Soziologie. Zweiter Band, Der Staat. Jena: Verlag von
Gustav Fischer, 1926.
______. “Tendencies in Recent German Sociology,” Sociological Review, Vol. 24 (1932).
Ortega y Gasset, José. “Abenjaldun nos revela el secreto,” Revista del Instituto Egicio de
Estudios Islámicos en Madrid, Vol. 19 (1934/1976-1978).
______. Ibn Khaldun Reveals His Secrets to US. Translated from the Spanish by Saida del
Moral Llobat, unpublished manuscript. Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought
and Civilization (ISTAC), 2000.
Oumlil, Ali. L’Histoire et son discours. Essai sur la méthodologie d’Ibn Khaldoun. Rabat:Éditions techniques nord-africaines, 1979.
Ritter, Hellmut. “Irrational Solidarity Groups: A Socio-Psychological Study in Connection with
Ibn Khaldûn,” Oriens, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1948).
Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1979.
Salama, Mohammad R. Islam, Orientalism and Intellectual History: Modernity and the Politics
of Exclusion Since Ibn Khaldun. London: I. B. Tauris, 2011.
Schmidt, Nathaniel. Ibn Khaldun: Historian, Sociologist and Philosopher. New York, 1930.
Talbi, M. “Ibn Khaldun.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, B. Lewis, V.L. Ménage,
Ch. Pellat & J. Schach, (eds.), Vol. III, 825-831. Leiden: E. J. Brill & London: Luzac & Co.,
1971.
Tibawi, A. L. “English Speaking Orientalists,” Muslim World, Vol. 53 (1963).
______. “Second Critique of English-Speaking Orientalists and Their Approach to the Islam
and the Arabs,” Islamic Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 1 (1979).
Turner, B. S. “Sociological Founders and Precursors: The Theories of Religion of Emile
Durkheim, Fustel de Coulanges and Ibn Khaldun,” Religion, Vol. 1 (1971).
von Kremer, Alfred. “Ibn Chaldun und seine Kulturgeschichte der Islamischen Reiche,”
Sitzunsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Philosoph.-histor. Klasse)
(Vienna) 93 (1979).
Ward, Lester F. Pure Sociology: A Treatise on the Origin and Spontaneous Development of
Society. London: Macmillan, 1919.
Weber, Alfred. History of Philosophy. Frank Thilly, (trans.). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons,
1925.
How to Cite
Alatas, Syed Farid. 2020. “The Contemporary Significance of Ibn Khaldun for Decolonial Sociology: Methodological and Theoretical Dimensions”. Tajseer Journal 2 (1):75-98. https://doi.org/10.29117/tis.2020.0025.
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