Ibn Khaldun’s Thought Beyond the “Modern And Premodern”

Ibn Khaldun, one of the classical Muslim thinkers who received the greatest interest in modern times, is also the one with the most disagreement about his thought. The most important reason for this diversity is that his social and political thought developed in the Muqaddima was neither a continuation of a previous disciplinary tradition nor became a point of departure for the generation of a new tradition after it. As a matter of fact, according to an approach that is very famous especially in the West and still finds supporters, Ibn Khaldun has a “modern,” “scientific” and “secular” mind that cannot be attached to the medieval order or Islamic cultural environment. However, when looked closely and evaluated from a historical perspective, neither the relative originality of Ibn Khaldun’s thought nor the fact that it did not have serious followers to be turned into a tradition would not constitute a justification enough to separate him from the tradition of Islamic thought and add it to the tradition of Western thought. It is a fact beyond doubt that Ibn Khaldun was the greatest mind of Islamic thought in terms of historiography and social-political research. Nevertheless, like every great thinker, Ibn Khaldun was ultimately the child of his time and the cultural world into which he was born. It will be sufficient to consider the character and dynamics of collective thought in order to explain both the originality and uniqueness of his thought. On the other hand, the fact that Ibn Khaldun’s thought, in terms of its fundamental elements, belongs to Islamic metaphysical and epistemological framework does not render it an historical artefact no longer alive. Contrarily, as a living approach, his social and political thought provides principles of constructing an alternative paradigm in the contemporary world.

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