Ibn Khaldun's life is relatively well-documented, as he wrote an 

autobiography  in which numerous documents

regarding his life are quoted word-for-word. However, the autobiography has little to say about his private life, so

little is known about his family background. Generally known as "Ibn Khaldūn" after a remote ancestor, he was

born in Tunis in AD 1332 (732 A.H.) into an upper-class Andalusian family, the Banū Khaldūn. His family, which

held many high offices in Andalusia, had emigrated to Tunisia after the fall of Seville to Reconquista forces

around the middle of the 13th century. Under the Tunisian Hafsid dynasty some of his family held political office;

Ibn Khaldūn's father and grandfather however withdrew from political life and joined a mystical order . His

brother, Yahya Ibn Khaldun, was also a historian who wrote a book on the Abdalwadid dynasty, and who was

assassinated by a rival for being the official historiographer of the court.[24]

In his autobiography, Ibn Khaldun traces his descent back to the time of Muhammad through an Arab tribe

from Yemen, specificallyHadhramaut, which came to Spain in the eighth century at the beginning of the Islamic

conquest. In his own words: "And our ancestry is from Hadhramaut, from the Arabs of Yemen, via Wa'il ibn Hajar,
from the best of the Arabs, well-known and respected." (p. 2429, Al-Waraq's edition). However, the biographer

Mohammad Enan questions his claim, suggesting that his family may have been Berbers who pretended to be

of Arab origin in order to gain social status.[25] According to Muhammad Hozien, "The false [Berber] identity would

be valid however at the time that Ibn Khaldun’s ancestors left Andalusia and moved to Tunisia they did not

change their claim to Arab ancestry. Even in the times when Berbers were ruling, the reigns of Al-Marabats and

al-Mowahids, et al. the Ibn Khalduns did not reclaim their Berber heritage."[26] This lends credence to Ibn

Khaldun's being of Arab origin.

Education

His family's high rank enabled Ibn Khaldun to study with the best North African teachers of the time. He received

a classical Islamic education, studying the Qur'an which he memorized by heart, Arabic linguistics, the basis for

an understanding of the Qur'an, hadith, sharia (law) and fiqh (jurisprudence). He received certification (ijazah) for

all these subjects.[27] Themystic, mathematician and philosopher, Al-Abili, introduced him

to mathematics, logic and philosophy, where he above all studied the works

of Averroes, Avicenna, Razi and Tusi. At the age of 17, Ibn Khaldūn lost both his parents to the Black Death, an

intercontinental epidemic of the plague that hit Tunis in 1348-1349.

Following family tradition, Ibn Khaldūn strove for a political career. In the face of a tumultuous political situation in

North Africa, this required a high degree of skill developing and dropping alliances prudently, to avoid falling with

the short-lived regimes of the time. Ibn Khaldūn's autobiography is the story of an adventure, in which he spends

time in prison, reaches the highest offices and falls again into exile.

Early years in Tunis and Granada

At the age of 20, he began his political career at the Chancellery of the Tunisian ruler Ibn Tafrakin with the

position of Kātib al-'Alāmah, which consisted of writing in fine calligraphy the typical introductory notes of official

documents. In 1352, Abū Ziad, the Sultan of Constantine, marched on Tunis and defeated it. Ibn Khaldūn, in any

case unhappy with his respected but politically meaningless position, followed his teacher Abili to Fez. Here

the Marinid sultan Abū Inan Fares I appointed him as a writer of royal proclamations, which didn't prevent Ibn

Khaldūn from scheming against his employer. In 1357 this brought the 25-year-old a 22-month prison sentence.

Upon the death of Abū Inan in 1358, the vizier al-Hasān ibn-Umar granted him freedom and reinstated him in his

rank and offices. Ibn Khaldūn then schemed against Abū Inan's successor, Abū Salem Ibrahim III, with Abū

Salem's exiled uncle, Abū Salem. When Abū Salem came to power, he gave Ibn Khaldūn a ministerial position,

the first position which corresponded with Ibn Khaldūn's ambitions.

The treatment Ibn Khaldun received after the fall of Abū Salem through Ibn-Amar ʕAbdullah, a friend of Ibn

Khaldūn's, was not to his liking, he received no significant official position. At the same time, Amar successfully

prevented Ibn Khaldūn - whose political skills he was well aware of - from allying with the Abd al-

Wadids in Tlemcen. Ibn Khaldūn therefore decided to move to Granada. He could be sure of a positive welcome

there, since at Fez he had helped the Sultan of Granada, the Nasrid Muhammad V, regain power from his

temporary exile. In 1364 Muhammad entrusted him with a diplomatic mission to the King of Castile, Pedro the
Cruel, to endorse a peace treaty. Ibn Khaldūn successfully carried out this mission, and politely declined Pedro's

offer to remain at his court and have his family's Spanish possessions returned to him.

In Granada, Ibn Khaldūn quickly came into competition with Muhammad's vizier, Ibn al-Khatib, who saw the close

relationship between Muhammad and Ibn Khaldūn with increasing mistrust. Ibn Khaldūn tried to shape the young

Muhammad into his ideal of a wise ruler, an enterprise which Ibn al-Khatib thought foolish and a danger to peace

in the country - and history proved him right. At al-Khatib's instigation, Ibn Khaldūn was eventually sent back to

North Africa. Al-Khatib himself was later accused by Muhammad of having unorthodox philosophical views, and

murdered, despite an attempt by Ibn Khaldūn to intercede on behalf of his old rival.

In his autobiography, Ibn Khaldūn tells us little about his conflict with Ibn al-Khatib and the reasons for his

departure. The orientalist Muhsin Mahdi interprets this as showing that Ibn Khaldūn later realised that he had

completely misjudged Muhammad V.

Back in Africa, the Hafsid sultan of Bougie, Abū ʕAbdallāh, (who had been his companion in prison) received him

with great enthusiasm, and made Ibn Khaldūn his prime minister. During this period, Ibn Khaldūn carried out a
daring mission to collect taxes among the local Berber tribes. After the death of Abū ʕAbdallāh in 1366, Ibn

Khaldūn changed sides once again and allied himself with the ruler of Tlemcen, Abū l-Abbas. A few years later

he was taken prisoner by ʕAbdu l-Azīz, who had defeated the sultan of Tlemcen and seized the throne. He then

entered a monastic establishment, and occupied himself with scholastic duties, until in 1370 he was sent for to

Tlemcen by the new sultan. After the death of ʕAbdu l-Azīz, he resided at Fez, enjoying the patronage and

confidence of the regent.

Ibn Khaldūn's political skills, above all his good relationship with the wild Berber tribes, were in high demand

among the North African rulers, whereas he himself began to tire of politics and constant switching of

allegiances. In 1375, sent by Abū Hammu, the ʕAbdu l Wadid Sultan ofTlemcen, on a mission to the Dawadida

Arabs tribes of Biskra. Thereafter Ibn Khaldūn returns to the West sought refuge with one of the Berber tribes, in

the west of Algeria, in the town of Qalat Ibn Salama. He lived there for over three years under their protection,

taking advantage of his seclusion to write the Muqaddimah "Prolegomena", the introduction to his planned history

of the world. In Ibn Salama, however, he lacked the necessary texts to complete the work. As a result, in 1378,

he returned to his native Tunis, which in the mean time had been conquered by Abū l-Abbas, who took Ibn

Khaldūn back into his service. There he devoted himself almost exclusively to his studies and completed his

history of the world. His relationship with Abū l-Abbas remained strained, as the latter questioned his loyalty. This

was brought into sharp contrast after Ibn Khaldūn presented him with a copy of the completed history omitting the

usual panegyric to the ruler. Under pretence of going on the Hajj to Makkah - something a Muslim ruler could not

simply refuse permission for - Ibn Khaldūn was able to leave Tunis and sail to Alexandria.

Last years in Egypt

Ibn Khaldun has said of Egypt, "He who has not seen it does not know the power of Islam." While other Islamic

regions had to cope with border wars and inner strife, under the MamluksEgypt experienced a period of

economic prosperity and high culture. However, even in Egypt, where Ibn Khaldūn lived out his days, he could
not stay out of politics completely. In 1384 the Egyptian Sultan, al-Malik udh-Dhahir Barquq, made him Professor

of the Qamhiyyah Madrasah, and grand Qadi of the Maliki school of fiqh (one of four schools, the Maliki school

was widespread primarily in West Africa). His efforts at reform encountered resistance, however, and within a

year he had to resign his judgeship. A contributory factor to his decision to resign may have been the heavy

personal blow that struck him in 1384, when a ship carrying his wife and children sank off the coast of Alexandria.

Ibn Khaldun now decided to complete the pilgrimage to Makkah after all.

After his return in May 1388, Ibn Khaldūn concentrated more strongly on a purely educational function at various

Cairo madrasas. At court he fell out of favor for a time, as during revolts against Barquq he had - apparently

under duress - together with other Cairo jurists issued a Fatwa against Barquq. Later relations with Barquq

returned to normal, and he was once again named the Maliki qadi. Altogether he was called six times to this high

office, which for various reasons he never held long.

In 1401, under Barquq's successor, his son Faraj, Ibn Khaldūn took part in a military campaign against

the Mongol conqueror Timur, who besieged Damascus. Ibn Khaldūn cast doubt upon the viability of the venture

and didn't really want to leave Egypt. His doubts were vindicated, as the young and inexperienced Faraj,
concerned about a revolt in Egypt, left his army to its own devices in Syria and hurried home. Ibn Khaldūn

remained at the besieged city for seven weeks, being lowered over the city wall by ropes in order to negotiate

with Timur, in a historic series of meetings which he reports extensively in his autobiography. Timur questioned

him in detail about conditions in the lands of the Maghreb; at his request, Ibn Khaldūn even wrote a long report

about it. As he recognized the intentions behind this, he did not hesitate, on his return to Egypt, to compose an

equally extensive report on the history of theTartars, together with a character study of Timur, sending these to

the Merinid rulers in Fez.

Ibn Khaldūn spent the following five years in Cairo completing his autobiography and his history of the world and

acting as teacher and judge. During this time he also formed an all male club named Rijal Hawa Rijal. Their

activities attracted the attention of local religious authorities and he was placed under arrest. He died on 19

March 1406, one month after his sixth selection for the office of the Maliki qadi.

Works

Ibn Khaldūn has left behind few works other than his history of the world, al-Kitābu l-ʕibār. Significantly, such

writings are not alluded to in his autobiography, suggesting perhaps that Ibn Khaldūn saw himself first and

foremost as a historian and wanted to be known above all as the author of al-Kitābu l-ʕibār. From other sources

we know of several other works, primarily composed during the time he spent in North Africa andAl-Andalus. His

first book, Lubābu l-Muhassal, a commentary on the Islamic theology of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, was written at the

age of 19 under the supervision of his teacher al-Ābilī in Tunis. A work on Sufism, Sifā'u l-Sā'il, was composed

around 1373 in Fes, Morocco. Whilst at the court of Muhammed V, Sultan of Granada, Ibn Khaldūn composed

a work on logic,ʕallaqa li-l-Sultān.

The Kitābu l-ʕibār (full title: Kitābu l-ʕibār wa Diwānu l-Mubtada' wa l-Ħabar fī Ayyāmu l-ʕarab wa l-Ājam wa l-

Barbar wa man ʕĀsarahum min ĐawIu s-Sultānu l-Akbār "Book of Evidence, Record of Beginnings and Events

from the Days of the Arabs, Persians and Berbers and their Powerful Contemporaries"), Ibn Khaldūn's main

work, was originally conceived as a history of the Berbers. Later, the focus was widened so that in its final form

(including its own methodology and anthropology), to represent a so-called "universal history". It is divided into

seven books, the first of which, the Muqaddimah, can be considered a separate work. Books two to five cover

the history of mankind up to the time of Ibn Khaldūn. Books six and seven cover the history of the Berber

peoples and the Maghreb, which remain invaluable to present-day historians, as they are based on Ibn Khaldūn's

personal knowledge of the Berbers.[30]

Concerning the discipline of sociology, he conceived a theory of social conflict. He developed the dichotomy of

sedentary life versus nomadic life as well as the concept of a "generation," and the inevitable loss of power that

occurs when desert warriors conquer a city. Following a contemporary Arab scholar, Sati' al-Husri, the

Muqaddimah may be read as a sociological work: six books of general sociology. Topics dealt with in this work

include politics, urban life, economics, and knowledge. The work is based around Ibn Khaldun's central concept

of 'asabiyyah, which has been translated as "social cohesion", "group solidarity", or "tribalism." This social

cohesion arises spontaneously in tribes and other small kinship groups; it can be intensified and enlarged by a

religious ideology. Ibn Khaldun's analysis looks at how this cohesion carries groups to power but contains within
itself the seeds - psychological, sociological, economic, political - of the group's downfall, to be replaced by a new

group, dynasty or empire bound by a stronger (or at least younger and more vigorous) cohesion. Ibn Khaldun has

been cited as a racist, but his theories on the rise and fall of empires had no racial component, and this reading

of his work has been claimed to be the result of mistranslations.[31]

Perhaps the most frequently cited observation drawn from Ibn Khaldūn's work is the notion that when a society

becomes a great civilization (and, presumably, the dominant culture in its region), its high point is followed by a

period of decay. This means that the next cohesive group that conquers the diminished civilization is, by

comparison, a group of barbarians. Once the barbarians solidify their control over the conquered society,

however, they become attracted to its more refined aspects, such as literacy and arts, and either assimilate into

or appropriate such cultural practices. Then, eventually, the former barbarians will be conquered by a new set of

barbarians, who will repeat the process. Some contemporary readers of Khaldun have read this as an

early business cycle theory, though set in the historical circumstances of the mature Islamic empire.

Ibn Khaldun's outlines an early (possibly even the earliest) example of political economy. He describes the

economy as being composed of value-adding processes; that is, labour and skill is added to techniques and

crafts and the product is sold at a higher value. He also made the distinction between "profit" and "sustenance",

in modern political economy terms, surplus and that required for the reproduction of classes respectively. He also

calls for the creation of a science to explain society and goes on to outline these ideas in his major work the

Muqaddimah.

Legacy

Ibn Khaldun was first brought to the attention of the Western world in 1697, when a biography of him appeared

in Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville's Bibliothèque Orientale. Ibn Khaldun began gaining more attention from

1806, when Silvestre de Sacy's Chrestomathie Arabe included his biography together with a translation of parts

of the Muqaddimah as theProlegomena.[32] In 1816, de Sacy again published a biography with a more detailed

description on the Prolegomena.[33] More details on and partial translations of the Prolegomenaemerged over the

years until the complete Arabic edition was published in 1858, followed by a complete French translation a few

years later by de Sacy.[34] Since then, the work of Ibn Khaldun has been extensively studied in the Western world

with special interest.[35]

 British historian Arnold J. Toynbee called the Muqaddimah "a philosophy of history which is undoubtedly

the greatest work of its kind that has ever yet been created by any mind in any time or place."[36] Much of his

own work on world history was inspired by Ibn Khaldun.

 The British philosopher Robert Flint wrote the following on Ibn Khaldun: "As a theorist on history he had

no equal in any age… Plato, Aristotle and Augustine were not his peers."[36]

 Abderrahmane Lakhsassi writes: "No historian of the Maghreb since and particularly of the Berbers can

do without his historical contribution."[37]

 The British philosopher-anthropologist Ernest Gellner considered Ibn Khaldun's definition

of government, "an institution which prevents injustice other than such as it commits itself", the best in the

history of political theory.[38]

 Egon Orowan, who termed the concept of socionomy, developed the writings of Ibn Khaldun to forecast

an eventual failure of market demand.

 Arthur Laffer, whom the Laffer curve is named after, noted that, among others, some of Ibn Khaldun's

ideas precede his own. B[39]

 In 2006, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation launched an annual essay contest [1] for Muslim

students named in Ibn Khaldun's honor. The theme of the contest is "how individuals, think tanks,

universities and entrepreneurs can influence government policies to allow the free market to flourish and

improve the lives of its citizens based on Islamic teachings and traditions."

 In 2006, Spain commemorated the 600th anniversary of the death of Ibn Khaldun. [2]

Biography

He was born of Jewish parentage in Potsdam. He studied at Berlin University, where he obtained the degree

of Doctor of Philosophy in 1825, his thesis being an analytical discussion of the theory of fractions. In 1827 he

became extraordinary professor and in 1829 ordinary professor of mathematics at Königsberg University, and

this chair he filled until 1842.

Jacobi suffered a breakdown from overwork in 1843. He then visited Italy for a few months to regain his health.

On his return he moved to Berlin, where he lived as a royal pensioner until his death. During the Revolution of

1848 Jacobi was politically involved and unsuccessfully presented his parliamentary candidature on behalf of

a Liberal club. This led, after the suppression of the revolution, to his royal grant being cut off – but his fame and

reputation were such that it was soon resumed. In 1836, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish

Academy of Sciences.
Jacobi's grave is preserved at a cemetery in the Kreuzberg section of Berlin, the Friedhof I der Dreifaltigkeits-

Kirchengemeinde (61 Baruther Street). His grave is close to that of Johann Encke, the astronomer. The

crater Jacobi on the Moon is named after him.

Scientific contributions

One of Jacobi's greatest accomplishments was his theory of elliptic functions and their relation to the elliptic theta

function. This was developed in his great treatise Fundamenta nova theoriae functionum ellipticarum (1829), and

in later papers in Crelle's Journal. Theta functions are of great importance in mathematical physics because of

their role in the inverse problem for periodic and quasi-periodic flows. The equations of motion are integrable in

terms of Jacobi's elliptic functions in the well-known cases of the pendulum, the Euler top, the

symmetric Lagrange top in a gravitational field and the Kepler problem (planetary motion in a central gravitational

field).

He also made fundamental contributions in the study of differential equations and to rational mechanics, notably

the Hamilton-Jacobi theory.

It was in algebraic development that Jacobi’s peculiar power mainly lay, and he made important contributions of

this kind to many areas of mathematics, as shown by his long list of papers in Crelle’s Journal and elsewhere

from 1826 onwards. One of his maxims was: 'Invert, always invert' ('man muss immer umkehren'), expressing his

belief that the solution of many hard problems can be clarified by re-expressing them in inverse form.

In his 1835 paper, Jacobi proved the following basic result classifying periodic (including elliptic) functions: If a

univariate single-value function is multiply periodic, then such a function cannot have more than two periods. and

the ratio of the periods cannot be a real number. He discovered many of the fundamental properties of theta

functions, including the functional equation and the Jacobi triple product formula, as well as many other results

on q-series and hypergeometric series.

The solution of the Jacobi inversion problem for the hyperelliptic Abel map by Weierstrass in 1854 required the

introduction of the hyperelliptic theta function and later the general Riemann theta function for algebraic curves of
arbitrary genus. The complex torus associated to a genus g algebraic curve, obtained by quotienting   by the

lattice of periods is referred to as the Jacobian variety. This method of inversion, and its subsequent extension

by Weierstrass and Riemann to arbitrary algebraic curves, may be seen as a higher genus generalization of the

relation between elliptic integrals and the Jacobi, or Weierstrass elliptic functions.

Jacobi was the first to apply elliptic functions to number theory, for example proving the 2 square and four-square

theorems of Pierre de Fermat, and similar results for 6 and 8 squares. His other work in number theory continued

the work of C. F. Gauss: new proofs of quadratic reciprocity and introduction of the Jacobi symbol; contributions

to higher reciprocity laws, investigations of continued fractions, and the invention of Jacobi sums.

He was also one of the early founders of the theory of determinants; in particular, he invented the Jacobian

determinant formed from the n² differential coefficients of n given functions of n independent variables, and which

has played an important part in many analytical investigations. In 1841 he reintroduced the partial derivative ∂

notation of Legendre, which was to become standard.

Students of vector fields and Lie theory often encounter the Jacobi identity, the analog of associativity for the Lie

bracket operation.

Planetary theory and other particular dynamical problems likewise occupied his attention from time to time. While

contributing to celestial mechanics, he introduced the Jacobi integral (1836) for a sidereal coordinate system. His

theory of the last multiplier is treated in Vorlesungen über Dynamik, edited by Alfred Clebsch (1866).

He reduced the general quintic equation to the form: 

He left a vast store of manuscripts, portions of which have been published at intervals in Crelle's Journal. His

other works include Commentatio de transformatione integralis duplicis indefiniti in formam

simpliciorem (1832), Canon arithmeticus (1839), and Opuscula mathematica (1846–1857). His Gesammelte

Werke (1881–1891) were published by the Berlin Academy.