Theorizing from within: Ibn Khaldun and His Political Culture

Author(s): Lawrence Rosen

Source: Contemporary Sociology , Nov., 2005, Vol. 34, No. 6 (Nov., 2005), pp. 596-599
Published by: American Sociological Association

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4147102

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596 Essays on Ibn Kbaldun

gists like Ibn Khaldun can provide us a route Khaldun, Ibn. Franz Rosenthal, trans. 1969. The
to such understanding. Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
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Ahmed, Akbar. 2002 [1988]. Discovering Islam:
Sciences, Vol. 7. edited by David L. Sills. New
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the Glorious Quran. Hyderabad-Deccan, IND:
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Theorizing from Within: Ibn Khaldun and His Political Culture

LAWRENCE ROSEN
Princeton University
Irosen @princeton.edu

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) must have been an rency in our times, and that the distinctive-
extraordinary individual: Scholar and diplo- ness of the social and political forms he ana-
mat, wide-ranging theoretician, and clear- lyzes may be lost if seen only as a
eyed political operative, a man who literally contribution to grand historical theory. More
climbed down a citadel wall in the middle of particularly, I want to consider three points:
the night to confer with the "barbarian"(1) that Ibn Khaldun's theory of history is
Tamerlane and figuratively scaled a walldeeply
of embedded in an appreciation of the
incomprehension and tribal isolation to contexts of human actions and their highly
understand his fellow men. But in the pragmatic consequences, rather than consti-
process of rendering Ibn Khalduntuting
so like
some stratospheric vision of cyclical
social
thinkers in the West and by melding movements; (2) that his way of both
his par-
ticularity into Western ideas of the universal,
considering and finessing the role of individ-
we risk losing his insights into the
ualdistinc-
leaders is consonant with the orientation
tiveness of political cultures and theof
greater
one coming from an Arab (perhaps espe-
lessons he may still teach us about cially
the need
North African) background; and (3)
to understand the specificities of one's own
that for these and other reasons, the Western
time and place. tendency to emphasize the similarities
Commentators like Akbar Ahmed have between the historiography of Ibn Khaldun
rightly emphasized that Ibn Khaldun isand
very
that of many Western analysts obscures
much an Islamic thinker.' I want to consider
the distinctive style of his own form of theo-
two correlative points: that Ibn Khaldun is
rizing.
also very much an Arab thinker whose views Though commonly known for his grand
about Arab political culture have special cur- theory of state formation-that tribes well up
out of arid regions to take over cities where
in turn they lose their collective solidarity-
This essay was first prepared for the celebration
in honor of Akbar Ahmed's inauguration asIbn theKhaldun alternately assumes and asserts
first Ibn Khaldun Professor at American that in his new science human nature mani-
festsit
University. It is a pleasure to rededicate itself
to not as an automatic response to
him. forces of climate and necessity but in relation

Contemporary Sociology 34, 6

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 Essays on Ibn Kbaldun 597

to highly contingent circumstances. His con- is, however, one that Ibn Khaldun at once
addresses and evades. His personal history of
cern for larger social forces in no way effaces
his intensely pragmatic feel for the ways in disappointment with the numerous political
which social solidarity, economic advance- leaders he served may well have been critical
in leading him to a form of explanation that
ment, or the flourishing of arts and crafts takes
place: They are not, he repeatedly indicates,seemed to erase their importance. And yet he
dependent on inevitable forces but emerge never
as fully frees himself from their role in
local circumstances permit. He is, in this history: As Muhsin Mahdi (1957:197) indi-
respect, partaking of a viewpoint that was, cates, for Ibn Khaldun, superordinate groups,
for example, "cannot form a harmonious
and is, characteristic of much of Arab/Islamic
thought, that (to borrow a common Arab say- whole except when arranged hierarchically
with an undisputed leader at the top."
ing) "men resemble their times more than they
do their fathers," that the course of eventsIndeed, since it is the qualities of a person,
depends on the degree to which particular not the limitations of institutionalized offices,
collectivities employ their God-given reason that
to are crucial, it is not surprising to see Ibn
place themselves in contexts where the forcesKhaldun assert that even the Messiah will
have to have the qualities of a leader.4
of history may assert themselves, and that the
achievement of what he called a "rational
However, Ibn Khaldun never quite addresses
regime aimed at the common good" the versus
role of these individual leaders directly,
one aimed at the selfish interests of a and it is in this avoidance, as in his explicit
single
comments
ruler only comes about through the actions of on the subject, that Ibn Khaldun
men operating in a world of highly pragmatic is, I would suggest, being very characteristi-
and connected associations. cally Arab. Let me explain.
In such a world, the role of the leader Ibn Khaldun does recognize the critical
becomes essential. It is, therefore, sometimesimportance of the leader as the embodiment
forgotten that when Ibn Khaldun posits aof certain qualities that, for better or worse,
form of solidarity that may propel a group towill propel his group to greater heights or, in
great acts, what he called 'asabiyah,' this that most natural of tendencies, lead him,
occurs not through some obscure once successful, to undercut the solidarity of
Durkheimian effervescence but has at its his own supporters as he seeks to assert his
royal
heart, as Franz Rosenthal includes in his def-dominance. But Ibn Khaidun is also
inition of the term itself, "man's innate
being
psy-
characteristically Arab when he finds it
chological need to belong and give political
difficult to relate the question of personality
support to a group dominated by one or to more
historical trends: The Islamic conception
leading personalities. ... " (Rosenthal of history is not one of proof in this world of
1987:566, emphasis added)2 "'Asabiya;" says that which Allah has foreordained so much
Yves Lacoste (1984:102), "refers to the influ- as it is the story of individuals creating a
ence of leaders of men in a very specific his- community of believers as an expression of
torical context."' This problem of the leader humanity's God-given capabilities. Ibn

2 In a related vein Albert Hourani goes beyond therefore mean social solidarity in general, but
the common translation of 'asabiyeh'as 'group rather a very specific form of social organiza-
feeling' to speak of it as "a corporate spirit ori- tion which allows a tribal aristocracy to control
ented towards obtaining and keeping power." the forces of a military democracy." (Lacoste
(Hourani 1991:2 and 449). Rosenthal, like many 1984:108).
others, uses the shorthand translation of "[T]he expected Messiah will not come to pow-
'asabiyeh' as "group feeling"-see, e.g., (Irwin er automatically because of the cyclical motion
1997:35) and (Mahdi 1968:56)-but the fuller of the stars. He will have to possess the quali-
definition that includes leadership is undoubt- fications necessary for a leader and must be
edly vital to an understanding of Ibn Khaldun's born in circumstances conducive to the cre-
usage. ation of a powerful state, which in turn must
Lacoste argues that Ibn Khaldun restricts his follow the natural course of rise and decline."
concept of asabiya to North African tribes, and (Mahdi 1957:256) The necessary qualities of
indeed to those in which some form of hierar- leadership include being just, competent, and
chy of chiefs has arisen: "'Asabiya' does not knowledgeable. See (Mahdi 1957:242-48).

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598 Essays on Ibn Kbaldun

Khaldun is unusual in that he feels the needrenewed birth, a novel beginning, a newly
to go beyond the question of personality made
in world" (Ibn Khaldun 1987:181). And
order to discern the forces that propel since
an Ibn Khaldun clearly wanted his "sci-
individual and a community to the next stageence of culture" to be a guide for future
action, he was certainly giving voice to the
of development. But it is precisely the inter-
mediate idea of an institution-in the sense important role the historian should play in
used by Western social scientists to refer topractical affairs of the day.
the
the performance of a role that is not a func-
But much of this may be misleading, for
tion of personal attributes-that forms
theno
levels of abstraction at which Ibn
part of his theory. And that, I believe, is Khaldun
itself was operating and at which m
due to two factors: That he does not (1) view Western commentators operate are only p
the individual as acting separately from histially similar. For Ibn Khaldun, theory is
personal attributes because (2) the self, inseparable from action: Contemplation w
Arab culture, was not envisioned as fraction- out involvement would not yield insigh
ated-through religious, cultural, or politicaloperative patterns. His motto might well h
history-into a set of roles, reinforced as been the Wall Street saying: "To know
extant and natural by drama, theology, or not to act is not to know." Moreover, he
conceptions of time and space. Seeing the such a fine feel for pragmatic circumstan
person as unitary rather than fractionable,that what might seem like an inability to
Ibn Khaldun does not see limitations on oncile necessity and chance is actually h
power through the segregation of multiple monized by the implicit cultural assumpti
roles played by a single person or that the he, as an Arab, clearly subscri
to which
fractionation of the self might contribute to of the unfractionated self, the
the vision
the development of depersonalized trality
institu-of personal leadership, the larg
tions.5 Instead, Ibn Khaldun leapt over thisof history having no meaning
forces
problem and went directly to the question of
abstractions about the nature of society w
the ebb and flow of larger historical out
trends.
also serving as statements about the c
Yet it is precisely his commonsense orienta-
crete course of circumstantial events.7 Thus
tion as an exemplar of Arab culture that maylose the sense of Ibn Khaldun as a
we may
account for his emphasis on the unitary per- kind of Arab theoretician if we try
distinctive
son in his overall theory. to make him over in a Western image, and
Indeed, it may be that Westerners havesubject him to unfair judgment if we
we may
often misconstrued the very nature ofinIbn
find him a proponent of the kind of cycli-
Khaldun's theory of history because they
cal historicizing no longer favored in the
have claimed to see in it some of the same
West when, in fact, he used such configura-
elements that are present in theoriestions
thatas descriptions of processes based on
have gained currency at various times in the different assumptions about human
quite
West itself. Thus eighteenth century writers,
nature and human action than seem familiar
like Arnold Toynbee in the twentieth, could
only from his discussions of biosocial types.
find in Ibn Khaldun a congenial theorist One must, of course, be careful not to
because his apparent vision of historical
project onto the past the circumstances one
cycles mirrored the level of abstraction, if not
always the specifics, of their own theories.6
Some Westerners could also find resonance 7 On his view of chance versus necessity, Mahdi
with their own views of revolutionary change (1957:260) writes: "Ibn Khaldun's rejection of
in his assertion: "When general conditions absolute necessity does not then mean that he
refuses to give necessity a place in history, for
change it is as though creation changes from
that would have meant the reduction of all his-
its very foundation and the whole world is
torical events to accidental events, i.e., to
turned around. It is like a new creation, a
events that have no cause and, therefore, are
unintelligible. Rather, he follows a middle
5 This issue is explored in greater detail in the course between two extreme and simple,
essay entitled "Constructing Institutions in a though illusory, explanations: an explanation
Political Culture of Personalism" (Rosen 2002: based on universal necessity and the negation
56-72). of chance, and an explanation based on uni-
6 See (Toynbee 1948). versal chance and the negation of necessity."

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 Essays on Ibn Khaldun 599

claims to see in the present, much less to that we do neither scholarship nor cross-cul-
suggest that any culture, least of all that oftural understanding a favor if we simply
the Arabs, has somehow remained merge all of culture and history into a com-
unchanged over the course of 600 years. mon But
theme. The tendency, particularly
there are perduring, if variant, themes prevalent
in Arab among Americans, to presume that
culture that go beyond those of religious all cultures
pre- are basically the same should
cept or artistic style alone: Understanding have been
the brought up sharp by current
assumptions about the nature of human events: Globalism has by no means eliminat-
beings and human society is vital if we ed the
arelocal,
to indeed it may have exacerbated
see the distinctively Arab aspects it.
ofBetween
Ibn making everyone like "us" and
Khaldun's approach and how muchmakingit canany one culture better than another
there
still speak to our own times. For if we lies, however, the wiser and truer
see Ibn
Khaldun as a prescient student of proposition,
his own nowhere more cogently
culture and not just as a Western-style expressed
theo- than in the Prophetic Tradition
rist, we can appreciate several elements that says
of"there is no distinction except as to
his insight that have great currency.knowledge,"
If, in a and in that common Arab say-
view that still has force in Arab culture,ing,poli-
"a difference is not a distinction." It
would be unfortunate to lose Ibn Khaldun's
tics is of necessity bound up in personalism,
then we in the West must make a concerted appreciation of the distinctive nature of each
effort to understand how this affects the society in an attempt to render him the
grandfather of a very Western-style grand
interpretation of events in a fundamentally
different way than Westerners bring totheory
the of history and society.
same circumstances. If the components of a
References
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Hourani, Albert. 1991. A History of the Arab
when analytically fragmented and shorn of
context then we in the West need to under-
Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
stand more carefully what an "institution"
Irwin, Robert. 1997. "Toynbee and Ibn Khaldun."
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Khaldun, Ibn. 1987. An Arab Philosophy of History:
the common threads of events and not an Selections from the Prolegomena of Ibn
abstract version of them, we may be able Khaldun
to of Tunis (1332-1406). Princeton, PA:
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ence sensibility is consistent with Lacoste, Yves. 1984. Ibn Khaldun: The Birth of
History and the Past of the Third World.
Arab/Islamic thought than we had imagined
London, UK: Verso.
and that it is, therefore, all the more unfair,
Mahdi, Muhsin. 1957. Ibn Khaldun's Philosophy of
as some commentators have maintained, to
History: A Study in the Foundation of the
assert that Arab culture lacks a view of social
Science of Culture. Chicago, IL: University of
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trine. In sum, if we simply measure Ibn . 1968. "Ibn Khaldun." Pp. 53-57 in
Khaldun and other thinkers who partake ofInternational Encyclopedia of the Social
his cultural traditions against theorists from Sciences, edited by D. L. Sills. New York: The
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Changing Aspects of Contemporary Muslim Life.
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Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Indeed, reading between the lines of Ibn Rosenthal, Franz. 1987. "Ibn Khaldun." Pp. 565-67
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