The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History

Mesopotamian (“Chaldean”), Egyptian (“Coptic”), Persian, and Greek scholars developed the four major sciences that are not dependent on religion: logic, physical science (including medicine), metaphysics, and mathematics (subdivided into geometry, arithmetic, music, and astronomy). Islam, after an unfortunate spate of initial destruction, rescued these sciences from Christian neglect. Now the Maghrib is losing those sciences and Europe may be recovering them.

Aristotle, called “the First Teacher,” made an especially important contribution by organizing logic. He emphasized anagogical reasoning (finding parallels between similar examples) based on perception of the material world. Muslim scholars such as Ibn Rushd (also called Averroës) and Ibn Sina (also called Avicenna) translated and advanced his work. Scientific medicine has declined in the Muslim world since the days of Ibn Sina and Ibn Zuhr, and now many turn to pre-Islamic Bedouin charms and remedies in the mistaken belief that Muhammad created them.

Speculative theologians can use Aristotelian metaphysics to explain what the Qur’an has already clearly taught. However, Aristotelian philosophers like Ibn Sina who value reason above religious tradition err for two reasons. First, their teachings on spiritual realities like God and the soul cannot be tested in observable phenomena, and so their judgments cannot be proven. Second, experience shows that those living a spiritual life often have greater happiness than philosophers who claim that the life of the mind is the highest good.

Sorcery (magically influencing the world by the power of one’s own spirit) and talismans (invoking the power of stars or demons) are real sciences, as the Qur’an attests. A weaker kind of sorcery only produces illusions. The Qur’an forbids all these since they require devotion to beings other than God. Astrology similarly weakens faith in God’s providence. While the movement of the stars might influence people on earth, this is uncertain and only one of many influences. Alchemists either are con artists or failures, so their craft also is a false one.

God’s gift of science to the human soul requires that people communicate, first with words and then with the nobler pursuit of writing. Only seven valid reasons justify literary composition: inventing and explaining a science; interpreting challenging authorities; correcting an error from a previous writer if one has ironclad proof; filling a gap in an incomplete discipline; organizing previously haphazard knowledge; unifying information scattered between disciplines to form a new science; or providing a digestible summary without omitting its essential reasoning.

As it is, the amount of superfluous scholarship published makes mastering a science unnecessarily difficult. A good teacher will select longer, essential works and slowly walk a student through them three times at basic, intermediate, and advanced levels. The goal is to acquire the habit of thinking in a single discipline at a time. Ibn Khaldun addresses the reader directly, urging him to use this technique and to trust that God will aid him in using the sublime gift of reason.

The Qur’an is the basis of education, but children also need some other disciplines to grow their minds (preferably one discipline at a time). They should not be beaten often lest they associate knowledge with oppression. Advanced instruction may require travel to study with appropriate teachers.

Since science comes with sedentary civilization, non-Arab scholars have been the greatest scholars in Islam but they must first master the common language of Arabic. Acquiring the habit of speaking like a native is hard, and these “non-natives” have corrupted Arabic. The ancient tradition of Arabic poetry poses another challenge since it follows special rules learned by memorizing great poems. Poetry can only be judged by those who speak the dialect in which it is written. One should not try to write prose (especially government documents) using the poetic style. Eloquence consists of the habit of knowing how to combine words to fit the occasion, sound artistic, and persuasively convey the intended meaning. Too many people fail, however, to master the habit of natural speech and instead follow contrived rules with stock metaphors and quotations.

This book concludes the outline of Ibn Khaldun’s new science of civilization and its characteristics. He invites future scholars to elaborate on specific problems connected to it. He closes by entrusting his work to God.