The Muqaddimah
by Ibn Khaldun · المقدمة
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1377
- Era
- Medieval
- Form
- History
- Language
- Arabic
- Length
- Long · 480 pp300 to 700 pages
- Difficulty
- Difficult4 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendThe Muqaddimah, translated by Franz RosenthalPrinceton University PressN. J. Dawood's one-volume abridgement of Rosenthal's translation, with Bruce Lawrence's introduction, is the version courses assign.
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The introduction to Ibn Khaldun's universal history, written in 1377 while he was in retreat in what is now Algeria, and a book about how to think about history at all. He begins by exposing the errors and credulity of earlier historians and proposes instead a science of the underlying causes of social change. Its central concept is asabiyya, the group solidarity that binds kin in hard conditions; nomadic peoples have it and use it to conquer settled ones, then lose it over three or four generations as city life makes them soft, until a new group with asabiyya arrives. Later chapters treat dynasties, taxation, crafts, cities, trade and the sciences.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns The Muqaddimah are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
