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Muqaddimah
moo-KAD-dih-mah
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The introduction to Ibn Khaldun's history of the Arabs and Berbers, finished in 1377 during a retreat from political life at Qalat Ibn Salama. It set out a cyclical theory of the rise and fall of dynasties driven by asabiyyah, group solidarity that runs strong among tribal or frontier groups and weakens as a dynasty settles into wealth and comfort, exposing it to conquest by a more cohesive rival. Widely credited as a founding text of historiography and sociology.
Facts
Key ProvisionSets out Ibn Khaldun's theory that dynasties rise on the strength of asabiyya, the group solidarity binding a tribal or military elite, and decline as settled luxury erodes that same solidarity across roughly three or four generations, a cyclical account of political power he applied to the historiography of North African and Islamic dynasties. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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Ibn Khaldun finished the Muqaddimah in 1377 during a retreat from political life, setting out his theory of asabiyyah and the cyclical rise and fall of dynasties.
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