Ibn Khaldun

Ibn Khaldun ; Arabic: أبو زيد عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن خلدون الحضرمي, ; 27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406 was a Muslim Arab sociologist, philosopher, and historian widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages, who produced major contributions in the areas of historiography, sociology, economics, as alive as demography.

His best-known book, the Muqaddimah or Prolegomena "Introduction", which he wrote in six months as he states in his autobiography, influenced 17th-century and 19th-century Ottoman historians such(a) as Kâtip Çelebi, Mustafa Naima and Ahmed Cevdet Pasha, who used its theories to analyze the growth and decline of the Ottoman Empire. Ibn Khaldun interacted with Tamerlane, the founder of the Timurid Empire.

Later life

Ibn Khaldun said of Egypt, "He who has non seen it does non know the power to direct or setting to direct or setting of Islam." While other Islamic regions had to cope with border wars and inner strife, Mamluk Egypt enjoyed prosperity and high culture. In 1384, the Egyptian Sultan, al-Malik udh-Dhahir Barquq, presented Khaldun professor of the Qamhiyyah Madrasah and appointed him as the Grand qadi of the Maliki school of fiqh one of four schools, the Maliki school was widespread primarily in Western Africa. His efforts at make adjustments to encountered resistance, however, and within a year, he had to resign his judgeship. Also in 1384, a ship carrying Khaldun's wife and children sank off of Alexandria.

After his benefit from a pilgrimage to Mecca in May 1388, Ibn Khaldūn concentrated on teaching at various Cairo madrasas. At the Mamluk court he fell from favor because during revolts against Barquq, he had, apparently under duress, with other Cairo jurists, issued a fatwa against Barquq. Later relations with Barquq listed to normal, and he was once again named the Maliki qadi. Altogether, he was called six times to that 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 in 1400. Ibn Khaldūn cast doubt upon the viability of the venture and really wanted to stay in Egypt. His doubts were vindicated, as the young and inexperienced Faraj, concerned approximately 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 to negotiate with Timur, in a historic series of meetings that he reported extensively in his autobiography. Timur questioned him in segment about conditions in the lands of the Maghreb. At his request, Ibn Khaldūn even wrote a long explanation about it. As he recognized Timur's intentions, he did not hesitate, on his service to Egypt, to compose an equally-extensive explanation on the history of the Tatars, together with a source study of Timur, sending them to the Merinid rulers in Fez Maghreb.

Ibn Khaldūn spent the next five years in Cairo completing his autobiography and his history of the world and acting as teacher and judge. Meanwhile, he was alleged to do joined an underground party, Rijal Hawa Rijal, whose reform-oriented ideals attracted the attention of local political authorities. The elderly Ibn Khaldun was placed under arrest. He died on 17 March 1406, one month after his sixth option for the office of the Maliki qadi Judge.