The Rise And Decline Of The Dynasties During Ibn Khaldun

Running head: THE RISE AND DECLINE OF THE DYNASTIES 1

The Rise and Decline of the Dynasties during Ibn Khaldun’s Era

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THE RISE AND DECLINE OF THE DYNASTIES 2

The Rise and Decline of the Dynasties during Ibn Khaldun’s Era

Abd al-Rahman, popularly known as Ibn Khaldun is among the most remarkable

individuals in medieval historiography. Ibn Khaldun examined the rise and fall of states, the

basis of social solidarity (asabiyya) and the theories of society. He was a well-traveled, urbane

individual whose encounters in life enlightened him about the ruled and the rulers. Born in 1332

in Tunis, North Africa, Khaldun was well-educated. He absorbed knowledge easily due to his

zealous commitment to study and travel. He mostly lived in Spain and North Africa. Khaldum’s

work on the rise and fall of dynasties is founded on the concept of a ruler uniting his macho

Bedouin individuals with a shared sentiment of ‘Asabiyya’ (Khaldun, 2011). The ruler who

wants to assume power mostly overturns a standing civilization that is at the end of its lifecycle

reveling in luxury and decadence.

Khaldun is ranked among the most notable individuals in the Muslim world’s history. He

was orphaned after the Black Plague that swept through the Mediterranean region, but his

remarkable abilities caught the attention of the local personages. His work, Muqaddima was

significantly successful and brought him so much attention. Some of the subjects presented in

Muqaddimah include the rise and fall of states, the basis of ‘asabiyya’ or sovereignty, and his

theories on society (Khaldun, 2011). Khaldun defined social phenomena and placed them in the

perspective and flow of the historical happenings.

Ibn Khaldun’s Errors of History and the New Science

Khaldun’s writings, especially the Muqqaddima, have been termed as sociological.

Consequentially, Khaldun has been termed the father of modern sociology. The basis of his new

science was the critique of the state of historiography among historians of the Arab East and

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West up to his time. From the comments that he made in his autobiography regarding the

accuracy of his family tree, one can easily gauge his critical mind. He begins the autobiography

by observing an error in the record of the genealogy of his family.

The Muqqaddima was completed in 1378 with a keen focus to generate a theoretical

model that would assist in reconstructing the history without obvious errors as depicted in the

historiography of Khaldun’s era. He provides that there is a distinction between the surface

history and its inner meaning (Khaldun, 2011). Muqaddinah delves into the hidden connotation

of history which entails speculations and an endeavor to uncover the reality, understated

elucidation of the origins and causes of existing stuff, and a more in-depth understanding of why

and how the actions occurred.

Khaldun had a broad-minded idea of history. He stipulated that history has a true object

of allowing people to comprehend man’s social state, reveal to them the occurrences that

supplement primitive life naturally, and then enhancement of behaviors (Khaldun, 2011). The

various arts, sciences, professions, occupations, and the changes in nature of events can affect

how the society operates. Khaldun sought scientific and natural descriptions for proceedings and

not the operation of chance or the intervention of divine favor.

The ‘new science’ by Ibn Khaldun is understood as the science of human social

organization or sociology. He stipulated that this science has its unique way of explaining how

human civilization and social organization attach to the essence of civilization (Khaldun, 2011).

Khaldun perceives civilization as the product of human interaction. He provides that the human

being’s essential gift is their deliberative and reflective ability, and they have the capabilities to

arrange how they relate to each other.

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The underlying philosophies of new science include: (1) the central theme of the new

science is human association, (2) the vital approaches to culture are its problems, (3)

demonstration is its method, and (4) disregarding falsehood and ensuring accuracy in the

historical reports is its end. Khaldun provided that he was offering a new science that entailed the

subsequent sections: the sciences, the occupations, the crafts, the cities, the states, primitive

societies, and human civilization.

The Muqqaddima and the Science of Human Civilization

The first part of Muqqaddima is a detailed study of human society. Khaldun (2011)

discusses human civilization in overall providing through inferential reasoning why social

organization and human co-operation is an inevitable requirement for existence and authority as

an important component in providing a restraining effect to avoid prejudice. He was keen on

carrying out a profound investigation into the rise of human civilizations. He employed an

idiosyncratic historical tactic to seek shared characteristics in them. His viewpoint provides that

the nomadic life phase exemplified the primitive stage of humanity. These communities then

advanced to the nobility level in the form of judges and rulers in a standardized format (Khaldun,

2011). Khaldun provides an insightful narration of the passage of a human form to participate in

a state form from his isolated origin.

The Muqqaddima tries to describe how and why humans were created and how the

patterns lead to the rise of historical power groups that provide the basis for growth and decline

from one step to another. Khaldun concluded that co-operation and solidarity was a precondition

for the safety of civilization. For the development of a genuine human altruism, a prolonged

epoch of civilization is unavoidable. Empathy, reciprocity, family relations, and descent are the

basis for the establishment of human civilization (Khaldun, 2011). Human self-sacrifice is the

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fundamental aspect of this gradual growth. As the primitive stage of human civilization,

nomadism lets individuals obtain an inherent capacity to consolidate the settings according to

supremacy. Khaldun, later on, observes various junctures of exhausting power, and finally, the

society arrives as a state at the systemic community. Cultural domination is first broken followed

by political power as a result of human altruism and social cohesion. According to Khaldun

(2011), social systems flourish if human unselfishness is enlisted by reasonable and mild

political approaches that respect the confines of altruism from the beginning.

Khaldum (2011) further provides the ideas of descent and lineage as imperatives for

creating a reliable power. He stipulates that affection and compassion for an individual’s

relatives and blood relations happen in human beings as what God placed in men’s hearts. It

increases the fear felt by the enemy and makes for mutual support and aid. People are ashamed

when their relatives are attacked or treated unjustly and wishes one to intervene between them

and whatever destruction or peril threatens them.

He provides that societies may be classified into two general categories including

sedentary and nomadic. Nomads reserve the customary virile qualities of comradeship,

endurance, honor, and warfare. They are the victors of the sedentary enlightened people and do

not carry civilization themselves; thus, then maintain those abilities. Ibn Khaldun also observes

that excessive concentration on economic factors and wealth in a society can encourage revolt.

Religious creed also assumes a significant position in dynasties. Khaldun stipulates that empires

usually ascend and are maintained by the accord of their dominant religious system and when a

religion declines, it decays the empire too. Religion performs a vital role to a community as a

moral-giver and a unifier.

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Khaldun provides information about geography and climate as well as where civilizations

are found. He delves into the various environmental conditions, climates, and the temperate

zones of the earth, and how they affect the behaviors and physical features of a human being

(Khaldun, 2011). He further postulates that environmental factors that the desert Bedouins are

exposed to encourage the values of courage, self-reliance, individuality, fortitude and most

importantly ‘Asabiyya.’

The harsh desert life surroundings, with the restricted access to amenities, luxury, and

material goods are the origins and causes of most empires and civilization and particularly the

Islamic polities. ‘Asabiyya’ is the strongest at this point and Khaldun claims that it is the basic

block which keeps a civilization running (Khaldun, 2011). If ‘Asabiyya’ is weak, then the empire

is likely to collapse. ‘Asabiyya’ has been used by authors to mean ‘group cohesion,’ ‘social

solidarity,’ and ‘public spirit.’ Ideally, Asabiyya was often based upon tribal basis or blood ties,

and with the introduction of Islam, it was later founded on religious unity. The premise of the

notion is being loyal to a shared leader, sharing ideologies, and defending the community against

outside attack.

Analysis of the Rise and Decline of the Dynasties

Khaldum (2011) witnessed the rise and fall of various political figures, always going up

the elite societal tiers and then plunging into the vaults. He made a close examination of the

power struggle between urban dwellers and the nomads in the Bedouin and broader political

situation of his era. He describes the political process as transitory, inexorable, cyclical, and

without a fixed direction. The process does not suppose particular constitutional arrangements.

Khaldun conceptualized social development as being analogous to an individual’s life stages of

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birth, maturity, and death. He established the spiral theory of social evolution that portrayed a

change from primitive nomadic life to a civilized sedentary urban life.

He supposed that the ruling series is self-destructive but has a bridge is always

reconstructed between the two worlds. Khaldun further argued that empires have an average

lifespan like human beings. Physicians and astrologers provide that the typical lifespan of an

individual is 120 years, which also functions as the highest period that a state can be in existence.

According to Khaldun (2011), an empire does not last for more than three generations. A

generation spans for about 40 years which is the time period that allows one to attain growth and

maturity.

Khaldun perception of how the three generations lasted was summarized in five stages

including: (1) the stage of success where the opposition is overthrown; (2) the full control stage

where the potentate attains complete control over his populaces; (3) the tranquility and leisure

stage; (4) the peacefulness and contentment stage ; and (5) the disintegration, squandering and

waste stage. Khaldun talks about how the society is born, grows, matures, self-indulges, and dies

as he demonstrated that the manner in which social solidarity or ‘asabiyya’ has a central part in

the rise and fall of civilization.

The entire historical development conception is founded on two dichotomous crowds: the

sedentary and nomadic (Khaldun, 2011). First, the nomadic, barbarian tribes are either forced or

infiltrate to a sedentary or civilized culture. The leader rules over his people fairly and shares the

power with them. A period of consolidation of territory or conquest then follows, where the first

stage of autocracy is manifested. The leader then chooses some of his beloved kinsmen and

examines his original followers’ authority, hence launching his empire.

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The third phase is termed the civilization and degeneration era, where a remarkable

civilization is developed. The populace and the ruler then indulge in life’s luxuries and refined

elements, focusing on wealth acquisition in their sedentary components, becoming cowardly and

weak; thus, losing their military ability (Khaldun, 2011). The amalgamation of these factors

results in the weakening of ‘Asabiyya’ and the original qualities that assisted in establishing their

initial clout. This makes them susceptible to external attacks from a new nomadic group that is at

the first phase of the cycle.

The signs of a disintegrating empire as demonstrated in the Khaldunian thesis include the

dominance of abuse of power, state and ruler’s expense accumulating, thus increased taxation

and weaknesses in the hearts of the citizenry (Khaldun, 2011). Men also begin to prefer luxury to

work which fascinates the barbarians on the borderlines of the society. New nomads then come

in, changing or destroying civilization, and the series begins once more.

Ibn Khaldun crafted a distinctive framework of history’s cyclic nature regarding the rise

and fall of civilization. His theory of macho nomadic people upsetting the debauched sedentary

populace was relevant in the medieval period of history. His declaration of “Asabiyya’ is the

basis of cohesion that guarantees proper functioning of a state. Governments work on ensuring

that the population’s Asabiyya stays strong while putting measures in place to ensure loyalty to

the values and ideals of the nation. Ibn Khaldun remains revered due to his work that resonates

with all generations and has a universal appeal.

THE RISE AND DECLINE OF THE DYNASTIES 9

References

Khaldun, A. A. R. B. M. ibn. (2011). The Muqaddimah. Tr. by Franz Rosenthal. Muslim

Philosophy.

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