This book explores the significance of Ibn Khalduns magnum opus, the Book of Examples, to our understanding of human history and the disciplines of anthropology, history, and sociology.
Operating outside of the confines of the Western intellectual tradition, Ibn Khalduns the Book of Examples is perhaps the first attempt to propose a global history of humanity. In doing so, Ibn Khaldun pioneered approaches from what we today term sociology, anthropology, ecology, economics, geography, and urban studies. Drawing upon the Muqaddima and the other volumes of the Kitab al-Ibar, Cheddadi proposes novel ways of viewing human history and classifying societies. While Ibn Khalduns attempts to develop a true global history were ultimately flawed, Cheddadi argues that they nevertheless offer pertinent lessons for our attempts to write a global history and to understand the world today.
This stimulating and original work on a seminal figure in Islamic sociology and historiography will be of interest to students and researchers across the humanities and social sciences.
Part I: Introduction
1. How to approach Ibn Khaldūn today? A Question of
Global History
2. Ibn Khaldūn: A Historian of the Premodern Period
3. Ibn
Khaldūns Program: The Science of Umran and the Rewriting of History Part
II: A General Anthropology
4. Anthropological Representations Drawn from the
Islamic Background
5. Natural Conditions, Supernatural Conditions, Thought
6.
Society, Power, Economy Conclusion to Part II Part III: A Sociology of Rural
and Urban Societies
7. Rural Societies, Power, States
8. Urban Society and
the Economic System
9. Urban Society and the Cultural System Part IV: History
10. History in the Muqaddima
11. History in the Narrative Part of The Book of
Examples Part V: Conclusions
12. Methodology
13. Ibn Khaldūn and His Work in
a Global History Perspective
14. The World described by Ibn Khaldūn
15. Ibn
Khaldūns Contributions to Reflection on Global History
Abdesselam Cheddadi is a historian and philosopher, currently Professor Emeritus at Mohammed V University, Morocco. He has previously been a Visiting Professor at Harvard University and Princeton University, a Senior Fullbrighter at Yale University, and an Associate Director of Studies at the École des Hautes en Social Sciences in Paris. He is the author of numerous works on Arab civilization, culture, and education, particularly Islamic historiography and the works of Ibn Khaldun.
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