Ibn Khaldun (1332 - 1406, A.D.)
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Jul 18, 2000
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|  orn in Tunis to a wealthy family that provided superior education, Ibn Khaldun is generally considered to be the greatest Arab historian and is known as the father of modern social science and cultural history. He held various offices under the rulers of Tunis and Morocco and in 1363 served as ambassador of the Moorish king of Granada to Pedro the Cruel of Castile. He sailed to Alexandria in October 1382, where he spent most of the rest of his life as a teacher and lecturer at Al-Azhar and other universities. Ibn Khaldun became Maliki Judge through appointment from the Sultan Abul Abbas of Cairo and made the Hajj to Mecca in 1387 after receiving permission. He accompanied the Egyptians in 1400 in their campaign against Tamerlane, a Mongol leader, and arranged for the surrender of Damascus in the absence of Sultan Faraj. His magnum opus, the al-Muqaddimah (meaning "universal history"), began as a history of Arabs and Berbers, but evolved into a scientific approach to understanding history, politics and economics. He believed those things mandated by God could be shown to be empirically true, and believed God created sound economics and foundations for healthy existence.
Why Ibn Khaldun is important to the ideals of freedom: Nearly 350 years prior to the writings of Adam Smith, Ibn Khaldun was developing ideas calling for limiting government to only those duties that defended its citizens against aggression, protected private property, prevented fraud in business exchanges, printed and managed the minting of money, and enforced prudent political leadership by having social cohesion and non-coercive power. In economics, Ibn Khaldun developed a theory of value and its relationship to labor, introduced a theory of the division of labor, advocated open markets, perceived the dynamics that demand and supply had on prices and profits, argued against high taxation, supported free trade with foreigners, and believed in freedom of choice to allow citizens to work hard for themselves. Moreover, Ibn Khaldun is widely recognized for his work in sociology, astronomy, numerology, chemistry, and history. Single-handedly, Ibn Khaldun has provided a starting point for an Islamic and Arab intellectual tradition of independent thinking, responsible government, efficient markets, empirical scientific investigation, sociological examinations and historical research.
"Whoever takes someone's property, or uses him for forced labor, or presses an unjustified claim upon him. It should be known that this is what the Lawgiver had in mind when he forbade injustice."
- Ibn Khaldun |
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