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Ibn Khaldun was born in Tunisia in 1332 and died in Egypt in 1406. He is a famous philosopher, and is sometimes considered the first sociologist for his critical remarks on how history should be studied. He outlined dynastic change in terms of transformations in the governing classes and related these to changes in economic conditions, for example, the introduction of new wants and new production, the effects of luxury, trends in taxation, and other features of expansion and contraction.
Ibn Khaldun is known for his history of the world (Kitab al-Ibar) written in 1377-1380, and most particularly for his long introduction (al-Muqaddimah), in which he explains the methods one should use to study society, and also the major patterns of historical occurrences one should expect to see. The Muqaddimah has become more famous than the rest of the history precisely because of its focus on principles and patterns, for here Ibn Khaldun appears as a sociologist and economist, and not as a chronicler.
In the late Twentieth Century, a renewed awareness that economy is inextricably linked to political structure has shifted interest toward cyclical rather than linearly progressive theories of history. It resumes a line of inquiry interrupted by World War II and its aftermath. In a recent book, for example, Ravi Batra(1) describes current economic events in terms of a cyclic theory of history earlier adapted From the Hindu tradition by B. K. Sarkar. This theory and the work of Ibn Khaldun turn out to have earlier inspired the elaborate historical cycles of the Russian sociologist Pitirim Sorokin.(2) Sorokin documented changes in cultural mores, fashion, ideology, and social relationships as well as in economic and political activity. He tried to show that changes in these areas were linked chronologically.
Ibn Khaldun developed a comprehensive theory of the dynastic cycle, describing how all aspects of society appear and change during the rise, zenith, degeneration and eventual collapse of a ruling dynasty. The fate of a dynasty was clearly related to events in the spheres of commerce, craftsmanship, culture, bureaucratic institutions, urban development, military organization, religion, and education. For example, he noted that increasing social stratification resulted when a dynasty approaching its zenith maintained its power by using it to distribute privileges, a method that...