Ibn Khaldun: biography of this philosopher and historian

Ibn Khaldun was a Tunisian historian, sociologist, philosopher, economist, geographer and demographer born in the 14th century into an honorable family of Andalusian origin.

His life was marked by all kinds of intrigues and jealousy of the courtiers of the many kingdoms. Islamic groups that he frequented, giving advice and protecting the decisions of sultans from all over the north African.

Considered one of the great medieval Muslim thinkers, this intellectual is studied as a great reference in the history of Islam, sociology and Muslim philosophy. Here you will find a biography of Ibn Khaldun in summary format.

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Brief biography of Ibn Khaldun

Known in Spanish as Aben Khaldún or Ibn Khaldún, Ibn Khaldun was a Tunisian historian of Andalusian origin. whose work, especially his "Prolegomena" has contributed not only to know the history of the medieval Islamic world but also to have a vision of sociology different from that of the western classic, in addition to being one of the few Muslim scholars who was motivated to write his own biography and describe how the environment influences communities human.

Ibn Khaldun's life was very hectic, basically because the local nobility went to live in a new city. he ended up having a certain mania for him when he saw how influential he became before the sultan, emir or monarch of his new place of residence. home. His life was marked by envy and palace intrigue, jealousy that led him to exile, jail and deportation on more than one occasion.

early years

Ibn Khaldun, whose full name is Abū Zayd 'Abdu r-Raḥman bin Muḥammad bin Khaldūn Al-Hadrami, was born on May 27, 1332 in the city of Tunis. The information we have on his life is thanks to the fact that he, as a historian, wrote his autobiography, a rather unusual event in his time, especially in the Arab world.

His family was noble, of Andalusian origin and had a very ancient lineage, originally from Hadramaut, a kingdom that existed on the Arabian peninsula until the 3rd century AD. c. His ancestors had moved to the lands of Al-Andalus, going first to Carmona and then to Seville, but due to After the Reconquest, the Banu Khaldun family chose to emigrate to Ceuta and then Tunis, the city where Ibn Khaldun would be born.

His first years were spent in the same city where he was born, where he received a careful education according to the important status of his family. His father served almost all his life in the court of the Hafsids of Tunisia, a dynasty that ruled the city not without having important enemies.

The young Ibn Khaldun, in addition to the Qur'an and Hadith under the tutelage of the most important scholars of the city, studied philosophy and social sciences, Arabic literature and the long life of the Prophet Muhammad, facts that would make him a prolific philosopher in his adulthood. These years would be very happy for the young man, enjoying the pleasures of good education and the privileged position of his family.

However, in the year 1349 at the age of 17 he saw misfortune stalking his land. His parents and his teachers would perish from a plague epidemic that hit the city of Tunis, leaving him and his brothers Muhammad and Yahya orphans.

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political beginnings

Ibn Khaldun's political career began as a khatib, that is, the person who delivers the sermon during the Friday prayers, being in the service of the sultan. Abu Ishaq, who had proclaimed himself a restorer of the Hafsid dynasty in Tunis after a brief intermission in 1349 perpetrated by the enemy dynasty of the benimerines

After this event, a new stage would begin in the life of the young Ibn Khaldun, leading him to work in the service of the most important sultans of medieval Muslim Africa. after Abu Ishaq. After this he left the city and lived in the fortress of Bugia and from there he moved to the Merinid court of Fez, receiving a magnificent reception from the sultan Abu Inan in 1354 where he would continue his studies and would be declared secretary of orders of the sultan.

However, his sudden promotion aroused envy in the palace, envy that caused him to be accused of keeping contacts with Muhammad, a Hafsid prince who wanted to regain power over several places conquered by the benimerines Due to this Ibn Khaldun and Prince Muhammad would end up being imprisoned and the young sage would not be released until the death of Abu Inan in 1358. Fortunately, when he was released, all his honors were restored to him.

Ibn Khaldun wanted to return to his hometown, but did not get permission to do so. However, his life smiled on him a little and thanks to his contacts with Aben Marzuk, who managed to enter the party of the aspirant to the throne Abu Salem, brother of Abu Inan, who in 1359 had occupied the throne of Fez replacing the new monarch placed after the death of his brother.

In this age Ibn Khaldun was in charge of writing all the correspondence of the new sultan and, for a time, he was able to influence Abu Salem enormously. until Aben Marzuk rose at court and monopolized all the ruler's attention. It was also in the year 1359 that Ibn Khaldun collaborated with the King of Granada Muhammad V, of the Nasrid dynasty, who had been dethroned from his kingdom and had taken refuge in Fez.

Ibn Khaldun spoke with his sovereign to help the refugee king in whatever he needed to recover his Hispanic kingdom, which would happen a year later. This would be greatly appreciated by Muhammad V, who would later accept Ibn Khaldun at his court.

Shortly before the death of Abu Salem, Ibn Khaldun he was appointed supreme judge to give justice to those who had received offenses from the most powerful and could not be judged by ordinary courts. When the sultan died, Ibn Khaldun knew how to see the hostility that Omar ibn Abdallah professed towards him, the wazir of the new sultan, which made him decide to leave Fez and move to Spanish lands.

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In Al-Andalus

On his trip to Al-Andalus he would pass through Ceuta and then Gibraltar in 1362, a journey that his ancestors had traveled but in the opposite direction. He would soon arrive in Granada, where Muhammad V would gladly accept him at his court and would soon become his most faithful confidant.

The wazir of the King of Granada, Aben Aljathib, would be much friendlier than the one from Fez, having a good relationship with Ibn Khaldun. The sultan of Granada rewarded Ibn Khaldun with a farmhouse in Elvira, present-day Granada, where he lived for a time together with his family that he sent to come from Tunisia.

This time would be prosperous for Ibn Khaldun since the king of Granada would entrust him with important diplomatic tasks, among They travel to Seville in 1363 to ratify a peace treaty with Pedro I of Castile, a monarch to whom Muhammad V paid outcasts. Despite being an "enemy", Pedro I would see Ibn Khaldun as a great sage and, in fact, invited him to join his side after knowing the importance that his ancestors had had in the Peninsula. The wise Arab rejected the offer but Pedro I of Castile showered him with all kinds of gifts.

But as had happened to him at the court of the sultan of Fez, Ibn Khaldun would suffer the same fate in Granada. His influence with Muhammad V was growing enormously and in 1365 he was pressured to leave Spain when he learned that the wazir Aben Aljathib was already beginning to show jealousy.. Despite the fact that Muhammad V himself asked him to stay at his court, Ibn Khaldun traveled to Almería and, after two weeks of travel, he arrived at Bejaia, a place where the same Muhammad of the Hafsid dynasty had just recovered his can.

In the court of Muhammad de Bugia he would receive the positions of chamberlain and preacher of the great mosque, in addition to teaching as a jurisprudence professor. He would also have the opportunity to accompany Muhammad in some of his military contests, in one of which this Muslim monarch would lose his life in 1366. It would be then that Ibn Khaldun would receive the offer to deal with state affairs and proclaim one of the previous monarch's sons as the new sultan, an offer that he would not accept.

Instead of accepting it immediately, the sage contacted the lord of Constantine and cousin of the late emir, Abu-l-Abbas, to whom he offered the government of Bugia. Although Abu-l-Abbas would take possession of the city and accept Ibn Khaldun at his court, the The wise man felt rejected and decided to move to Biskra, being welcomed by the lord there, Ahmed ibn Monzi.

In 1374 he again traveled to Granada, where he was initially received benevolently by his old friend Muhammad V. However, this monarch would receive reports from Fez in which Ibn Khaldun was branded as a very dangerous guest, therefore that he ordered that he be imprisoned and finally expelled to Honain, near Tlemcen, a place where he was not well received by the principle. However, Ibn Khaldun managed to gain the trust of the lord of the city, who would eventually entrust him with diplomatic missions.

return to africa

Subsequently he retired to Calta Ben Salama, in Algeria, where he spent four years writing one of his most important works, "The Prolegomena" or "Muqaddimah". In his autobiography he tells us that it was at this time that he would suffer from a serious illness but that, Apparently, he was saved thanks to divine intervention, something that would give strength to his beliefs muslims

In 1378 he returned to Tunis where he was welcomed by the sultan's court and once again stood out and aroused the envy of the other courtiers. In fact, it would be one of his former disciples, named Ibn Arafa, who would dedicate numerous infamy to him, which made the court was positioned against Ibn Khaldun, something that motivated this philosopher to leave his hometown again and make a pilgrimage to La Mecca.

He left Tunis at the end of 1382, arriving in Alexandria in December and shortly after in Cairo.. There he had a good reputation and managed to win the affection of a group of disciples eager to receive numerous teachings from him. He would again teach jurisprudence in one of the city's mosques.

He tried to get his family to Egypt, but the request was denied by the Sultan of Tunis, who wanted him back at all costs. In time he would get his family to travel to his new residence but unfortunately his misfortune would strike him again. During the trip, the ship in which his relatives were traveling sank due to a storm and they would all perish in the sinking. This caused tremendous pain to the sage Ibn Khaldun, who took refuge in Islam and study as a way of channeling his pain.

Last years

In 1400 Ibn Khaldun he was part of the expedition started by the ruler of Cairo to fight against the expansion of Tamerlane, Mongol leader, who was conquering numerous places in Syria. On this journey, Ibn Khaldun would be trapped in Damascus and would, in fact, meet Tamerlane in person. The Mongol conqueror was impressed by the knowledge of Ibn Khaldun, a wise man who had no problem showing him part of his work.

Ibn Khaldun managed to return to Cairo after his stay in Syria, being appointed in that city Grand Maliki Qadi of Egypt a few more times. This position, which he did not like very much, he would hold until a short time later, when he died on March 19, 1406 at the age of 73.

His work and intellectual legacy

Ibn Khaldun has been a scholar whose works have made a great contribution to the field of sociology and philosophy., although unfortunately not many of them are preserved. He was the author of numerous works on law, literature, religion and philosophy, although his work as a historian has been of enormous help in understanding the history of Islamic countries and his medieval vision of this question.

Kitab al-Ibar

this thinker he left written a detailed genealogy of the Muslim dynasties of North Africa known as "Kitab al-Ibar" or "Universal History", a work of great importance for understanding the Islamic monarchies of the Middle Ages that consisted of seven volumes, although it would only be the first that would make him famous: "Muqaddimah" or "Foreword". Such has been the impact of this first volume that for two centuries it has been published separately from the rest of the work, basically because Ibn Khaldun condenses all his thought in this part.

This part of the work could be defined as an introduction to the work of the historian, who had created an encyclopedia in where he synthesized the methodological and cultural knowledge necessary to describe history based on criteria scientists. He carries out a complex analysis of society, seeking to understand the foundations of social behavior and how historical development occurs.. It is really a great work from a sociological perspective.

This part is divided into six chapters. In the first he talks about society, the physical world where communities live and how the environment influences them. In the second he talks about the most rural and simple societies. In the third, he analyzes the ways in which governments and states apply their laws, using different types of institutions and controlling human communities. In the fourth he delves into urban and more developed societies. In the fifth he talks about humanity in general and in the last he talks about ways to transmit culture and the arts.

Bibliographic references:

• Pons-Boigues, F (1898) Bio-bibliographic essay on Arab-Spanish historians and biographers. Madrid.
• Saade, I (1973) The religious thought of Ibn Khaldun. Madrid.
• Saade, I (1969) How Ibn Khaldun judges Christianity. Salamanca.
• Moraleda-Tejero, J. M(s. f.) Khaldun, Ibn or Aben Khaldun (1332-1406). The web of biographies.