Ibn Khaldun Today

by Dr. Souaiaia Ibn Khaldun and the Enduring Power of Jaah as Social Capital This essay revisits Ibn Khaldun’s 14th-century concept of jaah—a form of social capital rooted in prestige, reputation, and moral authority—as a powerful counterpoint to conventional understandings of capital as purely financial. Drawing on his Muqaddima, the essay argues that jaah constitutes a resilient, intergenerational, and often more enduring form of power than material wealth, as it cannot be seized by the state, purchased with money, or easily eroded by time. By highlighting the asymmetrical relationship between financial resources and social influence, the article underscores Ibn Khaldun’s enduring relevance to contemporary debates on power, legitimacy, and the multifaceted nature of capital. When the term capital is invoked in contemporary discourse, it is most commonly associated with financial assets—money, gold, real estate, or even digital currencies such as Bitcoin. In this conventional understa...

Robert Irwin’s 1997 article “ Toynbee and Ibn Khaldun ,” published in Middle Eastern Studies, offers a nuanced and erudite comparative analysis of the historical philosophies of Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975) and Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406). Irwin’s central aim is not merely to juxtapose the two thinkers but to interrogate the nature and limits of Toynbee’s engagement with Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddima, exposing both the productive affinities and the profound distortions that arise when Toynbee appropriates the North African historian as an intellectual forebear. The essay functions simultaneously as a historiographical critique, a study in intellectual transmission, and a subtle reflection on the politics of historical interpretation in the twentieth century. Irwin begins by situating Toynbee historically and intellectually: as a British scholar writing in the turbulent interwar and postwar decades, shaped by the collapse of empires, the rise of nationalisms, and his experiences at Chatham House...