Ibn Khaldun Today

Abstract This article examines Ibn Khaldun’s foundational economic principle that active human work—expressed through the ever-present, transformative agency of the hand ( yad )—produces rightful ownership ( kasb ) that cannot be surrendered except through compensation ( ʿiwaḍ ). This dynamic relationship between labor, possession, and reciprocal exchange not only legitimates individual property but also establishes the systemic conditions under which the State may impose taxes without descending into injustice. In grounding political and fiscal legitimacy in the natural processes of human work rather than in inherited legal categories, Ibn Khaldun articulates a worldview that sets him apart from classical Muslim jurists and places him in a category of his own within Islamic intellectual history. This same systems-thinking framework—through which he analyzes value, authority, and historical change—has rendered him profoundly misunderstood or entirely un-understood by many modern scho...

 Abstract This study reimagines the foundational role of work in economic life through a comparative analysis of Ibn Khaldun and key Western economic thinkers, including Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Max Weber, and John Maynard Keynes. Drawing on the Systems Thinking Framework, the research positions work not merely as an economic activity but as a structuring principle that shapes civilizations, value systems, and social organization. Unlike modern paradigms that prioritize capital accumulation, this study explores how Ibn Khaldun’s pre-Enlightenment perspective centers work as the original and enduring source of value, production, and moral order. By contrasting this with Western theories that progressively decouple wealth from labor, the paper proposes a re-evaluation of economic systems toward a more equitable, sustainable, and human-centered model. The study also underscores the determinant role of the State in shaping dominant worldviews, offering a critical perspective on the i...

Feng Jiewen’s article,  A Survey of Research on Ibn Khaldun’s Socio-Historical Philosophy since the 19th Century, offers a comprehensive and carefully structured survey of more than a century and a half of scholarship on Ibn Khaldun’s socio-historical philosophy. Drawing on a broad corpus of European, Middle Eastern, and Chinese academic works, the author maps the development of Ibn Khaldun studies from early manuscript collection and translation projects to contemporary, specialized analyses of his intellectual legacy. As a review essay, the article succeeds in presenting both the breadth of international research and the relative gaps within Chinese scholarship.

On Franz Rosenthal, “Ibn Khaldun in His Time,” Journal of Asian and African Studies 18, no. 3 (1983): 166–178. Franz Rosenthal’s “Ibn Khaldun in His Time” is a concise yet erudite study that situates Ibn Khaldun’s intellectual and political career within the turbulent social and historical landscape of the fourteenth-century Maghrib. Known as one of the preeminent translators and interpreters of The Muqaddima , Rosenthal brings to this article a depth of philological mastery and historical sensitivity that allows him to illuminate how Ibn Khaldun’s thought was not an abstract philosophical exercise but an intervention shaped by—and responding to—the immediate pressures of his era. Rosenthal begins by mapping the political fragmentation of North Africa during Ibn Khaldun’s lifetime: dynastic instability, incessant tribal conflict, and shifting centers of power. Rather than treating Ibn Khaldun as a solitary genius outside his milieu, Rosenthal underscores how his itinerant career—mo...

Ibn Khaldūn—The Silent Architect of Systems Thought

Ibn Khaldun: The Visionary Who Anticipated the Modern Social Sciences In the vast expanse of Islamic intellectual history, few figures have achieved the lasting significance of Ibn Khaldun, the fourteenth-century North African historian, philosopher, and jurist who lived a life as complex and eventful as the civilizations he studied. The 2016 article  “A Review of Ibn Khaldun and His Scholarly Contributions”  by Li Yanwei and Zhang Meimei, published in the  Journal of Ningxia Normal University (Social Science) , offers a sweeping account of his extraordinary journey and the timeless relevance of his ideas. Through their study, Ibn Khaldun emerges not merely as a chronicler of his age but as a thinker who understood the deep structures of history, power, and human society centuries before the birth of sociology or modern historiography. Born in 1332 in Tunis to a distinguished Andalusian Arab family, Ibn Khaldun’s early years were marked by privilege, rigorous education, a...

Reimagining Work Reimagining Work  offers a profound and timely exploration of one of humanity’s most enduring questions: what is the true nature and purpose of work? In an age when automation, financialization, and global inequality challenge the moral foundations of economic life, this study returns to first principles—reconsidering how civilizations have understood work as both a material and ethical force. At its core,  Reimagining Work  situates the concept of labor within a comparative dialogue between Ibn Khaldun—the fourteenth-century North African historian, philosopher, and founder of the science of civilization ( ʿilm al-ʿumrān )—and leading Western economic thinkers such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Max Weber, and John Maynard Keynes. Through this dialogue, the study illuminates not only the intellectual lineage of economic thought but also the deep divergences that shape modern understandings of value, productivity, and human purpose. Drawing on the  Sy...

 Abstract This article turns to Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah (1377) to explore how spiritual leadership becomes spatialized through ʿasabiyya (group feeling), ritual infrastructures, and territorial design. Sacred offices, as Ibn Khaldun shows through his reflections on the Pope, Patriarch, and Kohen, function as spatial institutions, organizing power through pilgrimage routes, sacred capitals, and clerical hierarchies. Drawing on Islamic intellectual traditions and postcolonial theory, this study advances the concept of ‘civilisational spatiality’: the process by which moral authority, territorial control, and collective identity co-constitute one another. We treat Ibn Khaldun’s work as a theoretical resource in its own right, instead of a precursor to Western theory. In doing so, the analysis repositions ongoing struggles over sacred sites, diasporic belonging, and the spatial politics of sovereignty.