The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> The Great Ibn Khaldun

The Great Ibn Khaldun

Posted by pancho (Moderator) - Sunday, September 26 2010, 17:42:18 (UTC)
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While the following quotes are taken from a book by a Muslim philosopher they come from Western Christian sources. We hardly ever produce Muslims praising or telling the truth about Muslims but Christians being honest and fair and preofessional.

"That he is the father of of the philosophy of history(from a time, 14th century, well before, Voltaire was named as such by Will Durant, mine) and the founder of sociology (again, well before August Comte, 17th century, gained that distinction in the West, mine) is now an established fact. We would do well to note in this connection the following observations made by Arnold Toynbee, a great British historian, Robert Flint, a British philosopher, and George Sarton, an American historian of science, respectively. These indeed are just a few of the many commendatory remarks sincerely bestowed upon Ibn Khaldun by the great thinkers of the world.

1....in the "Muqaddama"(Introduction, mine) to his "Universal History" he has conceived and formulated a philosophy of history which is undoubtedly the greatest work of its kind that has ever yet been created by any time or place...in his chosen field of intellectual activity he appears to have been inspired by no predecessor. (Arnold Toynbee, "A Study of History", Vol. III, p. 322)

2....As regards the science or philosophy of history Arabian literature was adorned by one most brilliant name. Neither the classical nor the medieval Christian world can show one of nearly the same brightness as Ibn Khaldun...As a theorist in history he had no equal in any age or country...Plato, Aristotle, Augustine were not his peers and all others were unworthy of being even mentioned along with him...He was admirable alike by his originality and sagacity, his profundity and his comprehensiveness (Robert Flint, "History of the Philosophy of History", p. 86).

3. Ibn Khaldun was a historian, politician, sociologist, economist, a deep student of human affairs, anxious to analyze the past of mankind in order to understand its present and future...one of the first philosophers of history, a forerunner of Machiavelli, Bodin, Vico, Comte and Cournot (George Sarton, "An Intriduction to the History of Science", Vol. III, p. 1262)"

I doubt Aprim or Jassim have read any of this...

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