Background
Ibn Khaldun was born on May 27, 1332, in Tunis. His family, of southern Arabian origin, settled in Seville after the Moslem conquest of Spain and distinguished themselves in the political and intellectual life of the city. Shortly before the Christian reconquest they left and eventually settled in Tunis. Ibn Khaldun always felt attached to the cultural tradition of Moslem Spain.
At the age of 17, Ibn Khaldūn lost both his parents to the Black Death, an intercontinental epidemic of the plague that hit Tunis in 1348-1349.
Education
His family's high rank enabled Ibn Khaldun to study with the best teachers in Maghreb. He received a classical Islamic education, studying the Qur'an which he memorized by heart, Arabic linguistics, the basis for an understanding of the Qur'an, hadith, sharia (law) and fiqh (jurisprudence). He received certification (ijazah) for all these subjects. The mathematician and philosopher, Al-Abili of Tlemcen, introduced him to mathematics, logic and philosophy, where he above all studied the works of Averroes, Avicenna, Razi and Tusi.
Career
Following family tradition, Ibn Khaldun strove for a political career. In the face of a tumultuous political situation in North Africa, this required a high degree of skill developing and dropping alliances prudently, to avoid falling with the short-lived regimes of the time. In 1352 the Hafsid ruler of Tunis gave Ibn Khaldun a minor position in the chancery, but he left soon to join al-Abili, who had returned to Fez.
During his stay in Fez (1354-1362) Ibn Khaldun pursued his scholarly interests and was actively involved in the political life at the Merinid court. Suspected of plotting against the ruler, he was imprisoned in 1357 for 22 months. Under a later ruler he again held high positions but became discouraged by court intrigues. Prevented by the Merinid court from joining the rival court at Tlemcen, Ibn Khaldun turned to Granada, where he was accorded a royal welcome by the young ruler, Muhammad V, and his vizier, Ibn al-Khatib, an outstanding man of letters, whose friendship he had gained during Ibn al-Khatib's exile in Fez.
In 1364 Muhammad V sent Ibn Khaldun to Seville on a mission to Pedro I, King of Castile. Ibn Khaldun declined an offer of Pedro to have his ancestors' possessions reinstated if he would enter royal service. Ibn Khaldun's intimacy with Muhammad V, whom he tried to direct toward his ideal of philosopher king, aroused the suspicion of Ibn al-Khatib, and Ibn Khaldun was forced to leave Granada, though with official honors, in 1365. Ibn Khaldun accepted an invitation from the Hafsid ruler of Bougie and became his minister. When the ruler was defeated and killed by his cousin a year later, Ibn Khaldun entered the service of the cousin but soon left as a result of court intrigue.
The next 9 years were the most turbulent of his life. Thoroughly disappointed with his court experiences, he tried to keep away from politics and spent most of the time in research and teaching in Biskra, at the sanctuary of the saint Abu Madyan near Tlemcen, and in Fez. He felt, however, repeatedly obliged to assume political missions for various rulers among the Arab tribes in the area.
In 1375 he briefly returned to Granada but was expelled. Soon afterward Ibn Khaldun retreated to the castle of Ibn Salama in central Algeria, where he spent over 3 years in complete seclusion under tribal protection. He intended writing a history of the contemporary Maghreb and began the introduction (muqaddima) setting forth his ideas about critical historiography. The Muqaddima rapidly grew into a general theory of history, or science of civilization, as he termed it. He now widened his plans to include a universal history based on his new science.
In 1379 he returned to Tunis with the permission of the new Hafsid ruler to avail himself of books and archives for his work. Under the ruler's patronage he wrote the history of the Maghreb and sections of the history of the East. His influence with the ruler and popularity among students again provoked court intrigues, and he left in 1382 for Egypt under pretext of a pilgrimage to Mecca.
The last 2 decades of his life Ibn Khaldun lived in Cairo, the splendid capital of the Mamluk empire, enjoying the patronage of the sultans Barquq and Faraj. He was granted professorships in several colleges. Six times he was appointed Maliki chief judge, though only for brief terms. Most of his time was devoted to teaching and research. He completed his history and continued improving it.
He made a pilgrimage to Mecca and two trips to Damascus, the second one occasioned by the campaign of Faraj against Tamerlane in 1400. Tamerlane invited Ibn Khaldun to visit his camp; his conversations with the world conqueror, reported in his autobiography, turned mostly around the political conditions in Egypt and the Maghreb.
Ibn Khaldun died on March 17, 1406, in Cairo, Egypt.
Religion
Though there is no explicit information on Ibn Khaldun’s religious opinions, he followed Islam and during the later part of his life also planned visits to several Muslim holy places. His book Muqaddimah for which he became famous includes his ideologies on Islam. He was mentioned to be a supporter of al-Ghazali.
Views
Ibn Khaldun considered the permanent conflict between primitive Bedouin and highly developed urban society as a crucial factor in history. Civilization is for him an urban phenomenon to be realized only by local concentration and cooperation of men united under a strong dynastic rule. He saw group solidarity (asabiyya) as the driving force for this cooperation and the establishment of dynastic rule.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
British historian Arnold J. Toynbee called the Muqaddimah "a philosophy of history which is undoubtedly the greatest work of its kind that has ever yet been created by any mind in any time or place. "
The British philosopher Robert Flint wrote the following on Ibn Khaldun: "as a theorist of history he had no equal in any age or country until Vico appeared, more than three hundred years later. Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine were not his peers, and all others were unworthy of being even mentioned along with him".
Abderrahmane Lakhsassi writes: "No historian of the Maghreb since and particularly of the Berbers can do without his historical contribution. "
The British philosopher-anthropologist Ernest Gellner considered Ibn Khaldun's definition of government, "an institution which prevents injustice other than such as it commits itself", the best in the history of political theory.
Arthur Laffer, whom the Laffer curve is named after, noted that, among others, some of Ibn Khaldun's ideas precede his own.
Connections
Ibn Khaldun married in his 20s, but there is no exact information on his family, except that in 1384 a ship carrying his wife and children sank off the coast of Alexandria.
