Society, State, and Urbanism: Ibn Khaldun’s Sociological Thought
Author: Fuad
Baali
Publisher: Islamic
Book Trust
ISBN: 97896705264851
Year: 2018
Pages: 139
pp
Price: RM43
Ilm al-umran
is “… an independent science. This science has its own peculiar object—that is,
human civilization and social organization. The discussion of this topic is
something new, extraordinary, and highly useful. Penetrating research has shown
the way to it.”
— Ibn
Khaldun
This book probes the nature, scope, and
methods of ilm al-umran, the new science of human social organization, as it is
developed in Ibn Khaldun’s 14th century masterpiece, the Muqaddimah. It explores
his ideas and observations on society, culture, socialization, social control,
the state, asabiyah (social solidarity), history as a cyclical movement,
urbanization, and the typology of badawa (primitive life) and hadara (civilized
life or urbanism).
Through a comparative perspective, this study illustrates that Khaldun’s ideas about society have conceptually preceded those of Machiavelli, Vico, and Turgot, as well as those of Montesqueau, Comte, Durkheim, Gumplowicz, Spengler, Tonnies, and even Marx. Society, State, and Urbanism demonstrates that Ibn Khaldun’s thought is relevant to contemporary sociological theory, and that his very language differs little from that of classical and modern sociologists.