Ibn Khaldūn: Political Thought

Table of Contents

General Introduction: Ibn Khaldūn: A Theory for Our Time?
Part I. On History:
1. History is a branch of philosophy
2. Errors to which historians are prone
Part II. On Combat Solidarities:
3. Man is a social animal
4. Bedouins are naturally courageous, much more so than sedentary peoples
5. On combat solidarities, and the conditions in which their strength declines
6. Bedouin nations are more skilled at conquest than other nations
7. As long as combat solidarities exist among members of the same nation, the monarchy will remain in that nation's control, even if power changes hands between its various branches
8. When the Arabs take control of cultivated territories, they quickly bring about their ruin
Part III. On The State:
9. States and universal dynasties are built by tribes and combat solidarities
10. A religious cause endows a nascent dynasty with force in addition to the combat solidarities derived from the number of its supporters
11. Every dynasty controls a finite number of domains and territories, which cannot be exceeded
12. It is natural for the sovereign to isolate himself in his glory, seeking peace and comfort
13. The leader of the dynasty puts his clients and those whom he has reared before his kin and his own combat solidarities
14. The caliphate
the kingdom of the Jews
and the pope and the emperor in Christendom
15. On war
16. On taxation
17. The dissolution of a dynasty
18. A nascent dynasty cannot overthrow the sitting dynasty in a single blow
victory must come in time
Part IV. Cities:
19. States precede cities and capitals
the latter cannot exist without the prior existence of the state
20. On the construction and organization of cities
21. The superiority of urban centres and cities, the prosperity of their inhabitants, and the amount of spending in their markets are based on the size of their populations
22. On prices in cities
23. Sedentary civilization is the highest and final degree of any civilization
for this reason, it is destined to decay and disintegrate
24. On military and civil functions, and their respective roles in the rise and fall of capital cities
Part V. Earning a Living
25. On the true meaning of 'subsistence' and 'profit'
commentary on these two terms
profit as the value of human labour
26. Happiness and profit generally go to those who are skilled at flattery and know when to bend the knee
27. Crafts and professions cannot fully flourish if sedentary civilization and population growth are not flourishing as well
Part VI. Sciences:
28. Sciences are concentrated in centres of high population density, where sedentary civilization is firmly entrenched
29. The categories of the intellectual sciences
30. The burden of the sciences in Islam fell primarily upon the shoulder of the Persians
31. Learning a language is like mastering any other craft
Part VII Texts from Ibn Khaldūn's Universal History
32. On the origins of the Hilālī invasions
33. Succession in Tlemcen: the assassination of the sultan Abū Ḥammū and the accession of his son, Abū Tāshfīn (1318)
34. The history of the kingdom of Granada (1238–1492)
35. A short history of Islam.