The Muqaddimah is a book written by Ibn Khaldun in 1377 AD as an introduction to his monumental work titled "Kitāb al-ʿIbar" (the full name of the book is "Kitāb al-ʿIbar wa Dīwān al-Mubtadaʾ wa al-Khabar fī Ayyām al-ʿArab wa al-ʿAjam wa al-Barbar wa man ʿĀṣarahum min Dhawī al-Sulṭān al-Akbar"). The Muqaddimah was later considered a separate, encyclopedic work, as it covers all fields of knowledge, including Sharia, history, geography, economics, urban planning, sociology, politics, and medicine. In it, he discusses the conditions of humans, the differences in their natures, and the effect of the environment on people. He also studied the development of nations and peoples, the rise of states, and the reasons for their collapse, focusing his explanation on the concept of 'asabiyyah (group solidarity). With this book, Ibn Khaldun preceded other thinkers in many opinions and ideas, to the extent that he is considered the founder of sociology, predating the French philosopher Auguste Comte.

The Muqaddimah can be summarized in a set of theories and principles established by Ibn Khaldun that make him the true founder of sociology, contrary to what Western scholars claim that the true founder is the French Auguste Comte. Through reading the Muqaddimah, three basic concepts can be identified that confirm this: firstly, Ibn Khaldun clarified in his Muqaddimah that human societies proceed and progress according to specific laws, and these laws allow for a degree of future prediction if they are studied and understood well; secondly, this science (the science of 'umran, as he called it) is not affected by individual events but rather by societies as a whole; and finally, Ibn Khaldun emphasized that these laws can be applied to societies living in different eras, provided that the structures are the same in all of them. For example, an agricultural society is the same agricultural society after 100 years or in the same era. Thus, Ibn Khaldun is the one who laid the true foundations of sociology. Ibn Khaldun is considered the founder of sociology and the first to place it on its modern foundations. He reached brilliant theories in this science about the laws of 'umran, the theory of 'asabiyyah, the building of states, and the stages of their prosperity and decline. His views and theories preceded, by several centuries, what was later achieved by a number of famous scientists, such as the French scholar Auguste Comte.