Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun - Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun | 3 Volumes

The Muqaddimah is a book written by Ibn Khaldun in 1377 CE as an introduction to his massive work titled Kitab al-Ibar (the full title of the book is Kitab al-Ibar, wa Diwan al-Mubtada' wa al-Khabar fi Ayyam al-Arab wa al-Ajam wa al-Barbar, wa man Asarahum min Dhawi al-Sultan al-Akbar). The Muqaddimah was later considered a separate, encyclopedic work, as it covers all fields of knowledge, including Sharia, history, geography, economics, urbanism, sociology, politics, and medicine. In it, he discussed the conditions of human beings, the differences in their natures, and the impact of the environment on humans. He also studied the development of nations and peoples, the rise of states, and the reasons for their collapse, focusing on the concept of 'asabiyyah (group solidarity) in his explanation. With this book, Ibn Khaldun preceded other thinkers in many opinions and ideas, to the extent that he is considered the founder of sociology, preceding the French philosopher Auguste Comte.

The Muqaddimah can be summarized in a set of theories and principles that Ibn Khaldun established, making him the true founder of sociology, contrary to what Western scholars claim that the true founder is the Frenchman Auguste Comte. By reading the Muqaddimah, three basic concepts can be identified that confirm this: firstly, Ibn Khaldun in his introduction explained that human societies operate and progress according to specific laws, and these laws allow for a degree of future prediction if they are studied and understood well; secondly, that this science (the science of urbanism, 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 times, 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 establish it on its modern foundations. He reached brilliant theories in this science regarding the laws of urbanism, the theory of 'asabiyyah, and the establishment of states, their stages of prosperity, and their fall. His views and theories preceded by several centuries what famous scholars, such as the French scholar Auguste Comte, later achieved.