The Muqaddimah is a book authored by Ibn Khaldun in 1377 CE as an introduction to his massive work titled Kitāb al-ʿIbar (The full title 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 an independent encyclopedic work, addressing all fields of knowledge including Sharia, history, geography, economics, urbanism, sociology, politics, and medicine. In it, he discussed human conditions, differences in their temperaments, 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 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, preceding the French philosopher Auguste Comte.

The Muqaddimah can be summarized into a set of theories and foundations laid by Ibn Khaldun, which 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 established that confirm this: firstly, Ibn Khaldun, in his introduction, showed 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, this science (which he called 'ilm al-umran', or the science of civilization) is not affected by individual events but rather by societies as a whole; and finally, Ibn Khaldun affirmed 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 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 arrived at brilliant theories in this science concerning the laws of civilization, the theory of 'asabiyyah', and the building of states and the stages of their prosperity and decline. His views and theories preceded by several centuries what several famous scholars, such as the French scientist Auguste Comte, later achieved.