Ibn Khaldun's Influence On The Renaissance

The period of the mid 1300’s until at least 1600 is generally accepted as the time of the Renaissance. This was a time marked by movement away from stagnation in the fields of art and science and towards one that praised progression and discovery. While many people are aware of the Renaissance’s influence in Europe, there was also significant progress occurring in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly through the works of Ibn Khaldun. Khaldun’s works are best known for the waves they made in the fields of sociology and philosophy, particularly those that deal with how history ought to be viewed, and what makes them very distinctive for this time period is the influence the Islamic faith and Arab culture had on his viewpoints. Before
The Muqaddimah is the introduction to Khaldun’s philosophy about history, addressing subjects such as economics; society, religion, and politics; and how knowledge could be obtained in the social constructs of the day (“historiography”). Originally intending the Muqaddimah to be a history of both Arab and Berber culture, Khaldun decided that it would be better to write a work that helped define what it meant for something to be historically true, so he used the knowledge he obtained through his studies to develop what he thought was “the science of culture” (Issawi). From his studies and experiences, he was able to formulate the idea that humans progressed from smaller groups of tribes and into larger, more sophisticated societies by way of “asabiyah,” the inevitable inclination towards serving a group led by a personality made for ruling over the masses (Rosen 597). While this idea may not seem overly progressive, Khaldun analyzed this general principle further, blending both the aql and naql viewpoints (generally obtained knowledge and sacred revealed knowledge respectively) that distinguished his works from that of other Renaissance philosophers (Dhaoudi