1.3 The Muqaddimah, its Conception and translationIbn Khaldun has divided this work into an introduction and three books. The introduction deals with the great merit of historiography, offers an appreciation of its various methods, and cites historians' errors. The first Book deals with civilization and its essential characteristics, namely, royal authority, government, gainful occupations, ways of making a living, crafts, and sciences, as well as the causes and reasons thereof. The Second Book deals with the history, races, and dynasties of the Arabs, from the beginning of creation up to his time. This includes references to such famous nations and dynasties contemporaneous with them, such as the Nabataeans, the Syrians the Persians, the Israelites, the Copts, the Greeks, the Byzantines, and the Turks. The Third Book deals with the history of the Berbers and of the Sanatah who are part of them; with their origins and race and in particular, with the royal houses and dynasties of the Maghreb. (Fischel, 1961) Concerning his other literary productions, one reads that Ibn Khaldun "...wrote an original commentary on the Burdah (the famous poem in praise of Muhammad), in which he showed his wide ability, his understanding of many things, and his great knowledge. He abridged a good deal of the books of Averroes. He put together a useful composition on logic for the Sultan, in the days when he studied the intellectual disciplines. He abridged the Muhassal of Imam Fakhr-al-din ar-Razi....He wrote a book on calculation.... What he has done already is so perfect that it cannot be surpassed." (Rosenthal, 1958: xiv). His friend Ibnu'l-Khatib (1313-1374) also mentioned his promising bid for recognition as a poet. Ibn Khaldun has written works, which have but recently become known. These are: 1) Lubab al-Muhassal fi Usul al-din (Gist of the Compendium on the Principles of Religion), 1351; Tetuan (Morocco), Editoria Marroqui 1952. 2) Shifa' al-sa'il li-Tahdib al-Masa'il (A guide for those who Try to Clarify Problems), ca.1373-1375; Istanbul: Osman Yalcin Matbaasi 1957/58. 3) at-TaCriif (Autobiography), 1377-1406, Cairo: Lajnat at-Ta'liif, 1951. It is apparent from the title of his "Book of lessons" that Ibn Khaldun writes about history. There is no evidence, however, that our author had previously written about history. Ibn Khaldun was not originally a "professional historian". However, his desire to write history was strongly conditioned by his reading of historical works available in his time. He found them to be fainted with deficiencies and faults. He says: "When I had read the works of others and probed into the recesses of yesterday and today. I shook myself out of that drowsy complacency and sleepiness. Although not much of a writer [meaning a writer of history], I exhibited my own literary ability as well as I could, and, thus composed a book on history." (I, p51-52 A; II, p65 E) While working on his book on history, the basic problem annoying him was how to handle the deficiencies and faults to which historians were liable. As Mahdi puts it, the basic problem was to understand the nature and causes of historical events, and to do so, it was necessary to have correct information. Ibn Khaldun conducted a critical investigation of the works of previous historians and found that they had not possessed such knowledge, or else they had not formulated it. He surveyed disciplines other than historiography, especially rhetoric, political sciences and jurisprudence, and found that they too did not present a coherent account of the nature and causes of historical events. (Mahdi, 1972). The only solution was that Ibn Khaldun should try to handle the problem himself. He had to study the nature and causes of events so as to show how one could distinguish between veritable and false information, and that is how the Muqaddimah was born. The Muqaddimah includes the Introduction and the First Book in the previously mentioned plan of the "Book of Lessons". At the end of the Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun says: "I completed the composition and draft of this first part, before revision and correction, in a period of five months ending in the middle of the year 779 (November 1377). Thereafter, I revised and corrected the book, as I ... proposed to do at the beginning of the work." (III, p434 A; p481 E) It is claimed that Ibn Khaldun does not respect the chronological chain of history in his "Book of Lessons". He discusses each happening as isolated phenomenon. this is because these parts include, as also said by Megherbi (Megherbi, 1971, p38-9), examples and illustrations to the method of analysis included in the Muqaddimah, and not of history as such. The other parts of the "Book of Lessons" are not yet as famous as the Muqaddimah. Whether they will be one day still remains to be seen. Translation of the Muqaddimah. It is said that the name of Ibn Khaldun was not mentioned outside the Islamic world until the year 1636. The first bibliography of Ibn Khaldun in Europe appeared the year 1697 at the Bibliothèque Orientale d'Herbelot. Copies of the Muqaddimah in Arabic existed in big libraries, such as the Bibliothèque Nationale in France, long before the work was translated. There are several complete translations of the Muqaddimah. That of W.M.de Slane: Les Prolégomènes historique d'Ibn Khaldoun, in 3 volumes, Paris, 1862 ff.; the English translation by F.Rosenthal, Ibn Khaldun: The Muqaddimah, An introduction history, 3 volumes, Princeton, 1958; a Portuguese translation by J. Khoury and A. Bierrenbach-Khoury and a new French translation by V. Monteil: Ibn Khaldun, Discours sur l'histoire universelle, 3 volumes, Beirut 1967. In addition, there are translations into Turkish, Hebrew, Hindi, Persian, Urdu, Russian and Swedish. Apart from these translations, there exist other translated texts and extracts in English, German, Persian, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish and other languages,and the publication of a number of anthologies in various languages. For instance, the orientaliste de Sacy (1758-1838) published translations and publications of fragments of the Muqaddimah in 1806 and, in 1807 Giovanni Bernardo de Rossi gave a review of Ibn Khaldun. N.Schmidt says that "Some more important passages from the Prolegomena were published by de Sacy in 1810. Already in 1812 Hammer-Purgstall was sufficiently impressed by this work to call Ibn Khaldun 'ein arabischer Montesquieu'. "Several extracts from the Prolegomena were published by him [Hammer-Burgstall] in 1816 and 1818." (Schmidt, N. 1978, p4) Beside the extracts translated by de Sacy and others, general accounts of Ibn Khaldun appeared in Journal Asiatique. A. al-Azmeh enumerates these in chronological order and says that they antedate the publication of the text and translation of the Muqaddimah:
This investigation will support my thesis that the Muqaddimah must be seen as an integrated dialectical whole and a methodological edifice, originally meant for understanding the course of history. |