Ibn Khaldun and the Foundations of Classical Islamic Sociology: ‘Umrān, ‘Asabiyyah, Social Change, and Political Authority

Abstract

The intellectual history of sociology has conventionally been narrated through the emergence of European social theory in the nineteenth century. Such a genealogy, however, risks obscuring earlier forms of systematic inquiry into society developed in other intellectual traditions. Among the most significant of these was the social thought of ‘Abd al-Raḥmān Ibn Khaldūn (1332–1406), whose Muqaddimah developed an extensive conceptual framework for explaining human association, collective solidarity, political authority, economic interdependence, and civilizational transformation. This article reexamines Ibn Khaldūn’s social thought as an internally coherent form of classical Islamic social theory rather than simply as a premature equivalent of modern sociology. Employing qualitative library research and a descriptive-interpretive approach, the study reconstructs the relationships among ‘ilm al-‘umrān, ʿasabiyyah, badāwah, ḥaḍārah, religion, political authority, and civilizational change. The analysis demonstrates that these concepts constitute a relational rather than a fragmented theoretical system. ʿIlm al-ʿumrān provides the epistemological and analytical foundation for investigating patterned human association; ʿasabiyyah explains the formation and reproduction of collective power; badāwah and ḥaḍārah identify differentiated configurations of social organization; while religion can intensify and redirect solidarity toward broader political and moral purposes. Political authority emerges from organized collective capacity but simultaneously transforms the social conditions that sustain it. The article argues that Ibn Khaldūn should neither be reduced to a “founder of sociology” in a simplistic chronological sense nor excluded from the history of sociological thought because modern sociology did not yet exist. He is more appropriately understood as a major classical Muslim theorist who developed an autonomous vocabulary for historical-sociological inquiry. Such a reconstruction contributes to current efforts to pluralize and decolonize the history of social theory.