Talk:Ibn Khaldun

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About the use of "arabs" instead of "bedouins". If there is a point at the end of the article that states that most scholars think that Ibn Khaldun actually meant "Bedouins" when he used the word "Arabs", why keep using "arabs" instead of the right meaning "bedouins".

About the use of "arabs" instead of "bedouins".
About the use of "arabs" instead of "bedouins". If there is a point at the end of the article that states that most scholars think that Ibn Khaldun actually meant "Bedouins" when he used the word "Arabs", why keep using "arabs" instead of the right meaning "bedouins".

What did ibn khaldoun write about
Ibn Khaldūn has often been referred to as a Polymath, but even so there are few examples of his writings. One such is “al-Kitabu Libar” or his ‘History of the World.’ Other works of his are referred to within other works (by other people) and include such as:

“A commentary on the Islamic Theology of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi.”

A work on Sufism “Sifa’u l-Sail”.

Another is a work on logic, “allaqa lil-Sultan”

The point to keep in mind that in his day and time he was an individual who studied and researched in many disciplines and it is logical to assume that he wrote on most of them, if not all

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 * In the early stages of the state, taxes are light in their incidence, but fetch in a large revenue...As time passes and kings succeed each other, they lose their tribal habits in favor of more civilized ones. Their needs and exigencies grow...owing to the luxury in which they have been brought up. Hence they impose fresh taxes on their subjects...[and] sharply raise the rate of old taxes to increase their yield...But the effects on business of this rise in taxation make themselves felt. For business men are soon discouraged by the comparison of their profits with the burden of their taxes...Consequently production falls off, and with it the yield of taxation.
 * This sociological theory includes the concept known in economics as the Khaldun-Laffer Curve (the relationship between tax rates and tax revenue follows an inverted U shape).


 * "Beyond [known peoples of black West Africa] to the south there is no civilization in the proper sense. There are only humans who are closer to dumb animals than to rational beings. They live in thickets and caves, and eat herbs and unprepared grain. They frequently eat each other. They cannot be considered human beings."
 * Muqaddimah


 * "Therefore, the Negro nation are, as a rule, submissive to slavery, because [Negroes] have little [that is essentially] human and have attributes that are quite similar to those of dumb animals, as we have stated."
 * Muqaddimah


 * The fourteenth-century Arabic historian Ibn Khaldūn, calls himself a townsman of Arab descent, uses the word commonly in this sense. This shows that he didn't necessarily talk about arabs in general when critisizing them, because this would effect him and his Yemenite people aswell.

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 * As Ibn Khaldun suggests, it is a remarkable fact that with few exceptions, most Muslim scholars…in the intellectual sciences have been non-Arabs:
 * ''"Thus the founders of grammar were Sibawaih and after him, al-Farisi and Az-Zajjaj. All of them were of Persian descent…they invented rules of (Arabic) grammar…great jurists were Persians… only the Persians engaged in the task of preserving knowledge and writing systematic scholarly works. Thus the truth of the statement of the prophet becomes apparent, 'If learning were suspended in the highest parts of heaven the Persians would attain it"…The intellectual sciences were also the preserve of the Persians, left alone by the Arabs, who did not cultivate them…as was the case with all crafts…This situation continued in the cities as long as the Persians and Persian countries, Iraq, Khorasan and Transoxiana (modern Central Asia), retained their sedentary culture.


 * Muqaddimah, Translated by Franz Rosenthal (III, pp. 311-15, 271-4 [Arabic]; R.N. Frye (p.91). He translated the Arabic word "Ajam" into "Persians."


 * "Beyond [known peoples of black West Africa] to the south there is no civilization in the proper sense. There are only humans who are closer to dumb animals than to rational beings. They live in thickets and caves, and eat herbs and unprepared grain. They frequently eat each other. They cannot be considered human beings."
 * Muqaddimah
 * "Therefore, the Negro nation are, as a rule, submissive to slavery, because [Negroes] have little [that is essentially] human and have attributes that are quite similar to those of dumb animals, as we have stated."
 * Muqaddimah


 * Arabs dominate only of the plains, because they are, by their savage nature, people of pillage and corruption. They pillage everything that they can take without fighting or taking risks, then flee to their refuge in the wilderness, and do not stand and do battle unless in self-defense. So when they encounter any difficulty or obstacle, they leave it alone and look for easier prey. And tribes well-fortified against them on the slopes of the hills escape their corruption and destruction, because they prefer not to climb hills, nor expend effort, nor take risks. Whereas plains, when they can reach them due to lack of protection and weakness of the state, are spoils for them and morsels for them to eat, which they will keep despoiling and raiding and conquering with ease until their people are defeated, then imitate them with mutual conflict and political decline, until their civilization is destroyed. And Allah is capable of their creation, and He is the One, the Victorious, and there is no other lord than Him.
 * (original text)


 * The only people who accept slavery are the Negroes, owing to their low degree of humanity and proximity to the animal stage. Other persons who accept the status of slave do so as a means of attaining high rank, or power, or wealth, as is the case with the Mameluke Turks in the East and with those Franks and Galicians who enter the service of the state [in Spain].
 * Ibn Khaldun as quoted in Bernard Lewis, Race and Color in Islam, Harper and Row, 1970, quote on page 38. The brackets are displayed by Lewis.


 * From late 'Abbasid times onwards the word Arab reverts to its earlier meaning of Bedouin or nomad, becoming in effect a social rather than an ethnic term. In many of the Western chronicles of the Crusades it is used only for Bedouin, while the mass of the Muslim population of the Near East are called Saracens. It is certainly in this sense that in the sixteenth century Tasso speaks of 'Altri Arabi poi, che di soggiorno, / certo non sono stabili abitanti;'
 * Gerusalemme Liberata, XVII 21.