Excerpts from a Presentation on the legacy of Ibn Khaldun.

By Dr Mounira M. Charrad (University of Texas at Austin)

 How come we are still paying attention to someone who lived and wrote 600 years ago? …I want to suggest three major reasons:                        

1.  Ibn Khadlun was a great mind, a man of creativity and intelligence, who gave us the gift of writing.  He wrote books with eloquence and depth.  What makes a great mind is a mystery.  The point is that Ibn Khadun was one of the great thinkers of all times – and he was ours.  He was Tunisian.  We need to claim him as a great mind of our own history.  We must give him a proper place in our past and take pride in having him in our Heritage.              

 2.  The second reason for his legacy is that Ibn Khaldun was among the early thinkers who developed a science of history and society.  He claimed that scientific thinking did not apply only to physics, chemistry and the like, but also the study of society, politics and culture.  Today, major organizations such as the World Bank are hiring social scientists, sociologists and anthropologists, to be part of their projects because it has become amply clear to them that policies work only if and when we take into account cultural values.  Ibn Khaldun said something to that effect six hundred years ago.                        

Ibn Khaldun also wanted to know how come countries evolve along different paths and take different courses.  I have built on his ideas in my own work.  I have examined how countries of the Maghreb have followed divergent courses with respect to women’s rights.  In particular, I have considered why Tunisia has been at the forefront of the Arab World in regard to family law and women’s status.  In my own writing, I am also highlighting Ibn Khaldun’s contribution to the fields of sociology, political science, and history in an effort to increase my colleagues’ awareness of his work.  The social sciences did not start only in Western societies.  We too in Tunisia had our own brilliant social scientist as early on as in the fourteenth century.              

 3.  My third point is that Ibn Khaldun’s brilliance rests heavily with the concept of Asabiya, generally translated as solidarity, social cohesion, or sense of community.  Ibn Khaldun argued that Asabiya gives strength.  I believe he was right.  People cannot live without a sense of community.  We need solidarity and community as we need food, shelter, and other basic resources.  Today, medical researchers are discovering that social isolation is an enormous health risk.  In a nutshell, it is dangerous to our health to be alone.  People who have solidarity, community, and social relationships live longer, recover faster from illness, and remain healthier throughout their lives.  In focusing on Asabiya, Ibn Khaldun knew the importance of social solidarity for individual happiness as well as for the welfare of society.

As Ibn Khaldun said and modern medicine has confirmed, "Asabiya is good for us".  Let us strengthen our sense of community!