This relationship has been for the most part viewed in the perspective...

This relationship has been for the most part viewed in the perspective, and under the influence, of the modern philosophic and scientific tradition. In the present work, in contrast, the reader comes to ibn Khaldun through the preceding Greek and Muslim philosophic tradition, which ibn Khaldun knew and in relation to which he can be expected to have taken his bearing.

The reader, thus, must be shown, on the basis of ibn Khaldun’s conception of philosophy and science, and of his conception of the relation between his new science and the established philosophic science, whether he was in fundamental agreement with that tradition (in which case it must be shown what the specific character of his contribution to that tradition was), a new, but a novel doctrine. That this procedure is the sound historical procedure is usually admitted.

But what has not been seen with sufficient clarity is that, in addition to providing the proper historical perspective for the understanding of ibn Khaldun’s thought, it is of fundamental importance to elicit the basic principles or premises of his new science, and thus contribute to the understanding of its true character.

B Ibn Khaldun’s place in the history of Muslim philosophy, and his contribution to the Muslim philosophic tradition, must be determined primarily on the basis of the “Introduction” (Muqaddimah) and Book One of his “History” (Kitab al-‘Ibar) .[^2] That a work exploring the art of history, and largely devoted to an account of universal history,[^3] should concern itself with philosophy is justified by ibn Khaldun on the ground that history has a dual character: (a) an external (zahir) aspect which is essentially an account of, or information about, past events, and (b) an internal (batin) aspect.