Ibn Khaldoun

Ibn Khaldoun

Abu Zeid Abd al-Rahman Ibn-Khaldun (other spellings: Ibn Khaldun, Ibn Haldun), nicknamed Oueli ed-Din, is a historian, literary and philologist, born in Tunis, in the year 732 AH (27 May 1332) and died in Cairo, March 17, 1406. His family, originally from Hadramaut, had first settled in Seville where she had occupied a significant situation, then she came to settle in Tunis with the Hafsid princes ( History of Tunisia) which gave him marks of their benevolence and gave him high employment.
After studying, in his hometown, the Koran, traditions, grammar, poetry and jurisprudence, with his father, who had given up the political career to perform the duties of mufti, as well as men Most famous of his time, Ibn Khaldun was attached, in the year 749 (1348), to General Mohammed, son of Tafarkin, who exercised an almost independent authority in Tunis. Four years later, he entered the service of the fifth prince of the Hafsid dynasty, Sultan Abu-lshaq-Ibrahim (Abu Ishāq II), as secretary. His job was to write, in large print on the acts of the government, the motto of this prince. His high intelligence had very quickly made him appreciate; but, still very young in the intrigues of the African courts, he could not resist the solicitations to which he was subjected, and, to satisfy his ambition, he did not hesitate to pass from the service of a prince to that of another. when he saw in it his personal interest.

Ibn Khaldun thus passed in the service of the sovereign of Fez, Abu Othman (or, as Kasiri calls it, Abu Anan) Fares, son of Ali, son of Othman, and this prince filled him with favors. After the death of Fares, he attached himself to Sultan Abu Salem, also king of Fez and a large part of North Africa, and was employed by this prince in his chancery, because of the beauty of his writing. . From Fes, Ibn Khaldun went to Spain, from Spain to Bejaia, then to Tlemcen, sometimes ambassador or prime minister, sometimes disgraced and thrown into prison.

Finally renouncing this agitated life full of setbacks (1374). Ibn Khaldun retired to one of his lands near Tiaret and there he composed his Prolegomena. The author himself teaches that he composed them in the year 779 (1377), and only used five months, then he saw them again, put the finishing touches to them and began writing his History universal, which he could not finish at that moment for want of some information. He then decided to go to Tunis to consult the works he needed and, in the year 781 of the Hegira (1382) continued his journey in the same way to Alexandria and from there to Cairo, where he fixed his residency and taught publicly in various colleges.

In the year 786 (1384), the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, Barkuk, appointed Ibn Khaldun as the head of the Kadis of the Maliki kings (Islam) in Egypt. His integrity, which led him not to have, in the exercise of his functions, any regard for the recommendations and solicitations of powerful men, made him enemies; and the Sultan, yielding to their authority, dismissed him in the year 787 (1385). In 801 (1398), he was again promoted to the same office, and occupied it until the beginning of the year 803 (1400). He was then deposed by Sultan Faradj, successor of Barkuk, and he followed this prince, who was going to Syria to oppose the progress of Tamerlane.
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Ibn Khaldoun.
Statue of Ibn Khaldoun, Tunis. Photo: © Angel Latorre, 2008.
When Tamerlane camped in front of Damascus, Ibn Khaldun left the city and had himself introduced to the Turkish-Mongol conqueror, to whom he was extremely pleased by the pleasure of his conversation. Tamerlane having left Syria, Ibn Khaldun returned to Cairo. If we believe Ahmed ben-Arabschah, Arab historian of Tamerlane, Ibn Khaldun, who had paid his court to the conqueror, and had neglected nothing to flatter him and win his good graces, had obtained permission from him. to go to Cairo to fetch his family and his books and come to find him as soon as possible. Be that as it may, Ibn Khaldun, back in Cairo, was again invested with the functions of Grand Cadi of the Malekites in the same year 803; and after having been several times dismissed, and then reinstated in this office, he died, in possession of this magistracy, in the last days of Ramadan of the year 808 (1406), seventy-six years and twenty-five days old. .

The work of Ibn Khaldoun.
Ibn Khaldoun is author of quite a number of works of literature and jurisprudence, which are not known to us, but his main work is a History of the Arabs and Berbers, entitled Kitab al-'Ibar (1375-1379) that is to say, the book of instructive examples and the collection of ancient events and of those whose memory has been preserved, concerning the history of the Arabs, Persians, Berbers and contemporary nations.