Ibn Khald?n: Political Thought

Ibn Khald?n is one of the outstanding thinkers about the nature of society and politics in the pre-modern Arab world. This volume presents the political writings of the fourteenth-century philosopher, stressing their enduring relevance. Arnold Toynbee used to say that Ibn Khald?n's work was the most impressive endeavour to build a theory out of history ever undertaken before the nineteenth century. However, translators and historians discovered Ibn Khald?n at the time when new revolutionary economic and political conditions were dismissive of his philosophy. In this edition, Gabriel Martinez-Gros brings Ibn Khald?n's political thought to the forefront, exploring his theories in the context of his era, but also emphasizing their profound resonances with modern society. Far from the caricature of Ibn Khald?n as a 'tribal philosopher', Martinez-Gros shows that Ibn Khald?n's thought is about creating wealth in an agrarian society, concerned with economic concepts, demography, war and violence.