A.D. 1332-1406.
Abd al-Rahman Ibn Muhammad Ibn Khaldun al-Hadrami (servant of the merciful son of praise son of imortal of
Hadramout,) a city in
Yemen, where his roots can be traced. Commonly known as Ibn Khaldun. Ibn Khaldun was born in
Tunis, escaped the black plague which caused the death of both his parents, and later settled and died in
Egypt. Historian, Sociologist and Philosopher by profession. In his Muqaddimah (
prolegomena), Ibn Khaldun planted the seeds of modern
economics, some of his theories included
theory of value,
economics of labour,
labour as the source of growth and capital accumulation,
demand,
supply,
prices, and
profits (ribh),
macroeconomics, growth, taxes, role of governments, and
money.
Although
Adam Smith came some 370 years after Ibn Khaldun's death, and the former has been called the father of economics, the similarties between the works of Adam Smith and Ibn Khaldun are extensive. Wether Adam Smith was directly or indirectly exposed to the works of Ibn Khaldun is debated among historians.
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http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/oweissi/ibn.htm
http://www.acton.org/publicat/randl/liberal.php?id=197
http://www.ummah.org.uk/history/scholars/KHALDUN.html