The Muqaddimah of Abdulrahman Ibn Khaldun, published in 1377, is an explanation for why the Islamic civilization was the way it was, up to that time.
It was neither an easy, nor interesting reading. The best parts of the book were the foreword, the introduction and chapter 1. These parts are similar to modern scholarly works in being concise and well argued. The rest of the book was difficult because:
1. It discusses things that are better known now, like the extant medical knowledge, making his observations quaint.
2. The extensive description of society is reminiscent of Carl von Clausewitz's On War. That book's detailed discussion of military tactics was extremely boring. Just like this one's descriptions of administration, commerce, education and other aspects of the society. This is useful for scholarly purposes, but it's pretty boring reading.
3. For a guy whose stated aim was about critically establishing the veracity of history, it is a negation of his method that most of his assumptions rest on the basis of Islamic propaganda i.e. God exists, Muhammad was a prophet, the Qur'an is divine, thus perfect etc.
Despite point 3 above, the book is quite scientific (in some cases, pseudoscientific) in its explanation of social phenomena. It gives rational reasons for why things are the way they are, scornfully dismissing supernatural explanations. It has a cynical, but realistic assessment of human nature. This rationalist approach is due to the influence of Greek philosophy. Along with the Islamic references, he quotes many of the ancient philosophers, especially Aristotle. This book made me realize that Persian knowledge is rarely mentioned in discussions of Islamic history. And this is odd because Islam defeated Persia before Egypt or Byzantium so there ought to be visible, major influences. Ibn Khaldun laments that Persian knowledge didn't survive the Arab conquest because the 2nd caliph, Umar, ordered the destruction of Persian libraries, justifying it with this statement which I paraphrase "books are about guidance. If these ones are correct, the Qur'an is the final guide and it has perfected every other thing. If they are wrong, their errors ought not be perpetuated." This is similar to what Constantine and his successors did to the pagan temples in Greece, the Balkans and Italy.
In Nigeria, the North is denigrated because we are backward in western education. One explanation for this is that we rejected it because we already had Islamic education. This book is an example of the types of books Muslim scholars wrote and studied. The book is still studied today even in the west. And when you consider that Usman Fodio, his contemporaries and descendants wrote similar (if not similarly famous) books, perhaps we northern Muslims can be forgiven for our (probably unjustified) feeling of superiority. Although there is a saying in Nigerian pidgin "I get am before no be property" which basically means living on past glory
This book is not recommended because it is too old and difficult to relate to. However, it is a very good reason for buying an e-reader. Since it is a classic, it can be gotten free online.
Iron Noder 2020, 5/30