1) Abstract
Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), the Arab philosopher of history, statesman, judge, historian, and sociologist is considered as the true founding Father of modern sociology. However, there is a widespread assumption in the contemporary intellectual production that the science of culture and society originated solely in Europe.
2) Ibn Khaldun (محمد بن خلدون) Father of Sociology.
Ibn Khaldun was very much aware of what he did. He clearly said that he created a new field of science. He was the first one who put social events in “cause-and-effect” relations, he established a scientific categorization of the field (“umran” as he called) and he developes general laws from single events. He handled social events and facts being cleraed of their religious or ethic or traditional contents, as plain rational phenomena.
3) What was the contribution of Ibn Khaldun to the development of sociology?
ü He was quite empirical, as could be seen in many others within the Islamic philosophy tradition. He was bitterly against superstition, astrology, fortune, prophecy etc. He was welcomed by early European social scientists as “father of sociology” during nineteenth century when social sciences were in an effort to be proved to be a “science” due to the reason given above.
ü the "Muqaddima", in which he pioneered a general sociological theory of history, shows him as one of the most original thinkers of the Middle Ages. Abd al-Rahman Ibn Mohammad is generally known as Ibn Khaldun after a remote ancestor.
ü He is considered the father of demography, cultural history, historiography, the philosophy of history, sociology, and the social sciences, and is viewed as one of the forerunners of modern economics.
