Abstract

Most studies on Ibn Khaldūn have emphasized the similarities between his thought and the ideas and models of the modern social sciences. It is these similarities and parallels that lie at the root of the high esteem in which he is held in both the East and the West today. But the differences between his thought and the modern social sciences are perhaps more fecund, offering a new window onto the great thinker with the potential to improve our understanding of the man and to reveal alternative frameworks to the entrenched social-scientific models of our age.In this context, one of the most noteworthy characteristics of Ibn Khaldūn's thought, and one that distinguishes it from mainstream...