Arab Muslim historian and philosopher — author of the Muqaddimah (Prolegomena) — who created the science of sociology (before the term existed) and the cyclical theory of history through asabiyya (social solidarity) — the most significant social theorist of the medieval world.
Creates the sociology of history — Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah's theory of asabiyya (social solidarity — the cohesion that enables nomadic groups to conquer settled civilizations, then lose cohesion through luxury, then be conquered by new cohesive groups) is the first systematic sociological theory of historical change and anticipates Weber, Toynbee, and modern theories of state formation.
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