Читать книгу Sociology - Anthony Giddens - Страница 49

The Muslim scholar Ibn Khaldun was born in what is today Tunisia and is famous for his historical, sociological and political-economic studies. He wrote many books, the most widely known of which is a six-volume work, the Muqaddimah (‘Introduction’), completed in 1378. This is viewed by some scholars today as essentially an early foundational work of sociology (see Alatas 2006). The Muqaddimah criticized existing historical approaches and methods as dealing only with description, claiming instead the discovery of a new ‘science of social organization’, or ‘science of society’, capable of getting at the underlying meaning of events.

Ibn Khaldun devised a theory of social conflict based on understanding the central characteristics of the ‘nomadic’ and ‘sedentary’ societies of his time. Central to this theory was the concept of ‘group feeling’ or solidarity (asabiyyah). Groups and societies with a strong group feeling were able to dominate and control those with weaker forms of internal solidarity. Ibn Khaldun developed these ideas in an attempt to explain the rise and decline of Maghribian and Arab states, and in this sense he may be seen as studying the process of state-formation – itself a main concern of modern, Western historical sociology. Nomadic Bedouin tribes tended towards a very strong group feeling, which enabled them to overrun and dominate the weaker sedentary town-dwellers and establish new dynasties. However, the Bedouin then became settled into more urbanized lifestyles and their previously strong group feeling and military force diminished, thus leaving them open to attack from external enemies once again. This completed a long cycle in the rise and decline of states. Although Western historians and sociologists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century referred to Ibn Khaldun’s work, only in very recent years has it again come to be seen as potentially significant.