Ibn Khaldūn
Arab historian and scholar
Ibn Khaldūn was a 14th-century Arab Muslim historian and scholar. He wrote The Muqaddimah, an introduction to history that later readers have studied for centuries.
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Born in Tunis, Tunisia
About Ibn Khaldūn
Ibn Khaldūn was born in Tunis in 1332 into a family of learning. He memorised the Qur'an as a child, and his father was his first teacher. His ancestors had held political and religious posts in Andalusia and Tunisia. He is best known for The Muqaddimah, also called the Prolegomena, which means "Introduction". He says he wrote it in six months. Ottoman historians of the 17th and 19th centuries, including Mustafa Naima, later used its theories to examine how the Ottoman Empire grew and declined. Ibn Khaldūn also met Tamerlane, the founder of the Timurid Empire. Many scholars count him among the forerunners of historiography, sociology and economics.