Ibn Khaldun - Legacy

Legacy

Ibn Khaldun was first brought to the attention of the Western world in 1697, when a biography of him appeared in Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville's Bibliothèque Orientale. Ibn Khaldun began gaining more attention from 1806, when Silvestre de Sacy's Chrestomathie Arabe included his biography together with a translation of parts of the Muqaddimah as the Prolegomena. In 1816, de Sacy again published a biography with a more detailed description on the Prolegomena. More details on and partial translations of the Prolegomena emerged over the years until the complete Arabic edition was published in 1858, followed by a complete French translation a few years later by de Sacy. Since then, the work of Ibn Khaldun has been extensively studied in the Western world with special interest.

• British historian Arnold J. Toynbee called the Muqaddimah "a philosophy of history which is undoubtedly the greatest work of its kind that has ever yet been created by any mind in any time or place."
• The British philosopher Robert Flint wrote the following on Ibn Khaldun: "...as a theorist of history he had no equal in any age or country until Vico appeared, more than three hundred years later. Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine were not his peers, and all others were unworthy of being even mentioned along with him".
• Abderrahmane Lakhsassi writes: "No historian of the Maghreb since and particularly of the Berbers can do without his historical contribution."
• The British philosopher-anthropologist Ernest Gellner considered Ibn Khaldun's definition of government, "an institution which prevents injustice other than such as it commits itself", the best in the history of political theory.
• Egon Orowan, who termed the concept of socionomy, was influenced by Ibn Khaldun's ideas on the evolution of societies.
• Arthur Laffer, whom the Laffer curve is named after, noted that, among others, some of Ibn Khaldun's ideas precede his own.
• In 2004, the Tunisian Community Center launched the first Ibn Khaldun award for the Tunisian American Student of the Year, as an honor to Ibn Khaldun's contribution in Tunisia.
• In 2006, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation launched an annual essay contest for Muslim students named in Ibn Khaldun's honor. The theme of the contest is "how individuals, think tanks, universities and entrepreneurs can influence government policies to allow the free market to flourish and improve the lives of its citizens based on Islamic teachings and traditions."
• In 2006, Spain commemorated the 600th anniversary of the death of Ibn Khaldun.