The Muqaddimah (Introduction) is the opening part of Ibn Khaldun's universal history, the Kitab al-Ibar, and has long been read on its own as a treatise on the nature of human society and the method of history. Ibn Khaldun wrote it in 1377 during a retreat from court life at the castle of Qal'at Ibn Salama, in the hills of what is now western Algeria, and kept revising it for the rest of his life in Cairo.
Ibn Khaldun · AuthorThe Muqaddimah
Author
Ibn Khaldun
About Ibn Khaldun
Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) was born in Tunis to a family of Arab origin long settled in Seville. He lost his parents and several teachers to the plague of 1348-49, and spent his early career as secretary, envoy and minister at the courts of Fez, Granada, Bejaia and Tlemcen. In 1375 he withdrew to the castle of Qal'at Ibn Salama in modern Algeria, where he drafted the Muqaddimah. From 1382 he lived in Mamluk Cairo, teaching and serving several times as chief Maliki judge, and in 1401 he met the conqueror Timur outside besieged Damascus.