Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T20:53:42.678Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406): A Precursor of Intercivilizational Discourse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2015

YOLANDA GAMARRA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article shows how the political, historical, sociological, and economic narrative of Ibn Khaldun influenced the conjunction of elements that were essential to the civilizing language promoted by European and American liberals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The ‘standard of civilization’ has experienced a revival among critical legal scholars. These authors have reconstructed a historical process of ‘rise, fall, and rise’ of the ‘standard of civilization’, identifying its reappearance in an era of globalization and global governance with the current existence of a (neo-)colonial paradigm in international law and a (neo-)liberal global economy. This study is divided into three parts intended to examine in depth the precursory role of this Islamic thinker in the shaping of civilizing language. The first part examines Ibn Khaldun's life as a way of understanding his thinking on civilization. The second part explores the influence of Ibn Khaldun's work on the discourse surrounding the standard of civilization, by reintroducing the interpretation of Rafael Altamira (1866–1951). The third starts with Ibn Khaldun's writings on economic science and Joseph Spengler's (1902–1991) approach to his works. Several Islamic economic institutions and their influence on the state and concept of international society are examined. The revival of Ibn Khaldun's thinking is partly intended to fill an existing gap in the studies of medieval Islamic theorists. By examining his ideas about the socio-political and economic viability of a dynasty (or a civilization or a state), this article attempts to shed light on the intercultural origins of international law.

Keywords

civilizational discourseeconomicslawnation-statesocio-history
Type
INTERNATIONAL LEGAL THEORY
Information
Leiden Journal of International Law , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , September 2015 , pp. 441 - 456
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation of the Leiden Journal of International Law 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 On the intercultural origins of international law, see Rechid, A., ‘L'Islam et le droit des gens’, 60 Recueil de Cours de l’Academie de la Haye (1937), at 371–50;Google Scholar D. F. R. Pohl, Islam und Friedenvolkerrechtsordnung (1988); H. Kruse, Islamisches Völkerrecht (1979); Khadduri, M., The Islamic Law of Nations. Shaybani's Siyar (1996), at 8Google Scholar; Lohlker, R., Islamisches Völkerrecht: Studien am Beispiel Granadas (2006), at 188Google Scholar, and Allain, J., ‘Acculturation through the Middle Ages: The Islamic Law of Nations and its Place in the History of International Law’, in Orakhelashvill, A. (ed.), Research Handbook on the Theory and History of International Law (2011), at 394–407.Google Scholar

2 See the thesis of Schwarzenberger, G., ‘The Standard of Civilization in International Law’, in Current Legal Problems (1955), at 212CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Mahdi, M., Ibn Khaldun's Philosophy of History: A Study in the Philosophic Foundation of the Science of Culture (1957), at 17Google Scholar.

4 The accessible, translated editions of Ibn Khaldun's text that were used for the article are Ibn Khaldun (Muqaddima) Prolégomènes d’Ibn Khaldoun. Translated from the Arabic by E. Quatrenére. Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliographie Impériale (1858), Vols. XVI–XVIII; Prolegomenos historiques d’Ibn Khaldoun. Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Biblioteque Impériale. Translated from the Arabic by M. de Slane Vols. XIX–XXI (1862–1868); Ibn-Khaldun, Abd-ar-Rahman Ibn-Muhammad, The Muqaddimah. An Introduction to History. Translated from the Arabic by F. Rosenthal, 3 Vols. (1958); An Arab Philosophy of History: Selections from the Prolegomena of Ibn Khaldun of Tunis (1332–1406). Translated and arranged from Arabic by Ch. Issawi (1950), and Ibn Khaldoun. Discours sur l’Histoire Universelle (al-Muqaddima). Translated from the Arabic by V. Monteil (1967).

5 I. Khaldun, Histoire des Berbères et des dynasties musulmanes de l’Afrique septentrionale, Translated from the Arabic by M. de Slane, (1847–1851).

6 Of course, history existed before Ibn Khaldun in the sense of a written record of past events. Ancient writers such as Tacitus and Thucydides became famous for their historical accounts. It is also true that a sense of history as having a purpose existed before Ibn Khaldun. In fact, it is one of the basic premises of Christianity. See I. Khaldoun, Le voyage d’Occident et d’Orient. Autobiographie, présenté et traduite de l’arabe by A. Cheddadi (1980), at 17.

7 Among others, see Fidler, D. P., ‘The Return of the Standard of Civilization’, (2001) Chicago Journal of International Law, at 140, 149Google Scholar.

8 See the works of G. Schröder, Progressive Government for the 21st Century (2002), and J. Braithwaite, Regulatory Capitalism: How it Works, Ideas for Making it Work Better (2008).

9 See the interesting response to A. Becker Lorca, ‘Universal International Law: Nineteenth Century Histories of Imposition and Appropriation’, (2010) 51 Harvard International Law Journal, at 475, by Gozzi, G., ‘The Particularistic Universalism of International Law in the Nineteenth Century’, (2010) 52 Harvard International Law Journal, at 86.Google Scholar

10 Considering international law as a terrain for political and economic struggle rather than as a normative substitute for political choice, see Kennedy, D., ‘Law and the Political Economy of the World’, (2013) 26 LJIL 7–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 See Koskenniemi, M., ‘Why History of International Law Today’, (2004) 4 Rechtsgeschichte 61CrossRefGoogle Scholar, or M. Craven, M. Fitzmaurice, and M. Vogiatzi, (eds.) Time, History and International Law (2007).

12 The treatment of legal history in Western Europe is enlightening; see R. Lesaffer, European Legal History. A Cultural and Political Perspective (2009).

13 See C. Focarelli, Introduzione storica al diritto internazionale (2012). Also, see the classical approach of B. Paradisi, Civitas Maxima. Studi del diritto internazionale (1974), 2 Vols.

14 One of the most interesting studies on the problem is the article of Kennedy, D., ‘The Mystery of Global Governance’, (2008) 34 Ohio N.U.L. 827–60Google Scholar.

15 See C. G. Weeramantry, Universalising International Law (2004), and Vec, M., ‘Universalization, Particularization, and Discrimination – European Perspectives on a Cultural History of 19th century International Law’, (2012) 2 InterDisciplines 81Google Scholar.

16 Gary, M., Hooghe, L., and Blank, K., ‘European Integration from the1980s: State-Centric v. Multi-Level Governance’, (1996) 27 Journal of Common Market Studies 63–84Google Scholar, and Pernice, I., ‘The Treaty of Lisbon: Multilevel Constitutionalism in Action’, (2009) 15 The Columbia Journal of European Law 349, at 349–407Google Scholar.

17 See Kitzinger, M., ‘From the Late Middle Ages to the Peace of Westphalia’, in Fassbender, B., and Peters, A. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law (2012), 607–27Google Scholar.

18 At the end of 1970s, H. Bull wrote that it was possible ‘that sovereign states might disappear and be replaced not by a World government but by a modern and secular equivalent of the kind of universal political organization that existed in Western Christendom in the Middle Ages . . . its central characteristic: a system of overlapping authority and multiple loyalty’, H. Bull, The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics (1977), at 254.

19 Jorge Friedrichs wrote:

(n)ot only does the retreat of the state create a demand for some surrogate to political government, but the advent of global civil society also creates the possibility of transnational co-ordination to perform as substitute for inter-governmental regulation. The promise of global governance is that world society is in a position to fill the regulative gap created by economic globalization and the concomitant retreat of the state.

See Friedrichs, J., ‘The Neomedieval Renaissance: Global Governance and International Law in the Middle Age’, in Dekker, L. G. and Werner, W. G. (eds.), Governance and International Legal Theory (2004), at 13Google Scholar.

20 See V. Prashad, The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World (2008).

21 See, e.g., Haggenmacher, P., ‘La place de Francisco de Vitoria parmi les fondateurs du droit international’, in A. Truyol y Serra et al., Actualité de la pensé juridique de Francisco de Vitoria (1988), at 29Google Scholar.

22 See A. Anghie, Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law (2005); and Koskenniemi, M., ‘Empire and International Law: The Real Spanish Contribution’, (2011) 61 University of Toronto Law Journal 3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 See J. Canning, The Political Thought of Baldus de Ubaldis, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, (1987); and the classical work of O. von Gierke, Political Theories of the Middle Ages (1900).

24 On a classical approach to the history of muslim historiography, see F. Rosenthal, A History of Muslim Historiography (1952), at 558. On the historiographical revival of medieval Islamic law see the work of J. Allain, supra note 1, at 395–7.

25 About the Christian-Muslim relations in a historical perspective, see C. G. Weeramantry, supra note 15, at 24; Labeeb, A. B., ‘Islamic Diplomacy: Views of the Classical Jurists’, in Frick, M. L., (ed.), Islam and International Law (2013), at 127 et seq.Google Scholar, and Th. David and A. Mallet, (eds.) with J. P. Monferrer Sala, J. Pahlitzsch, M. Swanson, H. Teule, and J. Tolan, Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History, 5 Vols. (2009–2013).

26 See Roeder, T., ‘Traditional Islamic Approaches to Public International Law. Historic Concepts, Modern Implications’, (2012) 77 ZaöRV, at 521Google Scholar.

27 See, A. Truyol y Serra, Histoire du droit international public (1995), at 89. Spanish version, Historia del Derecho internacional (1998). See also, Darbishire, R. S., ‘The Philosophical Rapprochement of Christendom and Islam in Accordance with Ibn Khaldun's Scientific Criticism’, (1940) 30 (3)The Moslem Word 226–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 On the necessity to re-conceptualize the history of international law for it to reflect a greater sensitivity for the trans-civilizational aspects, see Onuma, Y., ‘When was the Law of International Society Born? An Inquiry of the History of International Law from an Intercivilizational Perspective’, (2000) 2 Journal of the History of International Law 1–66Google Scholar.

29 See the thesis of G. W. Gong, The Standard of Civilization in International Society (1984).

30 As was pointed out by T. Skouteris, The Notion of Progress in International Law Discourse (2010).

31 Altamira was a Spanish law historian and international Judge at the Permanent Court of International Justice. See on Altamira's life and work the article written by Y. Gamarra, ‘Rafael Altamira y Crevea (1866–1951). The International Judge as ‘Gentle Civilizer’’, (2012) 1 The Journal of the History of International Law, at 1–49.

32 Spengler was an American economist and historian of economic thought. See Sorel, I., ‘Joseph J. Spengler: The Institutionalist Approach to the History of Economics’, (1983) 1 Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology 243–70Google Scholar.

33 See Boisard, M., ‘On the Probable Influence of Islam on Western Public and International Law’, (1980) 11 International Journal of Middle East Studies 432Google Scholar.

34 See the study of Estapé, F., Ibn Jaldún o El precursor: discurso leído el día 28 de octubre de 1993 en el acto de recepción pública de Fabián Estapé en la Real Academia de Buenas Letras de Barcelona y respuesta por el Académico numerario Juan Vernet (1993), at 23Google Scholar.

35 See Bukish, S. K., ‘Ibn Khaldun and his History of Islamic Civilization’, (1927) 1 Islamic Culture 567–607Google Scholar.

36 Among others, see M. A. Enan, Ibn Khaldun. His Life and Work (1991).

37 See Casclaro, J. M., ‘Don Pedro I de Castilla y Muhammad V de Granada’, (1946) 11 Al Andalus: revista de las Escuelas de Estudios Árabes de Madrid y Granada 245–8Google Scholar.

38 See C. Valdaliso Casanova, Historiografía y legitimación dinástica: análisis de la crónica de Pedro I de Castilla (2010). Also, see the classical essay of A. Ferrer del Río, Examen histórico-crítico del reinado de don Pedro de Castilla (1851).

39 See J. López Oliván, Repertorio diplomático español. Índice de los tratados ajustados por España (1125–1935) y de otros documentos internacionales (1944). Also, the list of treaties collected by the Spanish Foreign Ministry, Censo de tratados bilaterales suscritos por España (16 septiembre 1125 a 21 de octubre de 1975) (1976).

40 See W. J. Fischel, ‘The Biography of Ibn Khaldun’, (1954) Yearbook: The American Philosophical Society 240.

41 Encyclopaedia Britannica, London (1950), See XII, at 34, s.v. Ibn Khaldun.

42 See a historical approach written by Menocal, M. R., The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain (2002), at 229Google Scholar.

43 See A. Cheddadi, Ibn Khaldoun, Peoples et nations du monde. Extraits des ‘Ibar, présenté et traduite de l’arabe (1986).

44 See Goiten, S., ‘An Arab on Arabs: Ibn Khaldun's Views on the Arab Nation’, (1950) 2 and 3 The New East, Quarterly of the Israel Oriental Society 198, at 198–201Google Scholar.

45 Symmetry can be discerned between sociological theories and the legal processes by which territories were integrated into imperial systems. See, Mahdi, M., Ibn Khaldun's Philosophy of History: A Study of the Philosophic Foundations of the Science of Culture (1964), at 194Google Scholar.

46 See Gabrielli, F., ‘Il concetto della ‘asabiyya nel pensiero storico di Ibn Haldun’, in Atti Della Reale Academia delle Science di Torino (1930), 473–512Google Scholar, and Ritter, H., ‘Irrational Solidarity Groups: A Socio-Psycological Study in Connection with Ibn Khaldun’, (1948) Oriens 1–44Google Scholar.

47 The old Arabian ’asabiyah or spirit of kinship referred to in the article can be negatively interpreted as a narrow form of tribalism or chauvinism that is rejected in Islam. Ethnic distinctions are recognized, but not preferentially.

48 As pointed out by M. M. Rabi, the ’asabiyyah represents the link of change from the primitive life to civilized life, and it is the core of the history and development of the dynasty (civilization or state). See M. M. Rabi, The Political Theory of Ibn Khaldun (1967), at 13.

49 See the interesting work of Mohammad, F., ‘Ibn Khaldun's Theory of Social Change: A Comparison with Hegel, Marx and Durkheim’, (1998) 15 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 25Google Scholar.

50 See Yamuni, V., ‘La decadencia de las naciones según Ibn Khaldun’, (1964) Anuario de Historia de la Universidad Autónoma de México, at 25Google Scholar.

51 See Y. Gamarra (ed.), El discurso civilizador en derecho internacional. Cinco estudios y tres comentarios (2011).

52 See K. Polanyi, La gran transformación. Los orígenes políticos y económicos de nuestro tiempo (2001).

53 As pointed out by Koskenniemi, M., ‘The Public law of Europe: Reflections on a French 18th century Debate’, in Lindemann, H.et al. (eds.), Erzählungen vom Konstitutionalismus (2012), 43–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54 See Mégret, F., ‘A Cautionary Tale from the Crusades? War and Prisoners in Conditions of Normative Incommensurability’, in Cheipers, S. (ed.), Prisioners in War (2008), at 31Google Scholar.

55 See L. Milliot, ‘La conception de l’Etat et de l’ordre légal dans l’Islam’, (1949-II) 75 RCADI 591–686.

56 See I. de la Rasilla, ‘La alianza entre la civilización y el Derecho internacional entre Escila y Caribdis (o de la brevísima historia de un anacronismo jurídico)’, in Gamarra, supra note 51, at 41.

57 Elias, N., The Civilizing Process: The History of Manners, State Formation and Civilization (1994), at 33Google Scholar.

58 J. Ribera, La enseñanza entre los musulmanes españoles (1893).

59 ‘Mozarabic’ dialect was spoken by the inhabitants of the southern Iberian Peninsula, between the eighth and thirteenth centuries. It developed in the territories of the Muslim kingdoms of Al-Andalus and was spoken primarily by the Mozarabic Christians who lived there.

60 Altamira, R., ‘Notas sobre la doctrina histórica de Abenjaldun’, in Homenaje a D. Francisco Codera (1904), 357–74Google Scholar.

61 Ibid., at 357.

62 See supra notes 4 and 5.

63 See Altamira, supra note 60, at 357.

64 See Ortega y Gasset, J., ‘El Espectador’, in Obras Completas (1916–1934), Vol. II, 667–85Google Scholar.

65 See Altamira, supra note 60, at 361.

66 As Altamira writes, ‘The discourse we are discussing represents a new science, as significant for the originality of its views as for the extent of its usefulness’, Ibid., at 366.

67 Ibid., at 367.

68 Baeck, L., ‘La pensée économique de l’Islam classique’, (1990) 19 Storia del Pensiero Economico, Bollettino di informazione 3, at 3–19Google Scholar.

69 Ibid., at 4.

70 See Altamira, supra note 60, at 369.

71 See Mohammad, supra note 49, at 31.

72 See Altamira, supra note 60, at 374.

73 President Reagan did not intend to reduce tax revenues but increase them by restricting tax rates. Having this idea in mind, he paraphrased Ibn Khaldun saying: ‘At the beginning of the empire, the tax rates were low and the revenues were high. At the end of the empire, the tax rates were high and the revenues were low’. Reagan's Administration sought to reduce heavy taxes to achieve high-income. Reagan, R., ‘Excuse Me, Mr. Clinton, I must have Misheard You’, International Herald Tribune, 2 October 1981, at 4Google Scholar.

74 See Fidler, supra note 7.

75 Economic science as a systematic review of the laws of production, exchange and distribution, see Andic, S., ‘A Fourteenth Century Sociology of Public Finance’, (1965) 20 Public Finance 29, at 29–44Google Scholar.

76 Spengler, J., ‘Economic Thought of Islam: Ibn Khaldun’, (1963) 6 Comparative Studies in Society and History 268, at 268–305CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

77 Ibid., at 269.

78 See Estapé, supra note 34, at 72.

79 E. I. J. Rosenthal, Political Thought in Medieval Islam: An Introductory Outline (1958).

80 Ibid., at 6.

81 Gusdorf, G., L’avenément des sciences humaines au siécle des lumiéres (1973), at 373Google Scholar.

82 See Spengler, supra note 76, at 285.

83 On the economic rise and fall of a dynasty (state or civilization), see S. Andic, supra note 75, at 36.

84 Further information at the work of Marçais, G., ‘Les Idées d’Ibn Khaldoun sur l’évolution des sociétés’ (1940) Bulletin d’Information du Gouvernement Général de l’Algérie 465Google Scholar.

85 See the liberal point of view of Boulakia, J. D. C., ‘Ibn Khaldun: A Fourteenth Century Economist’, (1971) 5 Journal of Political Economy 1105, at 1105–18.Google Scholar

86 Ibid., at 1109.

87 See Spengler, supra note 76, at 287.

88 Ibid., at 289.

89 Ibid., at 304.

90 Ibid., at 305.

91 When Ibn Khaldun wrote the Muqaddima, the muslim tradition was dominated by ‘normative and speculative arguments’. See supra note 4, Translation by F. Rosenthal (1958), Vol. I, at 82 and 83

92 See Haddad, L., ‘A Fourteenth Century Theory of Economic Growth and Development’, (1997) 30 (2)Kyklos 195, at 195–213CrossRefGoogle Scholar.