THE RISE AND DECLINE OF NATIONS: SOCIAL COHESION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF CIVILIZATIONS Iftou Yoya Department of History, Carthage College Celebration of Scholars 2015: Exposition of Student & Faculty Research, Scholarship & Creativity

Abstract Conclusion

Ibn Khaldun pioneered the critical study of Ibn Khaldun was a historian who developed the theory of ‘asabiyyah and the history. He provided an analytical study of human concept of ‘Al-Umran to explain the rise and decline of nations and empires. civilization, its beginning, factors contributing to its development and the causes of decline. Khaldun believed that the theory of ‘asabiyyah played an enormous role in the development of human civilization. The theory of ‘asabiyyah is a representation of Figure 1. Front cover of the first complete scholarly European edition social cohesion among members of a group. According to Ibn Khaldun, the theory of Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddima in 3 volumes, edited from manuscripts at of ‘asabiyyah mobilizes new groups to seize power in a society and thus promotes the Bibliotheque imperiale by the French Orientalist Etienne-Marc the cyclical nature of history. Ibn Khaldun interpreted history in terms of group Quatremere (1782-1857): Prolegomenes d'Ebn-Khaldoun changes. In this interpretation, ‘asabiyyah becomes vital to the concept of ‘Al- (Paris: Benjamin Duprat, 1858). Umran, the development of a society beginning from a nomadic state to an organized state of sedentary nations. Khaldun espouses that as the theory of ‘asabiyyah weakens within a society, the sedentary nation becomes prone to Figure 2. A translation from Arabic into English of the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun in 3 conquest by another nation possessing a stronger sense of ‘asabiyyah. Ibn Khaldun volumes by Franz Rosenthal (1914-2003): The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History utilizes the occurrences of past social structures and social patterns in an effort to (New York: Pantheon Books, 1958) explain how and why nations and empires come into power only to collapse into a Acknowledgements & References state of nonexistence. This research was made possible by the work of historian and philosopher Ibn Khaldun. A special thanks goes to faculty advisor Dr. Eric Pullin.

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