'Ibn Khaldun and his Readers': Paradoxical Ideological Approaches

'Ibn Khaldun and his Readers': Paradoxical Ideological Approaches
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'Ibn Khaldun and his Readers': Paradoxical Ideological Approaches

'Ibn Khaldun and his Readers': Paradoxical Ideological Approaches

Some call him the first founder of sociology, and some say his thoughts belong to the 20th century despite that he lived in the 14th century. In his books, he focused on the rules of human settlement, and this is why he was called the founder of the Ekistics science. Ibn Khaldun deciphered the concepts of crowd psychology, tribalism, and the stages of state collapse. He was one of the greatest developers of political thinking, given his contributions to the philosophy of history and political systems.

This is Ibn Khaldun who still inspires people around the world and prompts many to write about him. The latest publication on the famous philosopher is a French book dubbed "Ibn Khaldun and his Readers" by Ahmed Abdul Salam, which has also been translated into Arabic by Al-Sadek al-Misawi, and recently published by The Tunisian Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts "Beït al-Hikma".

In the abstract, Abdul Salam said his book includes a number of lectures he delivered at the Collège de France, which he believes they contribute to the revival of the diverse Kaldunian studies and their content of philosophic expressions, sociology terms, and historic vocabulary. Hence, the study of Ibn Khaldun's works required different scientific readings, and various ideological approaches adopted in the advanced orientalist studies that link his works to sociology or to the philosophy of history.

The Khaldunian thinking has contributed to the emergence of many schools like the Khaldunian Madhab led by Hajji Khalifa in Turkey. European orientalists have also looked at Ibn Khaldun's "Muqaddimah" after "they noticed similarity between its content and the thoughts of leading figures from the Age of Enlightment like Montesquieu."

This is why Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall referred to Ibn Khaldun as "Montesquieu of the Arabs", and others called him "Montesquieu of the East."

Ahmed Abdul Salam explains that the interest in Ibn Khaldun was not limited to historians studying the Ekistics causes, but he was also studied in many papers and dissertations, such as the publications of the Austrian Philosopher Friedrich August von Hayek who was astonished by the thoroughness of Ibn Khaldun's theses in the political and social fields.

According to Abdul Salam, the comparative criticism between Ibn Khaldun and the greatest western philosophers was the main reason behind the interest of European orientalists in the Muqaddimah writer.

For instance, the Sweden orientalist Jacob Graber compared Ibn Khaldun to Machiavelli, confirming the influence of the Khaldunian thinking on the prince's companion. he European orientalists' interest in Ibn Khaldun also appears in the translation of the Muqaddimah into several international languages including French by Baron de Slane.

Those are the different readings and readers of Ibn Khaldun on various ideological, epistemological, and contextual levels; no one can doubt the eligibility of each reading, even Ibn Khaldun himself, because the text belongs to the reader as long as he has the required knowledge tools.

The Muqaddimah includes some philosophic reflections, even if some readers denied them. Some sees Ibn Khaldum's understanding of Ekistics as a field of sociological research, while others classifies it under other knowledge contexts.



Egypt Unveils First Ancient Royal Tomb since Tutankhamun

These handout pictures released by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities on February 19, 2025 show the entrance to the tomb of King Thutmose II in Luxor in southern Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities / AFP)
These handout pictures released by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities on February 19, 2025 show the entrance to the tomb of King Thutmose II in Luxor in southern Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities / AFP)
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Egypt Unveils First Ancient Royal Tomb since Tutankhamun

These handout pictures released by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities on February 19, 2025 show the entrance to the tomb of King Thutmose II in Luxor in southern Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities / AFP)
These handout pictures released by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities on February 19, 2025 show the entrance to the tomb of King Thutmose II in Luxor in southern Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities / AFP)

Egypt's antiquities authority says it has found the ancient tomb of King Thutmose II, the first royal burial to be located since the famed discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922.

The tomb, discovered near the Valley of the Kings in Luxor in southern Egypt, belonged to King Thutmose II of the 18th dynasty, who lived nearly 3,500 years ago.

Thutmose II was an ancestor to Tutankhamun himself, and his half-sister and queen consort was Pharaoh Hatshepsut.

Her giant mortuary temple stands on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor a few kilometers (miles) from where the tomb of Thutmose II was found.

Although preliminary studies suggest its contents were moved in ancient times -- leaving the tomb without the iconic mummy or gilded splendor of the Tutankhamun find -- the antiquities ministry on Tuesday called the discovery "one of the most significant archaeological breakthroughs in recent years".

It has been excavated by a joint Egyptian-British mission, led by the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the New Kingdom Research Foundation.

The tomb's entrance was first located in 2022 in the Luxor mountains west of the Valley of the Kings, but was believed at the time to lead to the tomb of a royal wife.

But the team then found "fragments of alabaster jars inscribed with the name of Pharaoh Thutmose II, identified as the 'deceased king', alongside inscriptions bearing the name of his chief royal consort, Queen Hatshepsut", confirming whose tomb it was, the ministry said.

Shortly after the king's burial, water flooded the burial chamber, damaging the interior and leaving fragments of plaster that bore parts of the Book of Amduat, an ancient mortuary text on the underworld.

Some funerary furniture belonging to Thutmose II has also been recovered from the tomb in "the first-ever find" of its kind, according to the ministry.

It quoted mission chief Dr Piers Litherland as saying the team will continue its work in the area, hoping to find the tomb's original contents.

There has been a surge of major archaeological discoveries in recent years, as Egypt seeks to boost its tourism industry as a key source of foreign currency revenue.

Last year, Egypt hosted 15.7 million tourists and aims to attract 18 million visitors in 2025.

The crown jewel of the government's strategy is the long-delayed inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum at the foot of the pyramids in Giza, which Egypt has said will finally open this year.