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'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.

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Iran's Vast Collection of Western Art, Much Long Hidden, Re-Emerges Despite High Tensions With US

A woman walks past a portrait of the leader of the American Indian Movement Russell Means, right, by American artist Andy Warhol, as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A woman walks past a portrait of the leader of the American Indian Movement Russell Means, right, by American artist Andy Warhol, as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
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Iran's Vast Collection of Western Art, Much Long Hidden, Re-Emerges Despite High Tensions With US

A woman walks past a portrait of the leader of the American Indian Movement Russell Means, right, by American artist Andy Warhol, as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A woman walks past a portrait of the leader of the American Indian Movement Russell Means, right, by American artist Andy Warhol, as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

As Iran faces increasing tensions with the West and turmoil at home, a new exhibition at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art is displaying Western artwork including pieces not seen by the public in at least a decade.
The unveiling of the exhibition “Eye to Eye” has drawn numerous women, their hair uncovered, to the underground galleries of the museum in Tehran's Laleh Park. Their presence, while unacknowledged by authorities, shows the way life has changed inside Iran just in the last few years even as the country's theocracy presses forward with enriching uranium to near-weapons grade levels and launching attacks on Israel during the ongoing Mideast wars, The Associated Press said.
“The first feeling that came to me, and I told my parents, was that I can’t believe I’m seeing these works, which have always been kept far from our eyes,” said Aida Zarrin, a young woman at the museum.
“If such events are held here and we can see artworks like the rest of the world, it’s enough. They are really precious.”
The government of Iran’s Western-backed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and his wife, the former Empress Farah Pahlavi, built the museum and acquired the vast collection in the late 1970s, when oil boomed and Western economies stagnated. Upon opening, it showed sensational works by Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, Claude Monet, Jackson Pollock and other heavyweights, enhancing Iran’s cultural standing on the world stage.
But just two years later, in 1979, Shiite clerics ousted the shah and packed away the art in the museum’s vault. Some paintings — cubist, surrealist, impressionist and even pop art — sat untouched for decades to avoid offending Islamic values and the appearance of catering to Western sensibilities. Nearly everything is believed still to be there, though an Andy Warhol print of the empress was slashed during the revolution.
Today, the collection is likely worth billions of dollars. Even with Iran now cash-strapped under Western sanctions, officials with the museum have been able to advocate for keeping the collection, though there have been occasional trades in the past for items from Persian history. Those sanctions may increase under the next administration of US President-elect Donald Trump.
As Iranian politics have thawed, re-frozen and thawed again, the collection resurfaces along with those changes.
Among the over 120 works being shown are ones from Picasso, Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon, along with celebrated Iranian artists. One of the Warhols, “Jacqueline Kennedy II,” is a silkscreen double image of the former US first lady in mourning after the 1963 assassination of her husband, President John Kennedy. Another Warhol portrait of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger also garnered attention from the cellphone photo snappers.
“A lot of these works are important works in the history of art, and that’s why this show distinguishes itself from others,” said Jamal Arabzadeh, the exhibition's curator. ”A lot of people with less exposure to art have discovered the museum for the first time. ... We are seeing a part of the community that are discovering art and the museum and see the potential of this place, and this is something to be proud of.”
The presence of Western art comes as Iran's government has long fought against items like Barbie dolls and depictions of cartoon characters from “The Simpsons.” Such Western influences have been deemed un-Islamic in the past and have been seen as part of a “soft” cultural war against Iran.
With a ticket costing the equivalent of 14 US cents, the exhibition offers a rare government-sanctioned event not involving the country's politics or Shiite religion.
Among the visitors were many women defying the country's mandatory headscarf, or hijab, law. Crackdowns over the hijab have slowed down after Iran's presidential election in July that elected reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, though individual cases of arrest continue to draw anger.
And for many, the cost of tickets to travel abroad given Iran's collapsing rial currency keep foreign museums out of reach.
“This is very attractive for art enthusiasts because not everyone can go and see museums abroad. It’s extremely exciting to see the works here,” said a woman who only gave her last name, Dolatshahi. “I had no idea I could see works by van Gogh and Picasso here.”