The Concept of Change in the Thought of Ibn Khaldun and Western Classical Sociologists

This paper makes a comparative analysis and discussion of the notion of social change in Ibn Khaldun’s ‘umran science, on the one hand, and that of his counterparts among the Founding Fathers of Western sociology, on the other. In this regard, many similarities and differences are found between the author of the al-Muqaddimah and Comte, Marx, Durkheim and Weber. As to the evolution of human societies, they did not, however, see eye to eye. While the European sociologists saw human societies evolution in a linear pattern, Ibn Khaldun found the evolution of Arab Muslim societies cyclic in nature. Furthermore, Ibn Khaldun had found a strong link between the wide spread of extreme materialism/luxury in Arab Muslim societies and their weakness and inevitable collapse. This link is hardly found in the works of the Founding Fathers of Western sociology. On the convergence side, both Ibn Khaldun and those Western sociologists agree that social change is a necessary feature of human societies which very often lead societies from simple states to more complex ones: bedouin to sedentary, traditional to modern, Gemeinschaft to Gesellchaft, etc.