It is now more than two centuries that social scientist, Orientalists, historians and Muslim thinkers had been paying special attention to Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun. Interpreters of Ibn Khaldun tried to classify his thoughts in some pre-existing categories, such as Platonic-Aristotelian philosophical and political traditions, Nationalism, or Comtian modern sociology. These classifications, not only dismiss the whole content of Muqaddimah, reducing it to positive Comtian sociology or a contribution to sciences of the medieval ages, but also disregard the structure of internal content of Muqaddimah, which itself objects to these readings to a great extent. In this paper we critically examined three well-known interpretations which overall considered epistemological, sociological and historical aspects of Muqaddimah. We then argued how one can interpret Muqaddimah in direct opposition with the original text. Seyed Javad Tabatabaei, in respect to his 'decline theory' of Muslims thought demonstrates the work of Ibn Khaldun as insufficient and incapable of forming major epistemological shift in Muslims though. In this regard, he names some historical points in the western thought and highlights lack of their counterparts in Muslims’ thoughts, a method we shall call 'reverse engineering of history'. Muhsin Mahdi and Taha Hussein, who are renowned world-wide, analyzed Muqaddimah from classical Islamic philosophy and Arabic nationalism points of view and shed light on some part of its truth in the cost of dismissing the rest.
طباطبایی، سیدجواد (1379)، ابنخلدون و علوم اجتماعی: وضعیت علوم اجتماعی در تمدن اسلامی، تهران: انتشارات طرح نو؛
طباطبایی، سیدجواد (1386)، زوال اندیشهی سیاسی در ایران: گفتاری در مبانی نظری انحطاط در ایران، تهران: انتشارات کویر؛
عنایت، حمید (1385)، سیری در اندیشهی سیاسی عرب: از حملهی ناپلئون به مصر تا جنگ جهانی دوم، تهران: انتشارات امیرکبیر؛
مهدی، محسن (1383)، فلسفهی تاریخ ابنخلدون، مترجم: مجید مسعودی، تهران: انتشارات علمی و فرهنگی؛
نامدار، مظفر (1382)، تفسیر انحطاطی تاریخ ایران؛ نقدی بر کتاب «دیباچهای بر نظریهی انحطاط ایران»، فصلنامهی علوم انسانی، شمارهی 8 و 9، پاییز و زمستان و بهار، 87-78، تهران؛
نصار، ناصیف (1366)، اندیشهی واقعگرای ابنخلدون، مترجم: یوسف رحیملو، تهران: مرکز نشر دانشگاهی؛
Adamson, Peter and Taylor, Richard C (editor) (2005), The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, Cambridge University Press;
Ahmad, Zaid (2003), The Epistemology of Ibn Khaldun, Routledge.
Al-Azmeh, Aziz (1981), Ibn Khaldun, Routledge;
Al-Azmeh, Aziz (1982), Ibn Khaldun in Modern Scholarship: A Study in Orientalism, Third World Center;
Al-Azmeh, Aziz (2003), Ibn Khaldun: An Essay in Reinterpretation, Central European University Press;
Alatas, Seyed Farid (2006), Ibn Khaldun and Contemporary Sociology, International Sociology, November 2006, Vol. 21 (6), pp. 782–795;
Baali, Fuad (1988), Society, State, and Urbanism: Ibn Khaldun's Sociological Thought, State University of New York Press;
De Boer, Tjitze J (1903), History of Philosophy in Islam, translated by: Edward R. Jones, London;
Dawisha, Adeed (2003), Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century from Triumph to Despair, Princeton University Press;
Enan, Mohammad Abdullah (2007), Ibn Khaldun: His Life and Works, The Other Press;
Shehadi, Fadlou (1984), “Theism, Mysticism and Scientific History in Ibn Khaldun”, in Islamic Theology and Philosophy: Studies in Honor of George F. Hourani, State University of New York Press;
Fakhry, Majid (2004), A History of Islamic Philosophy, 3rd edition (1970, 1983, 2004), Columbia University Press;
Hourani, Albert Habib (1983) Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798-1939, Cambridge University Press;
Gutas, Dimitri (2002), The Study of Arabic Philosophy in the Twentieth Century: An Essay on the Historiography of Arabic Philosophy, in British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, pp. 5-25;
Hannoum, Abdelmajid (2003), Translation and the Colonial Imaginary: Ibn Khaldun Orientalist, History and Theory, Vol. 42, No. 1 (Feb., 2003), pp. 61-81, Blackwell Publishing for Wesleyan University;
Ibn Khaldun (1967), The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History, Vols. 1, 2 and 3, translated by: Franz Rosenthal, Princeton University Press;
Jamshidiha, Gholamreza (1997), Ibn Khaldun: Social Evolution and Social Change , a study in Historical Sociology, Ph.D. Thesis, Faculty of Economics, Social and Legal Studies, University of Manchester;
Jarvis, Simon (1998), Adorno, Routledge;
Mahdi, Muhsin (1996), On Ibn Rushd, Philosophy and the Arab World (Interview), Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, No. 16, Averroës and the Rational Legacy in the West, University in Cairo and American University in Cairo Press, pp. 255-258.
Moaddel, Mansoor (2005), Islamic Modernism, Nationalism, and Fundamentalism: Episode and Discourse, University of Chicago Press;
Rose, Gillian (1995), Hegel Contra Sociology, Athlone;
Rosenthal, Erwin I. J (1958), Political Thought in Medieval Islam: an Introductory Outline, Cambridge University Press;
Sheikh, M. Saeed (1982), Islamic Philosophy, The Octagon Press;
Kachooyan, H. and Saboorian, M. (2012). Ibn Khaldun and Intepreters: Taha Hussein, Muhsin Mahdi and Sayed Javad Tabatatbaei. Social Theories of Muslim Thinkers, 2(1), 55-85. doi: 10.22059/jstmt.2012.54309
MLA
Kachooyan, H. , and Saboorian, M. . "Ibn Khaldun and Intepreters: Taha Hussein, Muhsin Mahdi and Sayed Javad Tabatatbaei", Social Theories of Muslim Thinkers, 2, 1, 2012, 55-85. doi: 10.22059/jstmt.2012.54309
HARVARD
Kachooyan, H., Saboorian, M. (2012). 'Ibn Khaldun and Intepreters: Taha Hussein, Muhsin Mahdi and Sayed Javad Tabatatbaei', Social Theories of Muslim Thinkers, 2(1), pp. 55-85. doi: 10.22059/jstmt.2012.54309
CHICAGO
H. Kachooyan and M. Saboorian, "Ibn Khaldun and Intepreters: Taha Hussein, Muhsin Mahdi and Sayed Javad Tabatatbaei," Social Theories of Muslim Thinkers, 2 1 (2012): 55-85, doi: 10.22059/jstmt.2012.54309
VANCOUVER
Kachooyan, H., Saboorian, M. Ibn Khaldun and Intepreters: Taha Hussein, Muhsin Mahdi and Sayed Javad Tabatatbaei. Social Theories of Muslim Thinkers, 2012; 2(1): 55-85. doi: 10.22059/jstmt.2012.54309
)
