Ibn Khaldun Quotes on Knowledge
Ibn Khaldun was a North African Arab historian and philosopher, born in Tunis to a family of Andalusian scholars. This page collects quotes attributed to Ibn Khaldun on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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Attributed to Ibn Khaldun:
“History is a science, and its subject is the human social organization.”
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Attributed to Ibn Khaldun:
“A scholar's relationship to politics and politicians is like that of a lamb to a wolf.”
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“As quoted in Bernard Lewis , Race and Color in Islam, Harper and Row, 1970, quote on page 38. The brackets are displayed by Lewis.”
The only people who accept slavery are the Negroes, owing to their low degree of humanity and proximity to the animal stage. Other persons who accept the status of slave do so as a means of attaining high rank, or power, or wealth, as is the case with the Mameluke Turks in the East and with those Franks and Galicians who enter the service of the state [in Spain]. -
“Muqaddimah , 2:272–73 quoted in Weiss (1995), p. 30”
When civilization [population] increases, the available labor again increases. In turn, luxury again increases in correspondence with the increasing profit, and the customs and needs of luxury increase. Crafts are created to obtain luxury products. The value realized from them increases, and, as a result, profits are again multiplied in the town. Production there is thriving even more than before. -
“The sciences of only one nation, the Greeks , have come down to us, because they were translated through Al-Ma'mun 's efforts. He was successful in this direction because he had many translators at his disposal and spent much money in this connection.”
Wikiquote -
“Eventually, Aristotle appeared among the Greeks. He improved the methods of logic and systematized its problems and details. He assigned to logic its proper place as the first philosophical discipline and the introduction to philosophy. Therefore he is called the First Teacher .”
Muqaddimah , Translated by Franz Rosenthal, p. 39 and p. 383, Princeton University Press, 1981. -
“Muqaddimah , Translated by Franz Rosenthal, p. 39 and p. 383, Princeton University Press, 1981.”
Eventually, Aristotle appeared among the Greeks. He improved the methods of logic and systematized its problems and details. He assigned to logic its proper place as the first philosophical discipline and the introduction to philosophy. Therefore he is called the First Teacher .