Page 17 - Issue 39

ELITE Vol.1, Issue 39, January 2022
Vol.1, Issue 39, January

Therefore, Al-Farabi sees that the parts of the city are the traditions of philosophy and having sought out wisdom in
interconnected, intertwined with each other, arranged by the the field of history instead, it appears that the traditions of
advancement of some and the delay of others; the city is philosophy did not leave Ibn Khaldun. Rather, it branded his
similar in this way of formation and arrangement to that of the approach to the science of civilization within the framework of
principles of existence, which start with the first cause and end Kitab al-Ibar/the Book of Lessons. Unfortunately, though this
with matter and the elements. Just as beings begin with the first is something that begs for further elaboration, it does remain
cause, we find that the city's first chief or its director also outside the scope of this article.
comes at its head. Moreover, just as the degeneration of beings Ibn Khaldun actually rose above from the anthropological
in ranks of existence is caused by their distance from the first principle and the cosmological principle, which are, of course,
cause, we find the same exact thing in the city's ranks, the considered to be classical political philosophy, to what we may
status of which declines also due to distance from the first call the theological or divine principle, as is clear from the
chief. In light of this constructive similarity between the ranks preamble of the introduction of his Kitab al-Ibar/Book of
of the vitreous city and the principles of existence, it is clear Lessons. Here, the visual idea of the late Egyptian philosopher
that Civic Politics or Political Regime had a dual structure; for Mahmoud Rajab offers us a helping hand in understanding
it consists of a metaphysical part on the different types of these archaeological shifts in the discourse of civic politics
existence and their ranking, and a political part on the city and among Muslim philosophers. The anthropological principle
its creation, composition and types. This structural parallel was makes the city a mirror reflective of either the soul according
reflected in the book's title as well as it had two titles: Political to Plato, or the body according to Aristotle and al-Farabi in the
Regime (Civic Politics) or the Principles of Existence. Virtuous City. As for the cosmological principle, it makes the
city a mirror reflective of the universe or of al-Farabi's
It is generally understood that Abd-Al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun principles of existence explained in his Civic Politics/Political
had been educated from the early days of his life to become a Regime. In the same vein, the divine principle makes collective
philosopher, and that he studied under the hands of his teacher, human existence, human social organization/human sociology
al-Abli, chapters from the book of Remarks and Admonitions or civilization—using Ibn Khaldun’s own expression— a
by Ibn Sina (Avicenna), himself a student of al-Farabi. It is mirror reflecting the divine existence itself, nothing less than
also needless to mention that he had writings on philosophy that. It is worth noting that the image reflected in the mirror, as
including his summarization of al-Razi's book A Summary of Rajab mentions, is similar to the thing standing in front of the
the ideas of the earlier and later Scholars. However, Ibn .mirror and yet it is its opposite or reverse at the same time
Khaldun had soon not only turned his back to philosophy, but It is clear from his Introduction/Muqaddimah’s list of contents
he also turned against it as only a madman would, and left it that its subject is human civilization, that is human social
without any intent of return. He even launched a vicious organization or human sociology, with which autonomous
campaign against it as Abu Hamed al-Ghazali had once done. features/phenomena are linked and which still make up part of
Such campaign is evident in one of the parts of chapter six the civilizational phenomenon. These features/phenomena are
from his Muqaddimah and Kitab al-Ibar (Introduction and the political (authority, states, caliphate, and the royal sultanistic
Book of Lessons), titled 'A refutation of philosophy and the ranks), economic (earning, pension, crafts) and cognitive
corruption of the students of philosophy'. Despite having left (science, knowledge and education). However, the preamble of

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