Medeniyetler Sosyolojisi: Neden Çok Medeniyetli Bir Dünya Düzeni İçin Yeniden İbn Haldun?

This article argues that similar to the Ottoman social thinkers, who applied Ibn Khaldun’s “science of civilization” to their times, we should also use his legacy to understand the changing relations among civilizations at the age of globalization. Ibn Khaldun (d. 808/1406) developed a theory of civilization (‘umrân) which served as the foundation for his “science of civilization” (‘ilm al-‘umrân) both of which must be understood within his cultural milieu. Civilization has thus served as an analytical unit for his macro-sociology. This new science adopted a relational and dialectical approach to explain change and continuity in the internal structure of the civilizations as well as their relations with each other. By developing such a science Ibn Khaldun was responding to his social environment which housed several civilizations: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Following Islamic law, he took as an axiom that human society in the world would produce a multitude of civilizations. Ibn Haldun’s “science of civilization” was a tool to empirically explore the relations among civilizations and Fiqh was a tool to normatively order these relations. As a jurist and historian, Ibn Khaldun mastered both. Yet the deep connection and the interaction between the two systems of knowledge he mastered has yet to be explored.