The sociology of civilizations: IBN Khaldun and a multi-civilizational world order

Due to advancements in telecommunications and transportation over the past century, the
world is shrinking and physical boundaries are being eroded. The advent of globalization has
facilitated the flow of ideas, values, goods, and people from one part of the world to another.
This hyperbolic human activity has altered the structure of inter-civilizational relations and has
spawned a spirited debate on how to create a multi-civilizational world order. This paper is critical of contemporary approaches on the subject that envisage the primacy of one civilization on
the one hand and a clash among civilizations on the other. By examining Ibn Khaldun’s theory
of ʿUmrān and the discipline of Fiqh, it argues that these concepts remain relevant for our
understanding of the human condition today. While the theory of ʿUmrān analyzes political
and economic relations at the macro-level, Fiqh tries to arrange societal relations at the microlevel. This paper also studies the Ottoman legacy since the Ottoman state was founded on Fiqh
and the Millet system. It proved to be successful in preserving pluralistic communities based
on principles of autonomy and mutual coexistence. Even though Ibn Khaldun was one of the
pioneers in the field of civilizational studies, his seminal work is largely neglected in scholarly
circles today, both Muslim and non-Muslim alike. The present inquiry seeks to address this
shortcoming