Essay: Ibn Khaldun and Durkheim

Ibn Khaldun and Durkheim were sociologists who have had ideas and theories that each is still relevant and used until the current era. It is important to know the biographical background of ibn Khaldun so his thoughts can be compared to Durkheim’s thoughts.
Abd al-Rahman ibn Khaldun was a historian theoretical Muslim Arab philosopher who has influenced the Muslims in the 14th century. Ibn Khaldun was born in May 1332 in Tunis but his ancestors were originated from Yemen that was participating in politics. Since he was a Muslim, he was taught by his father the Quran and Hadith. He also studied with scholars that taught him grammar, jurisprudence, rhetoric, philology, and poetry. However, the major thing that changed the life of Ibn Khaldun was the plague that they encountered in Samarqand and Mauritania. Afterward, Ibn Khaldun was granted his first public mission that has marked the beginning of his political career. Therefore, the traditional division among sciences including religious and non-religious ones not necessarily were useful sciences, was the result of Ibn Khaldun’s point of view on science. His view on science makes it a point to negate enchantment, chemistry, astrology, and reasoning in his book “Al-Muqaddima”. Hence, his work turned into a record of the improvement of sciences in his era. In addition, he also has made his own view on philosophy which he seeks to correspond mysticism and theology. According to Dr. Muhammad Hozien, “Philosophy was regarded as going beyond its appropriate level of discourse, in that the intellect should not be used to weigh such matters as the oneness of God, the other world, the truth of prophecy, the real character of the divine attributes, or anything else that lies beyond the level of the intellect”. Thus, he affirmed that the order of being and its movement toward the Necessary Being and God, cannot be possible without revelation. Eventually, at the age of seventy-four, Ibn Khaldun died in Cairo, Egypt, in March 1406 (Hozien, n.d.).
Similarities and differences can be found between Ibn Khaldun and Durkheim, but the fact that there are not many similarities, the differences are various. In knowing the common things between the two philosophers that they were both social cohesion theorists. Khaldun, similar to Durkheim, regarded religion as a culturally decided social actuality. That implies that religious laws are not a necessity to proceed and continue the civilizations. Therefore, Khaldun, like Durkheim, preceded concerning assuring the positive job of religion in social control and in the harmony of society. Moreover, both were aware of segmentary societies but the difference lies in how it was used in the matter of interpretation and evaluation of each. In Durkheim’s perspective, the segmentary societies were known and exemplified as a mechanical solidarity which can be based on similarity as a way of cohesion. Thus, he was against it to be an organic solidarity because then it would be more based on complementary rather than similarity. Yet, for Ibn Khaldun, he was not opposed with the idea of either mechanical solidarity nor organic solidarity, more likely, he opposed the idea that segmentary societies were a way of cohesion since he viewed it as a way of social dissolution. Hence, the key factor here is the use of cohesion in which Durkheim thought that cohesion is necessary to unite the society whereas ibn Khaldun thought that it is not proper to use moral or social salvation. Therefore, it can be said that Ibn Khaldun and Durkheim are different in which Durkheim was supporting the social cohesion to differ between the mechanical solidarity and the organic solidarity while Ibn Khaldun, although he knew about the two solidarities, organic solidarity was not recognizable according to him because he was against that the organic solidarity refer to be as the foundation of any solidarity.
By knowing the similarities and differences between the two sociologists, it is clear that each of their ideas is reflecting the civilizations that they lived in. this is due to the fact that Durkheim was from a European background and Ibn Khaldun came from a Muslim background.