hawkwing_lb: (dreamed and are dead)
hawkwing_lb ([personal profile] hawkwing_lb) wrote2012-04-17 05:02 pm

Books 2012: the introduction to history

Books 2012: 60

nonfiction

60. Ibn Khaldun, The Muquaddimah: An Introduction to History. Bollingen Series, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2005. Translated and introduced by Franz Rosenthal, with a new introduction by Bruce B. Lawrence. Abridged and edited by N.J. Dawood.

Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406 CE) is one of those medieval Arab scholars who makes almost everyone else look like an underachiever. The Muqaddimah, or "Introduction," encompasses philosophy, history, sociology, economics, and more than a few other things.

I've been reading it for several months. This abridgement is still 460 pages long, and the prose of the translation is leaden. The actual matter is quite interesting - it's fascinating to see how little conservative views of economics and society have changed in six or so centuries, in some ways. But I certainly wouldn't recommend it for light, fun reading.




I do not thinking arising before 0900 really agrees with me. But such is life.
nwhyte: (megaliths)

[personal profile] nwhyte 2012-04-17 03:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmmm, shame about the translation - I've been looking out for it for almost two decades now. I've dipped in from time to time and found it a remarkable work.

[identity profile] hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com 2012-04-17 03:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah. I mean, I'm not sure how smooth a translation of such a packed scholarly tome could ever be? But I think Rosenthal's probably errs on the side of being too exact, rather than on the side of the fluid and accessible.

[identity profile] between4walls.livejournal.com 2012-04-17 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)
"The actual matter is quite interesting - it's fascinating to see how little conservative views of economics and society have changed in six or so centuries, in some ways"

Reagan used to quote Ibn Khaldun in support of his tax policies. (Which betokens somewhat more erudition than I would have expected.)

[identity profile] hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com 2012-04-17 09:52 pm (UTC)(link)
...Reagan? I'm impressed.

(Not with his policies, though.)

[identity profile] endlessrarities.livejournal.com 2012-05-12 03:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Even more leaden than Thucydides:-)

[identity profile] hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com 2012-05-12 04:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Not... quite. (I mean, I finished it! After many months! Which is more than I've yet managed for Thucy.)