How significant is the term ‘condition’ (ḥāl) to understanding Ibn Khaldūn's historical and political thought? Al-ʿaṣabiyya as an ‘essential condition’ of human association

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay offers an interpretation of the term al-ʿaṣabiyya in Al-Muqaddima by Ibn Khaldūn, by situating it among the ‘essential conditions’ of human association, which are necessary for the preservation of civilisation. Political authority is necessary for human association, but it can be acquired, Ibn Khaldūn says, only by al-ʿaṣabiyya. Al-ʿaṣabiyya is the required condition (sharṭ); by means of its power, the goal of rulership is attained. This essay begins by examining the term ‘condition’ and explains what Ibn Khaldūn means by the ‘nature of conditions’, the ignorance of which constitutes one of the reasons that had prompted him to write Al-Muqaddima. Using that interpretation, it then shows that al-ʿaṣabiyya, which is a power of unity among individuals and groups built to gain political authority, is based on manufactured connections and constructed compassion. The examination of the different textual circumstances shows that the form of al-ʿaṣabiyya that ‘guarantees’ political authority is a composite of different ʿaṣabiyyāt, one of which is the leading ʿaṣabiyya. Therefore, in the political context, I argue that Ibn Khaldūn uses the term al-ʿaṣabiyya in the sense of the ‘grand’ ʿaṣabiyya and not the ‘natural’ ʿaṣabiyya, which no one can eliminate. The construction of the ‘grand’ ʿaṣabiyya happens by thinking because the intention to create something, he says, requires thinking about the order of things and an awareness of the reason, cause, or condition (sharṭ) of that thing.