Ibn Khaldun’s Theory of Good Governance in Achieving Civilization Excellence

Abstract

Ibn Khaldun was the most prominent medieval Muslim scholar famed for his theory and philosophy of history and insights into the rise and fall of civilizations. This article attempts to discuss Ibn Khaldun’s theory of good governance based on his monumental work, al-Muqaddimah. Although there is a great deal of scholarship that has been dedicated to the interpretation of Ibn Khaldun's political theory contained in the Muqaddimah, there are still a limited number of works that deal exclusively with his concept good governance and characteristic of good leader to ensure prosperity of the state. Hence, through the use of qualitative content analysis on Muqaddimah text, this article explores Ibn Khaldun’s theory of good governance. This article opines that Ibn Khaldun was a genius Muslim figure who has lots of experience in politics and government that he has successfully translated them into his writing as reference for others. Obviously, there are undoubtedly direct connections between good governance, good leadership, economic prosperity and civilization excellence. In one way or another, as a Muslim who conducted studies pertaining to civilization, politic and human society, Ibn Khaldun himself could not escape from touching the instrumental aspects of religions from being discussed. In his theory, Ibn Khaldun always highlighted suggestions and solutions based upon his Islamic worldviews. Thus, Ibn Khaldun’s theory of good governance and characteristic of good leaders are laid upon a solid religious foundation that is rational and acceptable to the mind.