The concept of ‘umran: the heuristic knot in Ibn Khaldun

Abstract

Is Ibn Khaldun relevant to the social sciences today? Yes, particularly his concept of ‘umran which is at the very centre of his world view. This paper will discuss ‘umran from two approaches. First, it presents a philological approach going from the root itself which means ‘to fill a vacuum/void’ to Ibn Khaldun's applying the term to describe movement from rural (‘umran badawi) to urban (‘umran hadhari). It then looks at how Ibn Khaldun applied the concept to the world that he observed. It becomes clear that Ibn Khaldun saw ‘umran not as something static, a product, but rather as a dynamic process. That is precisely the value of Ibn Khaldun's sense of ‘umran to our understanding of the ‘social’ today, one in which finality does not necessarily reside in the city. We will submit Ibn Khaldun's proposals to a comparative approach. We will compare Ibn Khaldun's proposals with the last and more recent scientific findings offered by social sciences nowadays.