ScienceNorth Africa
Ibn Khaldun
He asked why civilisations fall, and made it a science
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The *Muqaddimah* is widely reckoned a foundation of sociology and economic history, written four centuries before those fields were named. His concept of *asabiyyah* — group solidarity — is still used analytically. He also observed that excessive taxation reduces state revenue, a point rediscovered in modern economics. The work was translated into European languages only in the nineteenth century.
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Ibn Khaldun held that history could be studied through causes and regularities, not merely narrated. He described how realms rise through solidarity and fall when wealth makes their descendants soft.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org