Ibn Khaldun (1332 - 1406 CE)

Abd al-Rahman Abu Zaid Ibn Khaldun was born, brought up and educated in Tunis. He studied the Qur'an, Arabic, hadith, fiqh and philosophy. He left Tunis at the age of 17 and went on to Fez and then to Granada and Talmisan in Islamic Spain where he held high posts. Later he went to Egypt and became the Chief Judge.

Ibn Khaldun had a broad education, was widely read and gained rich life experiences. He excelled in jurisprudence, logic, literature and philosophy.

From 1374, he spent four years working on his book of history called Kitab al-Ibar, the full title meaning 'Instructive Examples and Compositions about the Origin and Elaboration of the History of the Arabs, Persians and Berbers and their Great Contemporary Rulers'. A monumental work of Arabic literature, it starts by explaining the value of historical work in general.

It was as the writer of this introductory piece, al-Muqaddima (The Introduction) that Ibn Khaldun gained worldwide fame.While the Muqaddima was an introduction to the Kitab al-Ibar, it is itself considered to be a masterpiece, an 'introduction to the very discipline of history'. The Muqaddima deals with the description and discussion of human society