20
See also: Ferdinand Tönnies 32–33 ■ Robert D. Putnam 124–25 ■
Arjun Appadurai 166–69 ■ David Held 170–71 ■ Michel Maffesoli 291T
he group dynamics of how
some societies come to
flourish and take over
others fascinated Ibn Khaldun,
the Arab philosopher and historian.
He is best known for his ambitious
multivolume history of the world,
the Kitab al-‘Ibar, especially the
first part called the Muqaddimah.
The Kitab is seen as a precursor of
sociology because of its analyses
of Berber and Arabic societies.
Central to Ibn Khaldun’s
explanation of the success of a
society is the Arabic concept of
asabiyyah, or social solidarity.
Originally, asabiyyah referred to
the family bonds found in clans and
nomadic tribes, but as civilizations
grew it came to mean a sense
of belonging, usually translated
today as “solidarity.” According to
Ibn Khaldun, asabiyyah exists in
societies as small as clans and as
large as empires, but the sense of
a shared purpose and destiny
wanes as a society grows and
ages, and the civilization weakens.
Ultimately, such a civilization
will be taken over by a smaller oryounger one with a stronger
sense of solidarity: a nation may
experience—but will never be
brought down by—a physical defeat
but when it “becomes the victim of
a psychological defeat... that marks
the end of a nation.”
This concept of the importance
of solidarity and social cohesion
in society anticipated many ideas
of community and civic spirit in
modern sociology, including Robert
Putnam’s theory that contemporary
society is suffering from a collapse
of participation in the community. ■A PHYSICAL DEFEAT
H A S N E V E R M A R K E D
T H E E N D O F A N A T I O N
IBN KHALDUN (1332–1406)
The desert Bedouin tribes were
cited by Ibn Khaldun in his theory of
group dynamics, in which social and
psychological factors contribute to the
rise and fall of civilizations.IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
SolidarityKEY DATES
c.622 The first Islamic state
is established in Medina.c.1377 Ibn Khaldun completes
Muqaddimah (or Prolegomena),
the introduction to his history
of the world.1835 Volume 1 of Alexis de
Tocqueville’s Democracy in
America describes how the
association of individuals
for mutual purpose benefits
political and civil society.1887 Ferdinand Tönnies
writes Gemeinschaft und
Gesellschaft (Community
and Society).1995 Robert Putnam explains
the concept of social capital in
his article “Bowling Alone,”
expanded into a book in 2000.1996 Michel Maffesoli’s
Du Nomadisme continues
his study of neotribalism.