Ibn Khaldun in Egypt .. signed a fatwa coup and predicted control of the Ottomans!

Mohamed Mokhtar Ould Ahmed

A century ago (1917), Taha Hussein discussed his doctoral thesis at the French Sorbonne entitled "Ibn Khaldun's Social Philosophy: Analysis and Criticism". Regardless of the dispute over the content of this thesis and its results, it was the first book written by an Arab author - though not the tongue of Had - to study it in a modern style "introduction". Thus, Egypt provided the first manifestations of the Arab scientific celebration with the sign of the historians and the religion of Abizaid Abdul Rahman bin Khaldun Hadrami.

The story of the celebration of the "land of the Canana" was preceded by five centuries, where his personality has been the subject of controversy and the feelings of rivalry between its children, since he resorted to it in 784 AH (1384 AD) for the stability of the soul missed him for half A century that was full of fate and wars of politics, adventures and conspiracies, in a geographical area that continued to expand and change between the Maghreb and Andalusian kingdoms: Tunisia, Bejaia, Tlemcen, Fez and Granada, those countries where Abu Zeid felt that he had been harmed by what he called "the temptation of ranks ... and the omission of science."

In the presence of the world
Ibn Khaldun arrived in Egypt, preceded by his political and scientific voice, but he came alone from his hometown of Tunis, which was stored by a family that was always delayed by political intrigues about taking her to his hiding places and various funerals. He was fascinated by Mamluk Cairo and his charm. And the walls of the city are full of crowds, and their markets are full of blessings. "

He was soon found to meet the Sultan of the country, Al-Zaher Barqouq, who said: "The best of my place, and the noblest of the stranger, and the saving of the salary from his charity." And his entourage: "Olini Care and Cheriva, and overwhelmed me and the well-known."

Then he issued his scientific seminar at the Al-Azhar mosque, where he was given the minutes of science and jurisprudence and experiments. But he also took over the "administration of Khankah Beybars .. [and is] the greatest of the" mystical "gulfs, having sat - the judge and the historian and the former minister - one day in their workshops to deserve this job !!

However, the Egyptian reality - and the thrill of the activities of entertainment and madness - Ibn Khaldun was shocked when he experienced it, until his student Al-Maqrizi told him that "the people of Egypt [live] as if they had been removed from [the Akhar] account" Without him in his introduction as those who "overcome joy and lightness and disregard for the consequences."

In fact, these descriptions were not the result of a personal conclusion from Ibn Khaldun, but rather of her sheikhs, who were heard from them - a young boy in Morocco - the news of Egypt and what the community of "wonders" has referred to in the "journey".

But AbuZayd once settled in the "orchard of the world" until he called him "seduction ranks" to take up the post of the judiciary in 786, after the vacancy of the post of judge of the Maliki doctrine of the removal of the Sultan to Judge Gamal al-Din ibn Kheir al-Alexandri, was the function spark trigger that ignited jealousy The municipal judges - named by Ibn Khaldun before "Al-Badur and the planets" - on this immigrant aspiring to compete for positions and salaries.

He did not portray the nature of Ibn Khaldun's life in Egypt and his battles against it, as his relationship with the judiciary has shown to him and his family. His entry into the corridors of justice led to his discovery of corruption and favoritism, especially among the offices of witnesses and signatories. The judges (judges) are holding back their criticism ... because they mock the people of the thorn (power), most of them are mixed with princes, "and yet he kept" doing the right and forbidding the purposes. "

His testimony to himself is what he witnessed to him by the historians of Egypt and summed up one of them by saying: "He started with a generous sanctity and magnanimity and praised his conduct, and sent messages of the nobles of the state and the heirs of the dignitaries." And his package of treatment of witnesses and signatories "has given us a glimpse of the storm around him", as Abdullah Annan rightly said.

One year after his inauguration, his opponents tried to overthrow the Sultan. He was dismissed in 787 and remained outside the judicial office for fourteen years. He returned to him in 801 until he was appointed a judge in 808, a vicious cycle of isolation and succession (six times in seven years).

This is evidenced by the intensification of the conflict between him and his counterparts of judges (Gamal al-Din al-Akfasi and Gamal al-Din al-Basati, especially the latter) and their influential supporters, who pleaded not guilty to the judiciary and even accused him of " "He continued to follow his path in his country" and denied him hiking in the orchards and on the banks of the Nile River; the charges were sometimes cheated by throwing and exposing.

However, Ibn Khaldun told the faithful historians, "He was not known for his job except for maintenance", according to the testimony of his disciple Hafiz Ibn Hajar. These charges may have been dismissed by judges who are functionally opposed or fanatical scholars, especially those who launched or transferred them to his contemporaries, "calculated by Cairo" Jamal al-Din al-Beshbishi al-Shafei. Al-Sakhawi's novel is not surprising to what he knew of the severity and exceeded - unlawfully - in his translations of the flags, however important.

Fatwa to overthrow Barouk
In the year 791, Prince Nabil al-Naciri overthrew the regime of Sultan Barqouq, and he decided to manage his coup between his gang of princes. The "legislation" of the process is a fatwa to be issued by the judges of the schools of thought, and the Abbasid caliphate blesses them in the hands of the maskilim.

Although the son of Khaldun was not then a judge of the judges of his doctrine, but full-time teaching; he brought the signing board of the fatwa based on the lawsuit that Barqouq "used the infidels to fight the Muslims"; succeeded coup, but soon managed to pluck him miraculously and return to his throne 792.

Ibn Khaldun was very upset with his poetry and prose, saying that he misled the justifications presented to the coup, and even hated to sign, hoping that he would not be taken to the task of "deceiving" him. From Prince Altnebga al-Jubani, who was the master of the grace of our historian - since his feet came to Egypt - and he was privileged by the Sultan.

If Ibn Khaldun's sense of social and political insight did not help him to read correctly the balance of power among the Mamluk power centers, he was involved in the "legislation" of a failed palace coup; his historical intuition and his hopes for the destinies of the nations - His son Ibn Hajar said: Ibn Khaldun heard many times saying: "What is feared for the king of Egypt is only from the son of Usman." But the collapse of the Ottomans before the Mongol invasion of their country led by Tamerlen in 1402 for the seizure of Egypt another century after the death of Ibn Khaldun.

Ibn Khaldun's positions in the judiciary and politics were not the only ones in which the views and opinions of the Egyptians differed in our historian, but were added to their cognitive aspects. For example, the evaluation of the crown of his scientific production was a dispute between his Egyptian students.

If the historian of ancient Egypt Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi believes that "he did not work on it like it, and it is dear to obtain the work of Manalha, which is the butter of knowledge and science and the result of the minds of sound and the concept," his colleague Ibn Hajar responds that "what he described - in terms of rhetoric and manipulation By speaking in the manner of Jabih - Muslim in it, but what he said by the addition of it is not as he said, but in some without some, but the rhetoric adorned with decorations.

If we go beyond Ibn Khaldun's judicial disputes and his "conspiracies" and his political predictions in Egypt, we will find that his greatest scientific achievements are his graduation, and the Arab-Islamic heritage behind them, a group of leading historians. The Egyptian historical school is distinguished by its detailed and analytical approach. And its series of centrifuges that continued - after Ibn Khaldun - more than 150 years.

Ibn Hajar said: "I met him repeatedly, and I heard from his benefits and from his classifications, especially in history, and he used to ... [He] has full knowledge of things, especially the Kingdom's belongings.

And you - the reader - I find the impact of the methodology Khaldonism in the remaining effects of these flags, not only in their involvement in the paths of history and specialization; but in the style of authorship and methodology of the proposal, and the tendency to develop the books of methodological introductions to the major scientific encyclopedias in various fields of knowledge, Their methodological elder has a great history of "lessons".

An example of this is the fact that Al-Qalqashandi - a student of Ibn Khaldun in Egypt - has become a "systematic introduction" to his great administrative literary book Sobh al-A'shi. Ibn Hajar wrote his book "Hadi al-Sari" But his explanation of this to Sahih al-Bukhari may have been inspired by the idea of ​​his writing from the words of Sheikh Ibn Khaldun, which he said: "I have heard many of our elders may Allah have mercy on them say: Explanation of the Book of Bukhari religion on the nation," wanted Hafiz Ibn Hajar - And others - to spend the nation's religion for this Imam.

Controversy of renewed assessment
If the centuries of cultural stagnation - which is often printed in the Ottoman period from the history of Egypt - to our contemporary era, are rooted in the Egyptian cultural memory, we will see that the old division is all-encompassing in terms of its functional, political and scientific evaluation - to the modern generations of the Egyptian cultural elite. Celebrating him - in contemporary Egypt, royal and republic - was also official and Ahlia, albeit in his official apartment sometimes conservative.

Taha Hussein describes Ibn Khaldun - in his letter on which we started this talk - with a wide range of congenital defects and methodological deficiencies, and denies the "genius" in the introduction, and prepares it "before all "But that did not prevent him from recognizing that" it is thanks to him that Arab literature can be proud that it was the first to put social philosophy in the scientific realm. "

Then behind Taha Khalaf, they went to their estrangement to Ibn Khaldun to stigmatize his graphic style with complexity and complexity, accusing him of stealing the ideas of others and putting them in the "foreground" as if he were the daughters of his thoughts. One of the most prominent of these two charges, Dr. Ali Sami al-Nashar in the introduction to the book of Ibn al-Azraq "Bdayat al-wire". In his study, Dr. Mahmoud Isma'il accused him of "the end of a myth: the theories of Ibn Khaldun, derived from the messages of the brothers of the Safa" - by breaking the ideas of the "Brotherhood of the Safa".

But Ismail himself is accused in others of "stealing" the idea of ​​the accusation of those who preceded him by referring to the relationship between what Ibn Khaldun and what he said "brothers of purity" and other Muslim philosophers, and the predecessor - to a quarter century - the Tunisian historian Mohamed Talbi, who In his writings since the early 1970s.

In spite of this influx of idolatry, Egypt recognized the guest of the Khaldouni in his shrine as "the tomb of the Sufis" - another movement that was impressed with his heritage to the extent of his mysticism sometimes, and he praises him and praises him and his place among the flags of human genius. The first of these was the translation of his friend Taha Hussein's letter from Ibn Khaldun to Arabic in 1925, and the author of Ibn Khaldun: His Life and Intellectual Heritage in 1933 on the anniversary of the birth of Ibn Khaldun.

Dr. Abd al-Wahid Wafi followed in his book Ibn Khaldun's Genres and other works on Ibn Khaldun's theories and his global leadership in the establishment of sociology, as well as his remarkable achievement of the book Introduction.

The most recent manifestation of Egypt's official interest in Ibn Khaldun was the organization of his own intellectual weeks during the last eight decades, in which he presented dozens of research papers on his life, heritage and place in Islamic and world thought, in 1933 on the occasion of his birthday, 2006 on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of his death in Cairo.