Imran Abdullah

It is commonly said in modern times that "religion is the cause of all major wars of history", as the parties to the religious war call upon God in their class, but the analysis of religious and "holy" wars by the historian and sociologist Abdul Rahman Ibn Khaldun (732-808 AH) places This statement in the range of criticism, as it sees a natural and historical phenomenon and distinguishes between its types, pointing to the composite and interwoven motives.

Ibn Khaldun maintained his universal vision of history and events, and thus his handling of war and fighting was unconventional and unlike dealing with scholars in his time, as he maintained the perspective of the historian and studied the lessons, and the war was present in the life of Ibn Khaldun as in his writings, however he wrote about religious war when Muslims and when Christians.

The controversy revolves around the extent of recognition of Ibn Khaldun's non-Islamic religious wars, specifically the Crusades, which Ibn Khaldun wrote an account of its facts and analysis in his great book, the book of lessons, and the Court of Debutante and the news in the days of the Arabs and Ajam and Berbers, and their contemporary of the Sultan.

War is a human condition
Ibn Khaldun dealt with historical realism with the phenomenon of war as a recurring and natural human condition and wrote in his introduction: "I know that wars and types of combatant are still located in the creation since God cleared the origin of the will of retaliation of some human beings and intolerance of each of his people, if they complain about it and the two communities agree, one of them requests revenge. The other defends, it was war, which is normal in humans is not devoid of a nation or generation.

Although he referred the cause of the war to the desire of "revenge", but detailed in its motives, saying ... "The reason for this revenge in the most either jealousy and competition, either aggression or either anger to God and his religion, or anger to the king and sought to prepare it."

He added, "The first is what is happening between the neighboring tribes and the corresponding tribes. There is no king, but their concern and their eyes on the people prevailed over what is in their hands, and the third is called in the law of jihad, and the fourth is the wars of the countries with outlaws and obedience to obey.

After this classification, which divided the wars into four types, commented morally, saying: "The first two types of them (jealousy, competition, aggression) wars of prostitution and sedition and the last two types (anger to God and religion, and anger to the king and seeking to prepare it) wars of jihad and justice."

He added that the recipe for wars between the two creatures since their first existence is of two types, one of crawling rows and one of poker and fleeing, while the creep is fighting the agam all over the succession of their generations, whereas the poker and fleeing is fighting the Arabs and Berbers of the people of Morocco.

Ibn Khaldun thus recapitulates the four categories to only two types (prostitution and sedition, or jihad and justice), morally justifying the latter by clear criteria, including an ethical interview on the one hand and realistic legitimacy on the other.

Multicultural concept
In his research entitled "Ibn Khaldun's Religious War as a Multicultural Concept," Javier Barran, an academic and researcher at the Autonomous University of Madrid, tries to compare the concepts of "holy war" in Islam and Christianity through Islamic sources and examines whether it is possible within Islam to conceive the war waged by Christians. (Or non-Muslims) as a holy war as well or "anger to God" in Ibn Khaldun's term.

As we know from his biography, Ibn Khaldun had many experiences in the war, either during his work at the court of the rulers of North Africa, especially the children of Hafs, when Abu al-Abbas al-Mustansir al-Mustansir forced him (he took over the Hafsid state in 772 AH and continued until his death in 796 AH) to go out with him to open Tozeur. (The desert oasis south of present-day Tunisia), and going to meet with the Mughal leader Timur, and Baran believes that the analysis of the book of Ibn Khaldun useful in studying the relationship of war with different religions.

For Ibn Khaldun, the religious character benefits the armies by reducing the differences between its members and promoting a sense of cohesion and the desire to give and sacrifice instead of fear of death, and sets an example in the battles of Muslims in Qadisiyah and Yarmouk, considering that the Arabs of the First Caliphate were able thanks to the coherent religious character to defeat more ready and powerful armies Also, the Almohads (followers of Ibn Tomert) were in North Africa.

Religion thus becomes not only a justifiable rhetoric of war, but a social force that reinforces "nervousness" - from the League, a group of always-connected individuals with whom the bond of blood, loyalty or alliance is combined to ensure interaction - a key concept of Ibn Khaldun and the fundamental driving force of society and history.

In short, the Khaldunist theory holds that the war for religion is not only fair, but also thanks to the cohesion and motivation generated by religious discourse, is likely to be a cause of victory, Baran said.

While Ibn Khaldun sees unjust wars as those that are practiced only for humiliation, oppression and domination - and although he does not exaggerate the use of the term jihad very much - he describes the fighter who fought the just wars defined by the Mujahid, as this fighter is considered a moral example of sacrifice for the nation . Moreover, in describing the ideal ruler, his ability to lead jihad appears as one of the conditions.

Qualities of the Commander of the Faithful
Ibn Khaldun devoted chapter 32 in his introduction to the definition of the characteristics and characteristics of the Commander of the Faithful. In return, the following chapter was held to explain the name and role of the "Pope and Patriarch in the Christian sect, and the name of the priesthood among the Jews."

However, he considered in that chapter that "nothing but the Islamic doctrine was not their call in general and jihad they have a legitimate only in the defense, only became the order of religion in it does not mean anything from the policy of the king."

He adds, "They are required to establish their own religion," and thus there is no room to justify war Christianity because of the disintegration of the relationship between spiritual and temporal power or between the papacy and the empire as described by Ibn Khaldun.

But in his chapters, Ibn Khaldun recounts, in two chapters of his book, Al-Muqadama, detailing the conquest of Jerusalem during the First Crusade and the role of the Seljuks and Fatimids at the time, pointing to the fact that the expansion of the Franks did not It extends not only along the Holy Land, but also along other regions of the Mediterranean, such as Sicily.

It also mentions how the Crusaders received help from the Byzantine Emperor to cross the Bosphorus and how they killed 70,000 or more people in the lands they invaded.

Theory and historical application
Al-Baran argues that there is a clear distinction between Ibn Khaldun's "theory of history" in the "introduction", where he develops his concept of holy war as an absolute theory (not necessarily linked to Islam) and looking at "historical practices". He addresses the Crusades through analytical concepts such as "The cohesion of the Crusaders that allowed their victory over the dispersed Muslims" and "the religious goal of the Crusades to conquer the holy places of worship" as well as his analysis of the close relationship between spiritual and temporal power by analyzing the Pope's relationship with political and military leaders.

According to the study, Ibn Khaldun already takes into account the existence of Christian religious wars and a religious justification for the expansion of the Crusader arms, while his theoretical analysis deals only with Islam, but in the factual analysis of the events of the Crusades makes him closely related to the religious concept, according to a recent study published in the medieval world .

However, Ibn Khaldun did not, of course, acknowledge the Christian holy war waged by the Crusaders against Muslims, that is, he did not consider it a just war. Elsewhere in the introduction, Ibn Khaldun argued that the Crusades were expansions and a religious war.