Abstract
To illuminate the complicated relationship between the authorities and
society in the contemporary Arab world, this paper draws on Ibn
Khaldun's propositions. By applying Edward Said's notion of traveling
theory, it traces, interrogates, and evaluates ways in which multiple
readings of Ibn Khaldun's theory have been (re)formulated, transplanted,
and circulated by other authors, and how these theories traveled from
an earlier point to another time and place where they come into new
prominence. Furthermore, it examines how three contemporary Arab
thinkers (Abid Al-Jabri, Abdullah Laroui, and Nazih Ayubi) addressed and
interpreted the heritage of Ibn Khaldun and his theory on state
formation and authority constitutive in the Arab Islamic world
(particularly the Sunni world). The paper concludes that, in comparison
with Said's “traveling theory” intentions, the three modern Arabic
readings of Ibn Khaldun's theory were not traveling as much as it was
attempting to uproot, distort, suffocate, and even bury Ibn Khaldun's
original theory, as well as obliterate and culturally appropriate the
features of the original theory, and portray it as the opposite of
progress and modernization, in favor of enhancing the dominance of
Western epistemology.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 146-171 |
Journal | Arab Studies Quarterly |
Volume | 43 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 29 Apr 2021 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 May 2021 |
Keywords
- Ibn Khaldun
- Edward Said
- Traveling theory
- Decolonialization
- Arab State
- Authority
- Legitimacy
- State violence