The science of history

In the Muqaddima, Ibn Khaldun holds that the art of history is noble in its doctrine, rich in benefits, and lofty in its aim. It makes us acquainted with the conditions of past nations in their characters, the prophets in their lives, and kings in their dominions and their governance. ²

He says that history needs several sources, varied knowledge, sound judgement, and care. If a report relies on mere transmission, and is not judged by the principles of custom, the rules of government, and the nature of civilisation, error may not be avoided in it. ²

Ibn Khaldun notes that historians, exegetes, and chroniclers fell into fallacies in their accounts, because they relied on transmission alone. He holds that numbers of money and of armies are the most likely places for falsehood. ²

He gives as an example his rejection of what al-Masudi and many historians transmitted, that the armies of the Children of Israel numbered six hundred thousand. He says that Egypt and Syria could not contain them, and that the greatest host of the Persians at al-Qadisiyya was a hundred and twenty thousand according to one account, and sixty thousand according to the accounts of Aisha and al-Zuhri. ²

This is Ibn Khaldun's method. What is not recorded here: the assessment of scholars of his method. It needs a further source.