Ibn Khaldun

Wali al-Din Abu Zayd Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Khaldun al-Hadrami, author of the Muqaddima (Introduction) and the Kitab al-Ibar (Book of Lessons). He was born in 732 AH (1332 CE) and died in 808 AH (1406 CE). ^{2 3}

He opened his introduction by saying that the art of history is a noble discipline with many benefits, which makes known the conditions of past nations, prophets and kings. He took as the subject of his new science al-'Umran, that is, the necessary human association. ⁴

In its conclusion he reports that he completed it in five months, finishing in the middle of 779 AH, and then revised it and attached to it the histories of the Arabs and the Berbers in the Ibar. ⁵

In the conclusion of the Ibar he relates, in the first person, his attachment to the sultan Abu Inan at the end of 757 AH and his employment in writing for him. He was imprisoned on 18 Safar 758 AH until the sultan died. He then wrote for the sultan Abu Salim, and entered the new city with him in the middle of Sha'ban 760 AH. ⁶

In the Tadhkira of the Ibar he says that he asked the sultan al-Nasir Faraj for permission to visit the mosque, and he visited Hebron at the end of Ramadan 802 AH. When Timur advanced on Syria, he travelled with the army in 803 AH, and remained in Damascus after the sultan fled. He was brought before Timur, and the jurist Abd al-Jabbar ibn al-Nu'man al-Khwarazmi interpreted between them. Ibn Khaldun describes Timur as very shrewd and much given to inquiry. ⁷