The Role of Ibn Khaldun in History

 

The Role of Ibn Khaldun in History

A good nation is a nation that knows its predecessors. Studying the history of Islam means knowing the past of the predecessors. How they live, socialize is one of the elements in the science of history. Without knowing the predecessors, then we do not know ourselves.

In Islamic history education, it is as if we were treated to stories of heroic and valiant Muslim war leaders. there is the name Khalid bin Walid, conqueror of Byzantium or Tariq bin Ziyad, the commander of the victory in Andalusia (Spain). The presentation of the historical facts of the 'conquest', is not entirely wrong. But can we learn a little bit to move on from the heroic story of war and conquest?

Among Muslims, Ibn Khaldun's name is a progressive historian of his time in historiography (the art of writing history). This Muslim sociologist once explained that the science of history is a discipline that has a great sect, a noble purpose, and a myriad of benefits. With the knowledge of history, we can get to know the morals of the prophets and their stories, kings along with their power and political model of government. Through history we are able to learn lessons.

Initially, history was defined as a collection of various stories that were always discussed by the community. Even within the body of Muslims, invalid stories are sometimes called "history". But, that's just a story, not history. Because according to Ibn Khaldun the truth of the story can be criticized with the current circumstances, conditions, demographics, geography (at the time of Ibn Khaldun).

Another very interesting historical writing model, for example, the Annales historiography model which is popular in France where it does not take the political history model. However, it departs from local history and the temporality of the events. This model will bring us closer to understanding events from local communities. This model has also been preceded by Ibn Khaldun when interpreting Bedouin Arab society.

The importance of historical knowledge for Muslims is unquestionable. As the Arabic proverb says "people who have no history, will never have a future". With the past we learn to understand the present and predict the future. Thus, knowing the history of Islam must be understood in determining the future of Muslims. In the context of Indonesian Muslim society, knowing the history of its predecessors means determining the future.

In the history of Indonesia, we are always presented with its political history, not to mention that it is very rare about the local history of the people. In fact, Ibn Khaldun himself has written a history of the life of the Bedouin Arab community and the peculiarities of their character. One of his character traits is courage. That's why then the brave nature is considered the most capable of being a leader. As the hadith of the prophet, al-aimmatu min qurays (leaders of the state come from the tribe of qurays).

Of course, every society has its own characteristics, character and characteristics. We should also first study the history of our society. Because knowing the history of society means knowing its character, character and identity. In this case, we must learn from Ibn Khaldun.