Author(s): Ferhat ATES, Tuncer UTKAN
It is certain that, there are a lot of works written about concepts of city and soceity from past to today. Each treatises commited to papper are valuable and guiding to the extent that but if they reflect inner dynamics of society and its unique characteristics (sui generis). However, it should be emphasized that there has been existing and surviving a paradox starting from the late Ottoman period to and in the Republican Era. This paradox stemed from endavour to explain Eastern, Islamic and Tukish social institutions by Western concepts which are releated to Western cities and societies. Because of this pathological worshipping to western original every ‘things’ caused to ignore many genuine and respectable, but non western, works and thinkers. This has been sometimes occured as an conscious ideological obsession attitudes and or sometimes as an unconscious but neccesary imperatives. Ibn Khaldun who is a prompoter of basis of sociology and also developed social theories that discussed centuries later in the west is one of these thinkers. It is worth pondering that in a age of western thought hegemony, Arnold Toynbee, a modern western fomous philosopher, has made following provoking evaluation about Ibn Khaldun: “He is owner of the greatest philosophy of history ever created by any mind.” We can say that one can see there are a lot of works written up about Ibn Khaldun. It is aimed that to be, at least, a particle to be building into existing works. The primary objective of this study is to understand and also try to clear Ibn Khaldun’s thought, written in Fourteenth Century, on cities and societies and also try to show their validity for nowadays.
The Journal of International Social Research received 7760 citations as per Google Scholar report
