Thinking about change: Ibn Khaldūn´s and his contemporaries Historical analysis and mentalities

Abstract

Starting from Ibn Khaldūn´s thoughts as expressed in the Muqaddima on change in history, on the use of analogy and comparison as instruments to make it recognizable and on the imperativeness of historical writing in the face of the great phenomena of change, the article proposes a reflection on this theme in the light of the history of mentalities. Ibn Khaldūn´s theoretical thinking, but also his different attitudes in the face of the on-going transformations in the societies with which he was familiar, are therefore compared with the mental attitudes of some other categories of his contempo-rary scholars, with particular reference to 8th/14th century Egypt. For example, the authors of Kutub al-bidaʻ and pilgrimage guides reacted in different ways towards the changes they perceived in both the religious and non-religious customs of the Moslem society examined in the framework of the mentalities and transformations which marked the historical period in which he lived.