History-Makers: Ibn Khaldun 

"Maybe the real empire was the friends we made along the way." - Ibn Khaldun, probably.

Ibn Khaldun created so many modern fields I should yell at him for every bad grade I get.

My guy has the most arab name ever, its got four bin mohammeds

“It’s all fine and natural when it happens to old empires. But it’s no fair it happens to me!” That has to be one type of pettiness I live through EVERYDAY!

My apologies for the misprinting of the Arabic characters for "Ibn Khaldun"/"Asabiyya" in this video. I had double-checked them in the script, but it seems the characters got mangled when I copy-pasted them into my text-blocks, going from their full-word forms into individual characters. That's my mistake for not being more thorough, and I'm very sorry. -B

A friend once told me that saying "may you live in interesting times" was a curse, and you know what? They were right.

Muslim and middle Eastern writers need more love globally

“The guy was the only one who realized that living through history sucks” Me: Geez... can’t realize how that would feel like...living through history and catastrophic change...

It's like an anime protagonist. Dude want's to write books but people keep bothering him

I love how blue covers muslim history fairly and fondly, he is fair to the culture and for that I commend him. I diagnose you with cool

For all those non-Arabic friends who wonder about his name, let me explain this to you, Arabic is very tricky in terms of names during that era and to some extent until this era. We usually refer to people by either their first sons' names or by their fathers' or grandfathers' names, so for example someone may have a first name of Abdullah, but his son's name is Mohammed, people will ofter call him "Abu Mohammed" (father of Mohammed), the same Abdullah may have a father or grandfather named Ahmad, so people will call him Ibn/Bin Ahmad (son of Ahmad), and so on. If the person is called by his grandfather's name rather than his father's name, then that grandfather's name become the family name/last name. Ibn Khaldun is actually his family name , his first/given name is Abdulrahman, but people kept calling him by his grandfather's name Ibn Khaldun. The last name you see in his name "Alhadrami" refers to where he is originally from which is south of Yemen. Now you will notice that he has around 10 names next to Abdulrahman (his first name), those are his ten ancestors from his father's side. It's was and still common for Arabs to memorize their ancestors names. For example, me and almost everyone I know memorize or have a written record of their ancestors' names dating back to 50+ generations. Nowadays a name is considered a full name if it contains four names only, first/given name then father name then grandfather name then family name.

Everyone else in this series: History Makers Ibn Khaldun: Historiography maker

Moral of the story: Friendships can end empires

Ibn Khaldun catching hands for writing truth: Why you booing me? I'm right!

Learning about Arabic scholars and what they've contributed is neat

"History is filled with the sound of silken slippers going downstairs and wooden shoes coming up." - Voltaire. That is straight up the seasons of empires analogy. Ibn Khaldun really did inspire a lot of people. What a cool guy. Enjoyed the video. Thanks Blue!

'Timur the Jerk' - nice reference to Al Muqaddimah channel.

Build, Peak, Decline, Fall China: Ah, i see you are a man of culture

“thingÑ I know it doesnÕt roll off the tongue very well, I donÕt care, IÕm being accurate!” Ahh... I think the subtitles are a bit messed up...

Ibn Khaldun was a guy who looked at history and went- "Well, this can be used practically."

Bit unrelated but I think Blue ranks civilizations by the strength of their domes

I want to thank this man for inventing basically everything. I want to curse this man out for also inventing all of my school stress and anxiety.

I just imagine a giant ass table in Heaven of all these philosophers sitting around, all comparing notes on how they were prosecuted in their own unique ways. Lord, what a conversation that’d be 😔

One point Ibn Khaldun raised in his book that is also novel is that when a dark skinned person moves from Africa to a cold and cloudy place, his skin will become lighter over time, his core reasoning was that if the sun shines less, the skin will get lighter. Of course this idea is wrong on its face, but once you dig deeper you will see that modern research shows that the sole reason we have black and white people is due to vitamin D production in the skin, light skin requires less sun to produce vitamin D, hence why people originally from northern Europe are lighter than people originally from Africa, northern Europe receives way less sun rays than Africa. So basically, by natural selection light skinned people got more advantages over darker skinned people when they migrated to Europe and elsewhere. Making Ibn Khaldun's idea a little bit solid because he knew it has something to do with the sun, but he just didn't know exactly how.

What a guy. Imagine being considered one of the greatest philosophers by Machiavelli. The honour.

Imagine ibn khaldun was writing a formal paper and had to write his full name

Man has more Bin Muhammad’s than I do brain cells

to be honest, that's one of the best pronunciation for ابن خلدون from someone that doesn't speak arabic natively.

“The first generation builds it up, then the next continues the dynasty and sees it peak. The third generation gets complacent and coasts, and by the fourth generation they’re too powerless to stop the collapse” Oh. Oh no. I don’t like how this applies to the modern day.

Here Blue goes again, making me appreciate the icons of history (and historiography). I literally cheered when I saw the Alexiad. This is what you've done to me. I hope you're happy.

“I don’t care! I’m being accurate!” Ah. I see your a man of culture as well.

As a Saudi, I would like to say seeing this video in my recommendation was great. You'd be surprised to know a lot of what we study today in science, math, and philosophy started in African, Arabic, or Muslim places. Also, your pronunciation was on point!

One funny synchronicity: Ibn Khaldun's work was basically contemporaneous to the writing of The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms in China, with its famous opening line which goes something like "A land long divided tends to unite; a land long united tends to divide. So it has always been." This seems like quite a good echo of Ibn Khaldun's own insights!

Hello Blue and Red. I wish you two a good day before the others get here.

C'mon dude,Ibun Battuta is way overdue now. Also"speedrunnig civil service"-LOL!

Hi blue! You might not see this, but as an Algerian living in Canada (Toronto) and suffering from a serious amount of home sickness. You pronouncing Ibn khalduns name properly genuinely sent waves of happiness through me. Thank you man c: it means a lot

Don't be hating on bearded wise men going into the desert so we can escape from our political enemies and focus on discovering the nature of things. It's weirdly relatable story.

Blue: History Red: Literature Overly Sarcastic Productions: Good Historiography: A word Hotel: Trivago

Blue: “Let’s do some historiography!” Me: “My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.”

Oh.... okay looking at modern events, Khaldun’s thing about older generations building an empire and then becoming lazy and ruining everything while the younger generation is left powerless to stop is... he was probably onto something... we really should’ve listened

This was super interesting. Think you could also do a Historymakers on Ibn Battuta, Blue?

Ah, this takes me back to my Ancient and Medieval History university course. Ibn Khaldun popped up more than once, particularly in the module that basically discussed the history of history.

I like this guy's thinking, looking at the mechanics instead of just events. He was incredibly innovative

7:18 Another way to put it is: 1. Hard times create strong men 2. Strong men create good times 3. Good times create weak men 4. Weak men create hard times

Holy moly, I didn't know the basis of historiography traced back to him, In high school and uni, we always just did a historiography assignment based of the history we're learning. It was always my least favourite thing to do because I was like "why can't we just learn the history" but looking back at it now, I'm glad we did it because historiography develops your critical thinking so much. Thank you Ibn Khaldun

It definitely feels like Ibn Khaldun's theories on 'asabiyya' and it's relation to the success of hardended desert nomads HEAVILY influenced Dune's Fremen

As a Tunisian proud of our Hannibal and Inn khuldun we ate a nation of great men and women 🎉 carthage will never be forgotten

7:19 oh i've heard something similar "bad times create good men , good men create good times, good times create bad men , bad men create bad times "

8:42"To Ibn Khaldun he cyclical rise and fall of states was more of a seasonal thing than a strictly cyclical one." I''m just imagining someone going outside and saying "Oh wow feel that autumn breeze. It must be time for a COMPLETE COLLAPSE OF SOCIETY."

2:50 the reason why so many Arab and Middle Eastern names are so long is because they tell you where that person is from and who's in their family and so on. Another example of this would be: Al-Nasir Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub. Long title, sounds better as Saladin.

"Um, source?" Ibn Khaldun.

I used historiography in a conversation once and my friend literally laughed at me. He thought I made the word up and no matter what I did, I couldn't convince him it was a real word.

I don’t know why the Arabic letters are separated but I’ve never really seen them like that so thanks lol

7:07 Did he just re-codify the Mandate of Heaven from the other side of the world? This is so cool.

Glad to let the world know about more Arabian history makers!💙

I just recently discovered and have become obsessed with this awesome channel, and have recommended it to everyone in my circles. And now, new video!!! WOOOOOO

I am so happy you guys were in A Crap Guide To Being a Dungeon Master! Y'all were my favorite cameo appearance! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

I've just finished my finals. OSP rolls out a new video. Life is good.

Can i just say that the videos you guys make are actually really great, not only in quality and accuracy, but also because I have ADHD and the way you pace the videos is actually really easy for me to keep up with

Dear OSP, can I just say that I absolutely love this channel. As someone who never really got into history in school, and has shamefully only ever cared about the Nordic, European, and Christian history throughout the ages, this channel has done an amazing job sheading light on just how inspiring history can be. It is especially fascinating to get insight into the extensive history from all the other cultures that aren't centralized around Greek, Roman, Nordic, or Christian events.

I got lucky and found a version of Muquadina into my native language. This reads really well! I like the writing quite a lot and as it is old it has the slow pacing and let's me relax... thanks!

“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times.” -Ibn Khaldun

thanks for making history interesting 😌. I watch these for fun and I feel so smart when I can remember everything from a video.

Loving the history-makers videos! Telling history is one thing. Delving into how we construct it is another. Historiography is essential to all historical scholarship, yet is not typically communicated in the public sphere. That's what makes the history-makers series so unique and valuable! My graduate seminar on public history had a project to create a historical "explainer" aimed at a public audience and the professor made each of us write a historiography paper on our topic before doing the actual project. Historiography factors into history-making all the time but its influence is often implicit when it comes to public history.

I'm gonna be honest blue. That's one of your most interesting video so far. History is fun and interesting but historiography is, dare I say, cool and interesting. Thank you bro.

would making a map of history to try to explain it be carto-historiography-iphy?

I love listening to these history videos. I love history, but I love listening to Blue explain history that I would have never looked into myself. It just makes me so happy to learn more about the world.

I really must say as an arabic native speakers, good job on the prounounciation of the name "Ibn Khaldoun" most english-speaking folks don't make the "خ" noise it really shows that you are putting good effort in this videos. I hope you continue the great work

Ibn Khaldun: Hey scribe, can you give me the scientific study you used to back your claim? Scribe: I don't need to prove anything, I'm a respected learned man. Ibn Khaldun: mmmk.....

Wow those four generations.... Makes me wanna read Dune again. Herbert had to have been a big fan of this guy

I always love these videos. But I especially have to thank you for reminding me that 6 years ago my favorite song was a song by David Bisbal called Al Andalus. Hearing that name literally yote my brain into the past so abruptly I was looking it up before I actually remembered the song itself and it was a good time.

A great overview as always! Looking forward to more!

I'm really glad you did this. Being both muslim and north African, it's super rare for me to see "historyography" makers from my culture in any kind of content that shows their work and acheivements fairly. Thank you so much

I like seeing my culture represented videos. It makes me feel like my culture *has* a history

To be quite honest, I was waiting for this episode. Thank you for this from an Algerian viewer.

Thanks for everything you've done this year, Blue! :)

At first glance, Khaldun’s historiography maps disturbingly well onto the “strong men cause good times cause weak men cause hard times cause strong men.” But with the concept of Asabiyya, what’s much more important than the strength of individuals is the strength of the bonds between individuals. And that actually allows us to look at history through a much more collectivist lense. Hard times lead to strong Asabiyya, because you’ve gotta trust someone a lot if you’ll be fighting a bear together. Strong Asabiyya leads to good times, as teamwork allows society to build into something magnificent. Good times lead to weak Asabiyya, because close teamwork isn’t as necessary in a thriving society. Though teamwork still exists in division of labor, Asabiyya grows weaker because you’re not working together as closely as you used to, and you don’t trust as much. One example of this is how in a nomadic tribe you may give food to someone who needs it, in a complex society things are bought and sold. Weak Asabiyya leads to hard times, as people don’t get what they need. Society eventually crumbles as people are dissatisfied with their lives, and know that something better can be achieved.

*Arab:* "I am Ahmad ibn Fadlad ibn al-Abas ibn Rashid--" *Viking:* "Eh-ban." *Arab:* "No, Ahmad ibn Fadlad. 'Ibn' means 'son of'." *Viking:* "Eh-ban."

Thank you. I was a history major in 1974-1976 and I do not recall learning about Ibn Khaldun. Thanks also for bringing up Thomas Cole's "The Course of Empire". I was thinking of that series while watching this video.

Video on my birthday! Thank you OSP!

hooo I remember this guy. Big influence on the development of sociology.

I actually just Did a paper on the muqaddimah and has to both summarize the chapter on the bedouins also critique it , so it's funny to see this episode pop up XD

This video was so informing. Thank you for doing what you do. Hilarious podcast. No joke you are just cool people

Great you guys are putting this guy in the spotlight, the man was a genius

So, basically, historical materialism beta 1.0

1] Rise 2] Peak 3] Decline 4] Fall Guess where we're at? (Hint, it's not 1 or 2)

Thank you brother. A brilliant work done.

Just know I like every video you guys post as soon the page loads

Last time I was this early Zeus wasn’t an ass.

Keep these videos alive so that you become a history maker yourself.

I love that this channel has such an incredible focus of global history, rather than just European history that we learn in most Western schools - your teaching of world history, especially eastern and Indigenous history, avoids the common pitfalls of historical analysis of the Not-West™️, it’s really good. Your videos are actually the reason I’m taking Classical Civilisations for my A-Levels. I’d love to maybe see more about African history, or Indigenous American people, too, since this channel is the only place I can get well-structured historical sources on that without having to trawl the depths of the internet.

Damn, the maps look so smooth in this video, I love the new look

Ibn Khaldoun is considered a national hero in Tunisia (up there with Dido and Hannibal)

"I don't care, I'm being accurate!" is gonna become a meme, I swear it.

Loved the video! And your humor 👍🏽

Ibn Khaldun was so important and influential to the entire concept of history, I'm so excited to see this video

"Everything has an end- except the sausage, that has two." German Proverb

That moment when you learn about "The Four Generations" and realize that you're part of the 4th generation.

Everyone talm bout "making history" meanwhile this foo LITERALLY MADE history...wild.

Great video as always blue never heard of this guy until I got your notification