On IBN Khaldun's Critique of the Market Economy with Some Lessons to the Arab World (Other PAPERS‪)‬

INTRODUCTION The economics of the free market was actually developed by the Arab historian Abd al-Rahman Ibn Muhammad Ibn Khaldun al-Hadrami who was born in Tunis in 1332 and died in Cairo, Egypt in 1406. Ibn Khaldun wrote the Muqaddimah (the Prolegomena or An Introduction to History), a great book aiming at making history a science. The methodology of the Prolegomena is to utilize scientific investigation in the analysis of social, phenomena by gathering historical facts and then discovering the laws determining the evolutionary trend of these phenomena. This was extremely important for him, because he was trying to discover the cause(s) behind the rise and fall of dynasties, causes that are interrelated with their own effects, forming an unending sequence of cumulative change. His scientific analysis led to a conclusion that the foundations for a rising dynasty were solidarity (strong group feeling, or social cohesion, or assabiyyah) and the availability of money, which is obtained by stimulating the growth of the business economy through deregulation of economic activity, government support of capitalists, and optimal tax rates.