Grand Critic of Ibn Khaldūn

Elena Şahin, Dr. phil. (2022), is an independent scholar of Islamic political thought receiving her doctorate from the Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. She held positions in the department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg, was a research fellow at the Orient Institut Beirut and was granted a doctoral fellowship by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1 Current State of Research2 The Two Modern Editions and Extant Manuscripts of Badāʾiʿ al-Silk3 Is Badāʾiʿ al-Silk a Piece of Advice Literature?4 The Labyrinth of Ibn Khaldūn Research5 The Cambridge School’s Precepts: A Major Source of Methodological Inspiration6 Studying Non-Western Political Thought7 Technical Clarifications1 BS and the Muqaddima Reception Therein1 Ibn al-Azraq in the Context of His Time2 Ibn al-Azraq’s Badāʾiʿ al-Silk—A Theory of State and Statecraft Based on Islamic Normativity (sharʿ)3 From the Muqaddima to Badāʾiʿ al-Silk fī Ṭabāʾiʿ al-Mulk2 Cornerstones of Ibn al-Azraq’s Political Theory1 State Formation and State Disintegration in Ibn al-Azraq’s Political Thought2 Ibn al-Azraq’s Different Categories of Political Rule3 Arkān al-mulk (the Pillars of Institutional Rule): The Governmental, Religious, and Military Class as the Guardians of Continuity3 The Relation between Islamic Normativeness (sharʿ) and Political Rule in Ibn al-Azraq’s Political Thought1 Ibn al-Azraq’s All-Encompassing Notion of sharʿ with regard to Political Rule and Statecraft2 Construing an All-Encompassing Notion of sharʿ with regard to Political Rule in Relation to Ibn Khaldūn’s Social Theory3 Conclusions: Ibn al-Azraq’s BS—Bringing Together al-Shāṭibī’s Theory of maqāṣid al-Sharīʿa and Ibn Khaldūn’s ʿilm al-ʿumrān in a Theory of State and Statecraft4 Summary and OutlookBibliographyIndex