Hundred Great Muslims

Hundred Great Muslims
499
months before his death. Ibn Khaldun has adopted a more scientific method
in the arrangement of autobiography which he has divided into chapters,
connected with each other.
Before him autobiographies were usually written in a 'diary form', events
having no connection with each other. Ibn Khaldun was the first to write a long
systema tic autobiography, while shorter autobiographies were written by his
predecessors, including AI Khatib and AI Suyuti which were formal, hence
insipid. The autobiography written by Ibn Khaldun is a frank confession of
deeds and misdeeds of a dynamic personality expressed in a most impressive
language. The author has portrayed his career with exceptional frankness and
liberty, which has made his autobiography all the more inter.esting and appealing
Moral lapses are not uncommon in great personalities and these, when viewed
in the light of their achievements, lose their nasty significance whatsoever.
The Ai Taarif may be favourably compared with the autobiography of
Benvenuti Cellini, the celebrated Italian Artist. Both have an air of frankness in
them.
It was during the nineteenth century that the translations of his works
in various European languages enabled the West to realise the greatness of the
historian and appreciate the vigour and the originality of his thought. "Ibn
Khaldun", writes D. Boer, "is undoubtedly the first who tried to explain fully
the evolution and progress of society, as being caused by certain causes and
factors, climate, the means of production, etc., and their effects on the
formation of man's mind and sentiment as well as the formation of society. In
the march of civilization he perceives an organised internal harmony".
Thus the enlightened West is immensely indebted to the learned Tunisian,
for the lead given by him in diverse fields of sociology, historical and political
economy which paved the way for later development in these sciences.