At first sight, the place held by education in Ibn Khaldun's sociology appears uncertain to say the least. What today we understand by the term ‘education'—the replication of individuals and groups, firstly at the level of values and secondly at that of knowledge and know-how—is found in the Muqaddima only in a scattered and incomplete fashion, in an order and pattern whose meaning escapes us at first sight. More important, Ibn Khaldun makes no use of a general concept in speaking of education. This is all the more surprising as he accustoms us elsewhere to a systematic approach to the main phenomena of life in society. However, upon closer view we discover that this ambiguity and these lacunae in fact reflect the state of the Muslim system of education, and we are forced to admit that, in this field as in many others connected with the knowledge of Muslim society, Khaldun's contribution is the most complete at our disposal.
Learning the Arts
Ibn Khaldun limits himself here to two remarks: the arts must necessarily be learned from a master; they are highly specialized, and a person who masters one art cannot generally master a second. He does not conceive of technology as a body of knowledge independent of those who possess it. Technique, though understood as something at once practical and intellectual (amr ‘amali fikri), is reduced to a skill that may be learned only by observation and imitation (naql al-mu'ayana).
Conditions for Teaching
Learning the Arts
Ibn Khaldun limits himself here to two remarks: the arts must necessarily be learned from a master; they are highly specialized, and a person who masters one art cannot generally master a second. He does not conceive of technology as a body of knowledge independent of those who possess it. Technique, though understood as something at once practical and intellectual (amr ‘amali fikri), is reduced to a skill that may be learned only by observation and imitation (naql al-mu'ayana).
Ibn Khaldun deals with the learning of trades and the teaching of the sciences in connection with the ‘means of existence' argument and the general table of the sciences of his time that drawn up in the last and very long chapter of the Muqaddima. It is not certain that he would agree with our reconciliation of the two, since he sees technology as a field of knowledge and of thought linked to action and consequently inferior to science, which is pure speculation.
Conditions for Teaching
At birth, says Ibn Khaldun, we are entirely devoid of knowledge; we are still no more than ‘raw material'. We then gradually gain ‘form' ‘thanks to the knowledge we acquire through our organs'. Essentially ignorant, we fulfil ourselves as human beings only through knowledge. Ibn Khaldun distinguishes three types of knowledge corresponding to as many ‘degrees of thought'. There is practical knowledge, the product of ‘the discerning intelligence', which allows us to act in the world in a controlled fashion; then ‘a knowledge of what we must or must not do and of what is good or evil', which we acquire through our ‘empirical intelligence' and which guides us in our relations with our fellows; and, lastly, theoretical knowledge of everything that exists in the world, which we conquer by our ‘speculative intelligence'. Only this last type of knowledge, the subject of the sciences, gives us the possibility of reaching perfection of soul [28].
The teaching of the sciences is necessary for two reasons: firstly, thorough knowledge of them requires a lengthy period of learning that can be carried out only with the help of teachers [29]; secondly, their very development requires them to be communicated to others.
The question of the teaching of the sciences Ibn Khaldun approaches from his concept of the habitus. In order to master any discipline and fully possess it, he says, it is necessary to acquire ‘a habitus that allows the principles and rules to be grasped, problems to be fully understood and secondary questions to be drawn from principles' [35].
The formation of such a habitus demands a rigorous approach in which must be taken into consideration the student's ‘receptivity' and power to assimilate, together with the quantity of information contained in the subject to be taught and its complexity. Ibn Khaldun considers that the process must take place in three progressive stages, whose object and means he is careful to explain [36].
The first of these is a preparatory stage. Its object is to familiarize the student with the subject being taught and to prepare him or her to grasp its problems. This stage is limited to giving an overall view of the subject and emphasizing its main points. Explanations must be kept simple and general and allow for the student's capacity for understanding and assimilating.
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