answered: General Information: Your paper should be 2-3 pages (500-750

  

General Information: Your paper should be 2-3 pages (500-750 words) long, double spaced in a reasonable font. You should adhere to standard norms of grammar and style. Be sure to use footnotes or endnotes to cite your sources. Your paper should have a clear thesis that answers the question asked. You should use evidence from the texts that you read for the last two weeks to support your thesis. Where possible primary sources are preferable!
Remember that the goal of this paper is to practice supporting your answer to the question asked with the sources that we have read in this class.
Background: The last two weeks have been focused on Ibn Khaldun whose life spans the regions of North Africa and the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt and who has family ties to Islamic Spain. You have also read secondary sources related to both the Mamluks and to North Africa and Spain.
Ibn Khaldun is perhaps the most famous historian to write in Arabic. He is often called the first sociologist. Ibn Khaldun gives us his view of human society writ large in the Muqqadimah or introduction to his magisterial history of North Africa. This Introduction covers a lot of ground and allows us a window into one man’s perception of the world in a particular period of time. So, examine this important work and the secondary sources for both the Mamluks and North Africa/Spain and answer the following question:
***The Question: Are Ibn Khaldun’s views, as presented in the Muqaddimah unique to him or are they representative of his environment? In other words, is Ibn Khaldun a man of his time or does he break ground that his contemporaries do not? ***
Be sure to discuss Ibn Khaldun, and at least one of the secondary sources (but preferably more!).
Pick one or two issues that seem important to you to focus on, rather than trying to take in the whole scope of the Muqqadimah and the secondary sources.
Keep in mind that environment here can mean cultural, political, intellectual, religious, etc., as well as the physical environment.
Remember that you can revise the paper after Peer Review, so if it isn’t perfect, you can fix it in the revised version.