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Time in the historical sociology of Ibn Khaldûn The Islamic thinker Ibn Khaldûn (1332-1406) developed a historical sociology in which change and its counterpart, habit, were essential components. There is a remarkable similarity to the ideas of later Western sociologists such as Weber and Bourdieu. The emergence of power in rural areas is followed by violent migration to urban ones, and the formation of dynastic states. Every dynasty starts out in a nomadic or agricultural society, and in its subsequent urban form passes through the stages of rise, flowering, and decline. Urban trade and industry usually develop at the same pace as those dynastic states. All this is a cyclical process. Simultaneous processes unfold in upward or downward spirals in which the various factors strengthen or weaken the impact of the others. Change is thus a central feature of this system, but it is counterbalanced by the stabilizing factor of habitus (or routine), which can assert itself at every level: social, cultural, and mental. As a result, different sectors of a society may develop at different speeds. Ibn Khaldûn brilliantly combines his cyclical model with a linear principle: that of traditional Islamic chronology. His awareness of time as a crucial variable is also apparent from his comments on how a researcher's position on the timeline influences what he is able to observe – and from his profoundly historical view of man. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines Muḥammad b. Ḥabīb’s historical writing in Kitāb al-Muḥabbar in terms of chronological narrative arrangements, thematic structure, and historical interconnectedness. A textual analysis of his presentations of prophetic narratives and certain events in pre-Islamic history testifies to the significant role of this work in the evolution of early Islamic historiography. Specifically, the study illustrates that the Muḥabbar constitutes one of the earliest Islamic efforts to reconfigure prophetic materials chronologically and eventually create broader thematic interconnections and universal historical contexts. A comparison between Ibn Ḥabīb’s portrayals of these themes and those of other Muslim scholars also illustrates shifts in early Islamic historical writings from local Islamic-Arab needs (such as genealogy) to broader prophetic-biblical universal settings. The finality of Muḥammad’s prophethood and his lineage function in these presentations as a connecting link between the religious-prophetic and Arab-genealogical features. By applying these strategies to organize narrative and chronology, Ibn Ḥabīb laid the foundation for the emergence of early Islamic universal histories during the ninth and tenth centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies how Early Modern Spanish historians confronted the problem of calculating the equivalence between the Christian Era and the Hegira. Chronological polemics concerning the Hegira were deeply embedded in a major historiographical problem, namely the role Islam and al-Andalus played in the history of Spain. Besides the technical issues, chronology is one of the most important ways by which an Islamic Iberian past was integrated in a narrative about national history. Once Islam became a historical actor for Spanish and European historians, rather than just a religion to confront, very important questions were raised: were Arabic sources necessary for the writing of Spanish history? What were these sources, and what was their value? Since al-Andalus was connected with the more general problem of the relationship of ancient Spain with the Orient (and, specifically, with the Biblical Orient), the chronological argument became a major issue in reflections on the limits and possibilities of writing the sacred history of Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abrahamic Faiths often referred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam that put this categorization based on a number of features common to all three religions in the same cluster. Terminology of Abrahamic Faiths within the contemporary real-world comparative religion has been manipulated by leaders to strengthen the concept of religious pluralism is not only related to the Abrahamic Faiths, but also related to wad'i religions on the basis of prophetic chronology of Abraham. In reality, the position of Abrahamic Faiths has evolved appropriate real philosophical doctrines that every reality is much different. Therefore, this study will reveal and analyze the concept of Abrahamic Faiths in the context of religious studies to provide clarification on the ambiguity arising out of the equation. In addition to analyzing relationship between religious pluralism that makes the concept of Abrahamic Faiths seen as one of the themes of religious generalizations on the basis of prophetic chronology equation as the way for religious tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]