Alliance of civilisations and Ibn Khaldun

Speaking before the UN General Assembly in 2004, Mr. Zapatero proposed the creation of an alliance of civilisations between the West and the Muslim world with the fundamental objective of deepening political, cultural and educational relations between their representatives. Later, Mr. Recip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister joined in. As a result, the initiative has now got two co-sponsors. In launching the initiative, Mr. Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general said, "Events of recent years have heightened the sense of a widening gap and lack of mutual understanding between Islamic and Western societies. The objective of the initiative is to bridge divides and overcome prejudice, misconceptions, misperceptions and polarization which potentially threaten world peace".

Because of European colonialism over the last three hundred years, which created a false sense of superiority in Europe about Western civilisation, there exist great misconceptions in Europe and elsewhere about Muslim contribution to knowledge and civilisation. Actually, I have often been struck by the level of ignorance and the lack of curiosity among the ordinary people in the West about other cultures and civilisations.

As part of this initiative for Alliance of Civilisations, an exhibition on the life and works of a fourteenth century Hispano-Muslim thinker called Ibn Khaldun was inaugurated by the King Juan Carlos of Spain, last week in the southern city of Seville. Ibn Khaldun fits in perfectly in this initiative. Although he was born in Tunis, his family came from Seville, where he later lived and worked as the ambassador of the then Muslim king of Granada. He is widely considered as one of the greatest thinkers the world has ever produced. He was a sociologist and an historian, whose research depended on empirical analysis, logic and deduction. Arnold Toyanbee, the famous twentieth century English historian described Ibn Khaldun's work in this field as "a philosophy of history which is undoubtedly the greatest work of its kind that has ever yet been created by any mind in any time or place". He is recognised in many academic circles as the father of economics. He classified human needs into different categories such as necessities and luxuries. Long before Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations, Ibn Khaldun had written extensively on economic growth, factors of production, division of labour and effects of supply and demand on prices. Long before Laffer Curve became fashionable in the United States, he had expounded the theory that reduced taxes encouraged production and raised revenues. He was against monopolies and nationalised economic enterprises. The 1989 World Bank report on Privatization acknowledged Ibn Khaldun as the first economist who thought that privatisation boosted economic growth. It is worth mentioning here that Adam Smith's theories on monopolies and the role of competition in economic activities are very similar to the ones elaborated by Ibn Khaldun. Under his guidance, one of his students named al-Maqrizi studied and analysed inflation and its pernicious effects on the society.

We hope that this initiative for an Alliance of Civilisations does not meet the same tragic fate as the one sponsored by the Iranian President Mohammad Khatami in 1998, which also called for a dialogue between civilisations. Still, for those of us who do not believe in the inevitability of a clash of civilisations, there is no other way but to keep trying to build bridges between cultures and civilisations even though it is a very slow and pains-taking task. If the Seville exhibition on the life and works of so universal a man as Ibn Khaldun is successful in removing some of the misunderstandings and misconceptions about Islam and the Muslims, it will have served its purpose.

The writer is a columnist of the Daily Star