Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, Part 1. Bedouin and Sedentary Life.

A discussion of Chapter 2 of Ibn Khaldun's "Muqaddimah", focusing on the differences between Bedouin and sedentary life, and what this reveals about human nature. Part 1 of a 3-lecture series introducing the Muqaddimah.

[africanhistory]

This is a much superior video to the others that came up in the list. People FAIL to discuss what he said, and his theories. No point talking how great he was (Let us talk religion) and how progressive he was without a concrete discussion of his actual work.

[danielleach]

Your lecture shows early people in a civilized way. Being close to nature, they were beastly, but intimately connected to social realities that we lack in, despite our literacy and cultural achievements.
No matter what society we live in, we go back to a nomadic people. For the most part, through time, we become more sedentary and indeterminate in regards to what really matters.
When we go back to the founders, we see that the things they stood for tend to "slough off" in the succeeding generations. It can happen also in family birth order from oldest to youngest. In addition, it's something like "playing telephone" in the way information, such as values and quality of being, gets passed along.
We don't have to regard previous times simply as "poor, solitary, nasty, brutish, and short" in the comfort of a "luxurious city."

[danielleach]

I like the desert as in image contrasted with the sedentary life, or city. I was raised with notions of urban and rural people. My Mom came from a farm to the city to work as many in 1940s US young adults did. Along with it came a certain amount of contempt for that kind of life. The latest generations, in looking for good work, return to the country. The country is in many ways like the desert. The inner monk we are trying to realize, loves the desert. But also in the US, the last couple centuries romanticized the West, which is mostly desert, and it was desirable for those seeking fortune and expanded space to settle in. I like also to consider Plato and others in discussing the 2 cities. We hear that the city is like the man and it corresponds to the soul. We may also consider the differences between Athens and Sparta, and our various roles as citizens and family members, as discussed on another video of yours. Great talk! Thank you.

[rako_]

Thank you john for saving me a lot of time, even if I was readed The Muqaddimah my self I couldn't combine it in such a beautiful way in to my mind

[sohailmiah]

I love this. Thank you for sharing your knowledge from the minds of the past. What I love the most is your style of sharing insight into the deep points made. Thank you again

[ynyn]

This was absolutely amazing. please make more videos like this, thank you.

[mohamedhanny]

This is absolutely amazing! Please continue!

[nooralimanjee]

Very interesting, how the society and community evolve.

[RiotSlut]

Thank you for this video, amazing work as always :)

[tajamalanwar]

Thanks for explaining i really needed that .

[Cyberphunkisms]

I lived with some bedouins in the Sinai desert for like a month. Here are some key differences that you outlined :

1. 10:00 Taking responsibility, vs expecting others to take care of it for us.
"Do as you are told" culture.

13:00 by living in "atheism" and "institutional anarchy" - they must in a Nietzschean way, "learn to live in the desert of nothingness" to create a law for themselves, vs the alien authority of the sedentary.

16:00 I don't even know why "the separation of church and state" is a thing when everything is ontotheological

"religion is not optional" - it is how they recognize the value.

it is "oikonomia" as agamben says; but I think we can find these ideals in sedentary lifestyle as well, just perhaps less pronounced. i mean, we escape to go camping sometimes, and sometimes we go full nomad too.

18:00 weary of the use of the word personal "psychology" but yeah.

"assabiyah"

I know what "assab" means and it means, "mentality" or "attitude" .

You say there is a certain, bondedness, connectedness, folk togetherness.


19:00 Toronto is great for that isn't it? We actually have somewhat community feelings within our postmodern disparateness here. Unlike Vancouver god I hate Vancouver.
For example, the "Toronto raptors" are not just an "instituted community" even though they are; I do not even watch too much basketball or care enough but I still love representing because it is fun so there is a degree of spontaneousness as well. What I mean to say is, we haven't lost our
"tribal animalisticisms" within the city; it's just more directed by bread and circus.

You are right about intimacy.
But I feel like language culture affects this; like latinos may be warmer than anglos. People have certain "placeholder" names calling strangers "uncles and aunts" in some societies, for example.

20:00 I am glad you care about collective social bonds or something in your research.


21:00 early days after death of Mohamad is wrought with bullcrap. please watch my Islam video.
the break between shia and sunni is at the very start of Islam, called
"A critique of the koran, sura by sura - Cyberphunkisms - Islam" .

Thank you this was a great video. I should read this book lol. one thing i like about Islam is comparing the particular cultures and universalistic ideas that play out in each community, but I guess you can say that with most religions.

[ksavampire]

Beautiful video. Please keep it coming.

If I may add;

I’m not an academic on this subject, but as someone who comes from a bedouin background, عصبة Usbah means your kinsmen. So, assabiyah means loyalty to your kin and your people.

Which makes sense in a bedouin societies because they are a homogeneous group that is tied by blood, religion and history.

High levels of Assabiyah eventually becomes a problem in sedentary life. Especially in big towns and cities that are culturally diverse. And could quickly develop into racial and religious tensions.

[RaymondBrouwers]

Very informative about where we are now, (human) nature at work. Compared to nature the sedentary man lives like a grasshopper in plague-state. And the nomad or person living in the wild, surviving from the land as a grasshopper not in a plague state/ in balance with nature.. Even plagues are part of nature and have their lifecycle. My question are empires plagues? So we had the Egyptian plague, the Greek plague, the Roman plague etc etc?

[RustyMartin-bf]

I found a podcast on GoogleCasts..an interesting individual..💯🙏

[danielleach]

Miliray veterans sound pretty Bedoin-like. The virtue of the guardian class is courage. They learn to do things on their own. When they ttansition to civilian life they often don't know how to ask for help. I wonder if anyone has ever studied the difference between US and Canadian veterans on the basis of homelessness and suicide for which the incidence in the US higher between veterans and civilians, probably also.for men vs women.

[triskeliand]

A preeminent trade culture whose assets was the knowledge of safe routes to deliver goods, as though one could imagine they had freedom of the seas Law equivalent of the free trade narrative.
We get on with the folks whom the trade routes are peopled with.

[Sragonofakkad]

Unfortunately many people don't understand ibn khaldun works and most just used to insulate badouin and arab, one most read the whole thing to understand ibn khaldun for example ibn khaldun view in sedentary people was not always good as he say the worst human traits are Found in sedentary society immorality wrongdoing this because according to ibn khaldun that sedentary people are accustomed to luxury and as such some of them will seek anyway to satisfy their desires

[io]

The longer you talk, the bedoin drop out of listening to you, then realize only sedentaries are listening to you. Long attention span are for tasks and short attention spans are for leizures. Paradoxical cross reference.