The space of nomads: notes from a geographical reading of Ibn Khaldun

Abstract

The work Al-Muqaddimah by Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) aims to explain the causes of the formation and disintegration of states. The author sought a general rule to explain this dynamic, although he applied it specifically to the Maghreb. At first glance, it may seem to be merely a historical topic, but what interests us is not the explanation of the decline of the Maghreb in the Late Middle Ages, but rather the attempt to explain then-current problems (reduction of cultivated lands, decline of most cities, state fragmentation, etc.) by a contemporary who offered an explanation fundamentally geographical in nature: the contrast between two types of lifestyle, a conceptual tool later developed and formalized many centuries afterward by Vidal de la Blache (1845–1918) and his geographical school.