Mark Zuckerberg recommends This Arabic book to Everyone
By Ani Karapetyan/Contributing Writer
“Books allow you to fully explore a topic and immerse yourself in a deeper way than most media today,” Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his personal Facebook page. “I’m looking forward to shifting more of my media diet towards reading books.”
Indeed, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, is known for his passion for reading.
Zuckerberg’s selection of books focuses on different cultures, beliefs, histories, and technologies.
Among his reading recommendations is a 14th century book by Arab Muslim author, Ibn Khaldun, called Muqaddimah. The book is translated from Arabic as an Introduction or Preamble. Mark’s invitation to read the Introduction/Muqaddimah has been happily welcomed by about 10 thousand users of Facebook.
Who was Ibn Khaldun? And what is the value of his book? The Facebook CEO recommends that everyone read it.
Ibn Khaldun was an Arab Muslim philosopher, social thinker, and historian. He was born in 1332 in Tunis. His parents came from al-Andalusia. Ibn-Khaldun’s life and activities were connected with the Arab West, al-Maghrib.
After studying the Koran, hadiths, law, and grammar in his hometown, he served for Sultan Abu-Inan in Fez, Morocco.
The envy towards him in the court forced him to leave for Spain in 1362. On behalf of the Sultan of Granada, he negotiated peace with Don Pedro of Castile.
Since 1382, he lived in Cairo, occupying the position of professor, and then the supreme kadi (sharia judge) of the Malikites.
Ibn Khaldun wrote the “Muqaddimah” or “Introduction” in 1377. The book is an attempt to find universal elements of human progress.
“While much of what was believed then is now disproven after 700 more years of progress, it’s still very interesting to see what was understood at this time and the overall worldview when it’s all considered together,” Zuckerberg writes.
In this historical work “Muqaddimah”, Ibn Khaldun analyzed the causes of the rise and decline of countries and peoples.
The author presents his political-economic, social and philosophical views, judgments about the culture of mankind.
Ibn Khaldun gives valuable information about the peculiarities of managing nomadic tribes and their mutual relations with sedentary peoples.
“Muqaddimah” gives some historical and geographical data on the Turkic tribes living on the territory of modern Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
In his book, Ibn Khaldun discovered a huge number of fundamental concepts of the economy. Even before Adam Smith, he discovered the value and necessity of the division of labor. The idea behind this theory is that mutual aid and connection between people are directly related to the division of labor. The division of labor makes it possible to produce more products both to meet the needs of the producer, and to exchange the products. The division of labor underlies the creation of the necessary conditions for the production of the surplus product, which becomes the object of exchange.
He outstripped David Ricardo in the opening of the labor theory of value. According to this theory, labor is the source of value. “Everything in the world is purchased by labor,” says Ibn Khaldun in his book. Labor is necessary for all earnings and capital accumulation.
Ibn Khaldun is the first economist who in his book “Muqaddimah”, systematized the functions of the economy, pointed to the importance of the technical base, the specialization of production and foreign trade for obtaining an economic surplus.
Khaldun’s revolutionary approach to history made him the founding father of modern sociology and historiography.
All researchers who turned to Ibn Khaldun’s creative heritage agree that he made a great contribution to world social and political thought.
Hence, it is no coincidence that Mark Zuckerberg read and admired the “Muqaddimah.”. You too, should follow his recommendation and read this revolutionary book by this famous Arab author.