The Spread of Ibn Khaldûn's Ideas on Climate and Culture

Author(s): Warren E. Gates

Source: Journal of the History of Ideas , Jul. - Sep., 1967, Vol. 28, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep.,
1967), pp. 415-422
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press

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 THE SPREAD OF IBN KHALDtN'S IDEAS
ON CLIMATE AND CULTURE

WARREN E. GATES

Orientalists are inclined to regard the opinion of Arnold Toynbee con-

cerning Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah, that it is "undoubtedly the greatest
work of its kind that has ever yet been created by any mind in any time
or place," as a sober judgment.l In view of his importance as the greatest
Arab historian (regarded by some Westerners as the true father of histori-
ography and sociology), those who concern themselves with the history of
ideas are interested to know when Ibn Khaldun first influenced the thinking
of western philosophers.
As early as 1812, Baron Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall referred to Ibn
Khaldun as "einen arabischen Montesquieu."2 Franz Rosenthal, Ibn
Khaldun's American translator, notes that it was at about this time that
European scholars first showed their awareness of the importance of the
Muqaddimah:
At the beginning of the XIXth century, European scholars joined with
the Turks in studying Ibn Khaldiun. Many ideas discussed in the European
West long after Ibn Khaldfn's time were found, amazingly enough, not to
be as new as had been thought, but to have been known, in their rudiments
at least, to the northwest African of the XIVth century who founded a new
science in his Muqaddimah.3
To these observations, Rosenthal has appended an interesting little note:

Ibn Khaldun has been claimed as the forerunner of a great many Western
scholars, both major and minor. A. Schimmel, Ibn Khaldun (Tiibingen,
1951) xvii, lists Machiavelli, Bodin, Vico, Gibbon, Montesquieu, Abbe de
Mably, Ferguson, Herder, Condorcet, Comte, Gobineau, Tarde, Breysig,
and W. James . . . such comparisons ... do not contribute much to our
understanding of Ibn Khaldun.
In this manner Rosenthal dismisses the entire matter as an inscrutable
mystery. Despite the unfathomable nature of the problem, however, and
notwithstanding Rosenthal's cautionary statement, a well-known scholar
in the field of Muslim law, G. H. Bousquet, whose work Rosenthal cites in
his bibliography, insists that with regard to the theory of climate Ibn
Khaldiun "se montre precurseur incontestable de Montesquieu."4 Thus, one
1 Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History (2nd ed., London, 1935), III, 322.
2Baron Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, Uber den Verfall des Islam nach den
ersten drei Jahrhunderten der Hidschra (Vienna, 1812). Cited in: Annemarie Schim-
mel, Ibn Chaldun: Ausgewdhlte Abschnitte aus der Muqaddima (Tiibingen, 1951),
xvii.
3 Ibn Khaldfn, The Muqaddimah, An Introduction to History, trans. Franz
Rosenthal. Bollingen Series, XLIII (New York, 1958), I, lxvii.
4G. H. Bousquet, Les textes economiques de la Mouqaddima (1375-1379),
(Paris and Algiers, 1961).
415

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416 WARREN E. GATES

of the earliest orientalists, Hammer-P

Bousquet, are both struck by the rese
and those of Montesquieu.
It happens that Ibn Khaldun's nam
time of Montesquieu. The Arab philosop
lane: Ahmedis Arabsiadae vitae et r
Tamerlanes dicitur, historia, edited by
work did not, of course, acquaint the
importance as a Kulturhistoriker (pe
have served to stimulate a curious interest in the man himself.
The element in Ibn Khaldun's philosophy of history which makes him a
predecessor of Montesquieu is his theory of climate. As Muriel Dodds has
shown, Montesquieu's views on climate mark a departure from notions of
climatic influence which had prevailed up to his time, beginning with
Hippocrates and continuing through Jean Bodin. Dodds rejects the notion
advanced by Joseph Dedieu, an early biographer of Montesquieu, that the
English doctor, Arbuthnot, supplied Montesquieu with this insight. She
shows that an earlier writer, Jean-Baptiste Chardin, author of one of the
greatest travel books of all time, is a more likely candidate for this honor.

Mais il y a une raison . . . qui me porte a croire que c'est Chardin,

plut6t qu'Arbuthnot, qui a influence Montesquieu: c'est que longtemps
avant que le medecin anglais n'eft 6crit son livre, Montesquieu connaissait
a fond les Voyages de Chardin. II les cite, presque & chaque page, dans les
Lettres persanes qui furent publiees en 1721, tandis que le livre d'Arbuthnot
ne parut qu'en 1732, et ne fut traduit en frangais qu'en 1742. Pourquoi
Montesquieu aurait-il lu Chardin sans etre frapp6 par sa th6orie du climat? 6
Muriel Dodds finds that the elements which are considered to be the
most original parts of Montesquieu's theory of climate are already present
in the work of Chardin. This poses a particularly interesting enigma. How
did it happen that a mere recit de voyage, written by a commercial traveler
jeweler though he was, contained this gem of "purest ray serene" which
has lent so much lustre to Montesquieu's reputation as a social philosopher
The theory of climate, after the concept of separate powers, is Montesquieu'
most famous doctrine. "No doctrine in the Esprit des lois," says Rober
Shackleton, "attracted more attention than did that of the influence of
climate upon mankind . . . serious writers have regarded the theory of
climate as central in Montesquieu's thought." 7
Apart from the theory of climate, the influence that Chardin's book
exerted upon Montesquieu's thought is everywhere recognized. The observa-
tions of Muriel Dodds are completely in accord with the facts. No one has
done more than Dodds to reveal the part played by recits de voyages in
5 Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn 'Arabshah, a well-known Arab historian. His work
was completed in 1435 A.D. Cf. Ibn Khaldun and Tamerlane, Walter J. Fischel
(Los Angeles, 1952), 1, for a discussion of 'Arabshah's work.
6 Muriel Dodds, Les recits de voyages, sources de l'Esprit des Lois de Monte-
squieu (Paris, 1929), 51.
7Robert Shackleton, Montesquieu, A Critical Biography (Oxford, 1961), 302.

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 SPREAD OF IBN KHALDUN'S IDEAS 417

the work of Montesquieu, and her study is described

by the authors of the Critical Bibliography of French
Although the fact seems to have escaped the attentio
philosophe anticipated Montesquieu in deriving a theo
the hints furnished by Chardin. This was Jean-B
elaborates an ingenious theory of climatic influence to
or absence of genius in human groups.8 "Vous trouver
speaking of the R6flexions critiques sur la poesie et su
le second volume . . . cinq ou six chapitres sur l'in
anterieurs de trente ans a ceux de Montesquieu."9
Montesquieu, the Abbe Du Bos makes no secret of
Chardin for his views on climate. Indeed, he cites him
with such enthusiasm that Alfred Lombard, Du B
moved to observe that it is Du Bos "qui a donne a d
l'idee de citer Chardin." 10
It is probable that Montesquieu was the one who got the idea of citing
Chardin from Du Bos, for his theory of climate is expressed in terms whic
the Abbe invented for his special purpose (causes morales and causes
physiques), which are, of course, absent from the work of Chardin. T
important problem is to determine how Chardin himself acquired suc
remarkable insight into the influence exerted by climate upon human affair
Shackleton has commented upon the "surprise" that the theory of climat
produced when it appeared in Montesquieu's Esprit des lois; it is certainly
an occasion for astonishment when we find the same ideas expressed almos
casually, as if such observations were mere commonplaces, by a travel
returning home from Persia.
Sir John Chardin was born in Paris in 1643, and was twenty-two year
old when he made his first trip to Persia. (Later, he settled in England an
was knighted by Charles II; hence the title and the English form of h
name.) The following year (1666) he went to India, but was back
Persia in 1667. In 1669 he returned to Paris, but two years later he w
once more in Persia, where he remained until 1677. Thus, out of a period
of twelve years, he spent ten in Persia. He himself remarks that he knew
Ispahan better than he knew Paris. It is interesting to read his explanatio
for undertaking a second voyage to Persia from France:

J'entrepris, pour la seconde fois, ce grand voyage, tant pour etendre mes
connoissances sur les langues, sur les moeurs, sur les religions, sur les art
sur le commerce, et sur l'histoire des Orientaux, que pour travailler a
l'etablissement de ma fortune.11

Evidently, Chardin proposed to make himself an expert on Persian

8 Jean-Baptiste Du Bos, Reflexions critiques sur la poesie et sur la peinture
(Mariette, 1719).
9 F. Brunetiere, evolution des genres, 8th ed. (Paris, 1924), 145.
10 Alfred Lombard, L'Abbe Du Bos: Un Initiateur de la pensee modeme (1670-
1742), (Paris, 1913), 247.
11 Jean-Baptiste Chardin, Voyages en Perse et autres lieux de lOrient, ed. L.
Langles (Paris, 1811), 10 vols.

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418 WARREN E. GATES

affairs. In this he was not disappoin

number of writers mentioned by Lo
works.12 Although not included in th
tion. Camille Jullian declares that
orientale des Lettres persanes." 13
The following passage from Chardin
tion of his views on climate, with whi

La troisibme observation, c'est que

6nerve l'esprit comme le corps, dissip
l'invention ou pour la perfection dans
climats-lh de longues veilles, et de cet
beaux ouvrages des arts liberaux et d
que les connoissances des peuples de
consistent gubre qu'^ retenir et qu'h r
des anciens, et que leur industrie est b
c'est seulement dans le septentrion
metiers dans la plus haute perfection.1
In these lines Chardin reveals a view o
and temperament, and even the craft
Ibn Khaldiun (I, 167-169). Chardin's in
arts, however, leads him to assumptio
disavow. Ibn Khaldin, for example, has
of books.
The Abbe Du Bos made use of the passage we have just quoted to
support his own view of climatic influence upon human activities. He also
takes the following observation from the Voyages, in which we find Char-
din's theory of climate neatly epitomized.

Le climat de chaque peuple est toujours, a ce que je crois, la principale

cause des inclinations et des coutumes des hommes, qui ne sont plus diverses
entre elles que la constitution de l'air est differente d'un lieu a un autre.l1
Sir John Chardin published the first part of his Voyages in London, in
1680. Not until thirty-one years later did he bring out the complete work,
in Amsterdam, 1711, in three volumes. In 1686 an English translation of
the first part appeared in London, and in 1724, from the Amsterdam edition,
newly expanded to four volumes, an English translation was published
which comprised part of the third volume and all of the fourth. The
following characteristic selection is taken from a facsimile edition of this
English translation:

I have found by experience from the long Stay I made in the East, that
according as one is habituated to the Air of the Country, one accustoms
oneself to Rice and grows out of Conceit with Bread . . . a Thing which I

12 Alfred Lombard, L'Abbe Du Bos, 247.

13 Montesquieu, Extraits de l'Esprit des Lois et des oeuvres diverses, ed. Camille
Jullian, 14th ed. (Paris, 1929) 6, n.4.
14 Jean-Baptiste Chardin, Voyages, ed. Langles, IV, 91.
15 Jean-Baptiste Du Bos, Reflexions critiques, ed. 1760, II, 285.

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 SPREAD OF IBN KHALDUN S IDEAS 419

must repeat over again; because in my Opinion, from a

of the different Climates, one may form a better Jud
Cloaths and Lodging of the several People of the Wo
Customs, Sciences and their Industry; and if one have
False Religions which they follow.e6
Many writers on the subject of climate have been co
that climatic influence upon human behavior has been
earliest times. We find references to it in Hippocra
observations in later writers, until Jean Bodin treats t
siderable depth. In the following passage Muriel Do
Bodin and his predecessors are superseded by Montes
Pourtant Bodin n'a pas etabli clairement les differen
leme de l'influence du climat, et n'y a indique aucune so
pu ecrire de lui que "l'influence du climat sur les m
Bodin comme une chose mysterieuse, inanalysable." Tand
au contraire, systematise le probleme: pour lui, "le my
du climat sur les nations ne sera eclairci que dans la
couvrira que notre constitution physique depend du
determine en nous certaines tendances intellectuelles e
leur tour, ces tendances necessitent certaines dispos
sorte que, par un enchainement fatal, notre droit publ
la consequence necessaire de notre temperament fag
special.17
It is not only in the Esprit des lois that one finds this viewpoint clearly
expressed. The Abbe Du Bos, Sir John Chardin, and Ibn Khaldiun all reveal
the same superiority over Jean Bodin which has been noted with such
surprise in the work of Montesquieu. If Sir John Chardin is linked in this
chain of thought with Abbe Du Bos on the one hand, and with Montesquieu
on the other hand, it seems likely that he is also linked with Ibn Khaldun
in some manner. It is highly improbable that he originated his own theory
of climate; Chardin is not much given to philosophical speculation, and this
theory stands out in his work as a most uncharacteristic contribution. It
is readily conceivable, however, that Sir John Chardin became familiar with
the ideas of Ibn Khaldun while he was living so long in the East.
Like Montesquieu, Ibn Khaldun takes all mankind for his special topic.
He studies the physical environment in which man lives in order to under-
stand how it influences him in his non-physical characteristics. Indeed, it
could well be said of him, as it has been remarked of Montesquieu, that he
"saw everything in climate."
Ibn Khaldun speaks of many different peoples, including savages, no-
mads, and organized peoples (whom he characterized as "sedentary
peoples"). The latter occupy themselves with agriculture or with cattle-
breeding, or they dwell in cities. He explains the differences in their customs
and institutions by their physical environment-habitat, climate, soil, food,
and the different ways in which they are forced to satisfy their needs and
16 Jean-Baptiste Chardin, A New and Accurate Description of Persia, ed. Sir
Percy Sykes (London, 1927), 226-27.
17 Muriel Dodds, Les recits de voyages, 53.

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420 WARREN E. GATES

obtain a living. In all of this he is e

appear later in the Esprit des lois, as
note the resemblance between Ibn Khaldun's thought and that of
Montesquieu, has not failed to point out.18 (I am indebted to Schmidt for
most of this paragraph.)
When these ideas made their appearance later in the work of
Montesquieu, they caused a sensation. "I read thirteen books of
Montesquieu's 'Spirit of Laws,'" wrote an English pamphleteer whom
Shackleton cites, "without making the least discovery. But at length the
fourteenth book rewarded all my toils." And Shackleton adds, "No doctrine
in the Esprit des lois attracted more attention than did that of the influence
of climate on mankind . . . and none provoked more surprise." 19
Joseph Dedieu, a much earlier biographer of Montesquieu, did not fail
to note the importance of this doctrine in the Esprit des lois, nor did he
overlook the "surprising" quality in it.

Il nous faut donc remarquer tout d'abord le caractere d'etrangete que ces
chapitres conservent dans l'oeuvre de Montesquieu. Ils ont un air emprunte,
qui n'est pas celui de la famille. La voix de Montesquieu a subitement
change de ton.20
No doubt Muriel Dodds would say that the new tone which manifests
itself at this point in Montesquieu's work is the voice of Sir John Chardin.
The voice of Chardin, however, also takes on a new tone when he discusses
these ideas. Could it be an echo from the Muqaddimah that is suddenly to
be heard in the Western world at this time? Dedieu is clearly suggesting
that some unusual influence made itself felt here, and he went on to attribute
it to the English physician, Arbuthnot. Sir John Chardin, as Dodds has
pointed out, is much more likely to have influenced Montesquieu's views on
climate. And Ibn Khaldun is likely to have influenced Sir John Chardin,
directly or indirectly, during his long stay in the East.
Just as Ibn Khaldun's theory of climate resembles that of Montesquieu
in the view of Hammer-Purgstall, Schimmel, Schmidt, Bousquet, and others
too numerous to mention; so, Muriel Dodds is equally positive, is Chardin's
theory of climate identical with that of Montesquieu.
Chardin formule une theorie de l'influence du climat semblable a celle de
Montesquieu. Nous retrouvons chez lui la meme preoccupation de l'influ-
ence du climat: il lui attribue la tendance des Persans A la paresse, a la
jalousie: c'est encore le climat qui fait qu'on renferme les femmes en Orient
et qui rend l'imagination des habitants des pays chauds moins vive, et leur
empeche de faire des progres dans les Arts. On ne peut lire le livre de
Chardin sans remarquer l'importance du role qu'il donne au climat, et
Montesquieu n'a pu manquer d'etre frappe par les exemples qu'il apporte i
la confirmation de sa theorie. Chardin resume ainsi sa conception de l'influ-
ence du climat:

18 Nathaniel Schmidt, Ibn Khaldun, Historian, Sociologist and Philosopher (N

York, 1930), 29.
19 Robert Shackleton, Montesquieu, 302.
20 Joseph Dedieu, Montesquieu. Les Grands Philosophes (Paris, 1913), 197.

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 SPREAD OF IBN KHALDUN S IDEAS 421

"Je trouve toujours la cause, ou l'origine des moeurs & de

Orientaux dans la qualite de leur climat: ayant observe dans
que comme les moeurs suivent le temperament du corps, se
de Galien, le temperament du corps suit la qualite du clima
les coutumes ou habitudes des Peuples ne sont point l'effet
mais de quelques causes, ou de quelques necessites natur
decouvre qu'apres une exacte recherche." 21
Dodds may be right in attributing so much of Montesqu
climate to Chardin, but she is likely to be mistaken in her
this theory is original with him. Chardin does not always
verse for material he uses, as his editor has taken pain
Indeed, few writers of the time were really scrupulous abou
exception of Du Bos, who seems to enjoy displaying his
which he was famous, in this manner. At the very beginn
Chardin's description of Persia we find a lengthy and very
sertation on the history and geography of the country
Chardin's editor, informs us is taken bodily from "les note
composees par Hhamdoullah" 22 Perhaps Chardin felt the m
using such notes because the sources were largely inaccessi
readers, and he may have believed that his book would b
with the names of Arabic writers strewn through it.
It would not be strange therefore if Sir John should offe
climate which he had taken from the work of a XIVth-cent
without mention of its source. The fact that Langles name
as one who infuenced Chardin is suggestive. Golius edited th
lane which introduced the name of Ibn Khaldun to Eu
Indeed, the reputation of Jacob Golius, who had held the ch
Leyden for many years, and had been the foremost orient
might well have caused Chardin to be familiar with all the
by him. (It was in Holland that Chardin finally brought ou
revised and expanded account of his travels in Persia.)
Throughout the Voyages Chardin shows a great inter
pertaining to Tamerlane. It seems probable therefore that
heard of Ibn Khaldun's historic meeting with the Mongol c
happened during Tamerlane's siege of Damascus. Ibn Khaldun had
accompanied an expedition to relieve the besieged city. When the situation
seemed desperate, however, the civilian authorities surrendered. After the
city finally capitulated, its judges approached Tamerlane to beg for
clemency. Tamerlane asked about Ibn Khaldun, whose reputation had
reached his attention. After a dramatic meeting between the Arab philos-
opher and the famous conqueror, Ibn Khaldun succeeded in persuading
Tamerlane to leave Damascus unmolested. In the part of his work that is
called his "autobiography," Ibn Khaldun has written a life of Tamerlane
which is the first biography of the great Mongol leader.23
21 Muriel Dodds, Les recits de voyages, 55.
22Jean-Baptiste Chardin, Voyages, ed. Langles, III, 256.
23Walter Joseph Fischel, Ibn Khaldun and Tamerlane: Their Historic Meeting
in Damascus, A.D. 1401 (803 AM.), (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1952), 20.

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 422 WARREN E. GATES

Had Sir John Chardin somehow esca

encounter with Tamerlane, there w
the second volume of his great unive
is the preface. It is difficult to imagin
himself an expert on the language, cu
merce and history of Persia, would h
of that nation. Manuscripts of Ibn Kha
according to Rosenthal.24 Chardin him
Arabic: "J'entendois beaucoup d'Arabe
indeed, he informs us that he read so
pleasure and profit, and not just as a s
Finally, it should be remembered
foremost writers in the Arabic langua
makes his acquaintance even today,
for the student of Arabic in Persia
existed, and the older writers were
libraries in Persia, Chardin tells us, d
volumes, "tous bons livres et anciens,
dre." 26 In the same place Chardin ob
books owned by Persians to collection
comparing a fly to an elephant.
It appears reasonable to conclude f
Khaldun may very well be a genuine
to the famous theory of climatic influ
of climate offered by Sir John Chard
may have been found by him in the M
geography of Persia was found in t
been edited by Jacob Golius. In this m
reached a dead end in Europe was su
from the East, giving a new impetus
The present paper does not presume
to raise it. It would seem that more than mere coincidence underlies the
remark of Hammer-Purgstall in which he called Ibn Khaldun "einen
arabischen Montesquieu," and that Bousquet is right to insist that Ibn
Khaldun is a "precurseur incontestable de Montesquieu." The existence of
Chardin as a highly credible link between Ibn Khaldun and Montesquieu
suggests that the year 1680, when Sir John Chardin published his first
account of his famous Voyages in London, may very well mark the first
appearance of Ibn Khaldun in Europe as a Kulturhistoriker.

Ohio Northern University.

24 Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, trans. Franz Rosenthal, I, lxxxviii.
26 Jean-Baptiste Chardin, Voyages, ed. Langles, IV, 237. 26 Ibid., 220.

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