Letter to the Editor — Ibn Khaldun a Berber?

Mohamed Boukhatmi:

Assalamu Alykum, I would like to correct your article on Ibn Khaldoun’s origins. Ibn Khaldoun was from the Berber/Amazighen tribes of North Africa. He was not an Arab from Yemen. Please make the necessary corrections. Thank you so much for this interesting article.

Wassalam,

Mohamed S. Boukhatmi

Response by Syed Aslam

Dear Br. Boukhatmi Salam Alykum

Thank you very much for your comment on my article on Ibn khaldun. He himself traces his ancestry as Yemeni Arab, relying on the Andalusian genealogist Ibn Hazam (d 1065 CE). I have no interest to doubt the authenticity of Ibn Khaldun’s genealogy. The biographer Muhammad Enan of Egypt have questioned Ibn Khaldun’s claim which is based on the circumstantial evidence. Luckly I have a copy of that book written in 1932 at Cairo and its english translation published in 1993 at lahore pakistan.

Thank you once again for your interest in my article, but I am not going to change the origin of Ibn Khaldun to Berber. as suggested by you. It matters nothing to me or to my reader, weather he was an Arab or a Berber. The only thing I know that he was one of the greatest Muslim thinkers ever born and that is what I cherish.

Wassalam
Syed Aslam, Aslamsyed1@yahoo.com

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