ReOrienting the Global Study of Religion - Waseem El-Rayes

Monday, September 13, 2021

Zoom: https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/84486053017

Chair: Dyala Hamzah, Université de Montréal

1:30-2:45PM (Montreal)

Waseem El-Rayes, Associate Professor of Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy, James Madison College, Michigan State University

Nothing Human is Forever: Ibn Khaldun and the Morals (‘ibar) of Cyclical History

Abstract: This paper argues that the notion of ‘nothing human is forever,’ as a product of both religious conviction and philosophical reflection, is a key moral (or ‘ibra) in Ibn Khaldun’s Kitab al-‘Ibar, one that informs his understanding of the material and psychological bases for the rise and fall of political regimes. The paper outlines: 1) what makes nothing human is forever a moral, 2) how it shapes the ancient and medieval view of cyclical history, and 3) how it informs Ibn Khaldun’s philosophy of history.