Kitāb al-ʻibar-Muqaddimah كتاب العبر-المقدمة

The first part of Ibn Khaldūnʼs general history, Kitāb al-ʻIbar. This part is universally known as al-Muqaddimah the prolegomena and contains rules for the composition of critical history, notes on population, the founding of towns, the establishment of empires and the causes of their decadence, the nature of various forms of royalty, the temporal and spiritual power of the caliph, and comments on other diverse subjects.