l, and religious. Of his works on history, only his Universal History has survived to our day. Another work that is lost is the history that was written specifically for Tamerlane, as Ibn Khaldun mentioned in his autobiography. His religious books are: Lubab al-Mahsul (Summary of the Result); a commentary on an usul al-fiqh poem, and a few works which are of questionable attribute to him, namely a sufi tract “Shifa’ as-Sail” (Healing of the Inquirer). 
Ibn Khaldun’s magnum opus, “al-Muqaddimah” can be divided into three parts. The first part is the introduction, the second part is the Universal History, and the third part is the history of the Maghrib. In this section, I concentrate on the first part. The second part is similar to the standard histories of Muslim historians, and there does not seem to be much divergence. The third part, which is concerned with the history of the Maghrib, is considered a primary source work.  Much of the information in this section is from Ibn Khaldun’s personal travels and contacts in the area, and is replete with first hand accounts. An additional work that is not usually considered a part of this book is an appendix, which is an autobiography of the author.
The first part, the “Introduction,” is popularly known as “al-Muqaddimah;” Ibn Khaldun wrote this in a span of five months.  It can be divided into six parts as follows:
1. Human society – ethnology and anthropology
2. Rural civilizations
3. Forms of government and forms of institutions
4. Society of urban civilization
5. Economic facts
6. Science and humanity
This impressive document is the essence of Ibn Khaldun's wisdom and hard earned experience. Ibn Khaldun used his political and first-hand knowledge of the people of Maghrib to formulate many of his ideas. This document summarizes Ibn Khaldun’s ideas about every field of knowledge during his day. He discusses a variety of topics, including history and historiography. He rebukes some historical claims with a calculated logic, and discusses the sciences of his time. He wrote about astronomy, astrology, and numerology, and dealt with chemistry, alchemy, and magic in a scientific way. He freely offered his opinions and well documented the “facts” of other points of view. His discussion of tribal societies and social forces is the most interesting part of his thesis. He illuminated the world with deep insight into the makings and workings of kingdoms and civilizations.
The following quotation describes his philosophy of the historical process of civilizations, including, for example, the role of economics.
…in the field of economics, Ibn Khaldun understands very clearly the supply and demand factors which affect price, the interdependence of prices and the ripple effects on successive stages of production of a fall in prices, and the nature and function of money and its tendency to circulate from country to country according to demand and the level of activity. 
Ibn Khaldun is well known for his explanation of the nature of state and society and for being ‘the founder of the new discipline of sociology.’
Ibn Khaldun fully realised that he had created a new discipline, ‘ilm al-’umran, the science of culture, and regarded it as surprising that no one had done so before and demarcated it from other disciplines. This science can be of great help to the historian by creating a standard by which to judge accounts of past events. Through the study of human society, one can distinguish between the possible and the impossible, and so distinguish between those of its phenomena which are essential and those which are merely accidental, and also those which cannot occur at all. 
Ibn Khaldun's contributions to the field of history must also be noted.
He analysed in detail the sources of error in historical writings, in particular partisanship, overconfidence in sources, failure to understand what is intended, a mistaken belief in the truth, the inability to place an event in its real context, the desire to gain the favour of those in high rank, exaggeration, and what he regarded as the most impo