© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2008 DOI: 10.1163/156853108X327065 Asian Journal of Social Science 36 (2008) 516–546 www.brill.nl/ajss he Sociology of Civilisations: Ibn Khaldun and a Multi-Civilisational World Order Recep Şentürk and Ali M. Nizamuddin Fatih University and University of Illinois Springfield Abstract Due to advancements in telecommunications and transportation over the past century, the world is shrinking and physical boundaries are being eroded. he advent of globalization has facilitated the flow of ideas, values, goods, and people from one part of the world to another. his hyperbolic human activity has altered the structure of inter-civilizational relations and has spawned a spirited debate on how to create a multi-civilizational world order. his paper is crit- ical of contemporary approaches on the subject that envisage the primacy of one civilization on the one hand and a clash among civilizations on the other. By examining Ibn Khaldun’s theory of ʚUmrān and the discipline of Fiqh, it argues that these concepts remain relevant for our understanding of the human condition today. While the theory of ʚUmrān analyzes political and economic relations at the macro-level, Fiqh tries to arrange societal relations at the micro- level. his paper also studies the Ottoman legacy since the Ottoman state was founded on Fiqh and the Millet system. It proved to be successful in preserving pluralistic communities based on principles of autonomy and mutual coexistence. Even though Ibn Khaldun was one of the pioneers in the field of civilizational studies, his seminal work is largely neglected in scholarly circles today, both Muslim and non-Muslim alike. he present inquiry seeks to address this shortcoming. Keywords Ibn Khaldun, ʚUmrān, Fiqh, civilization, Muqaddimah, Ottoman, Millet system, religious com- munities, sociality, levels of analysis, social and political organization Introduction Recently, civilisation has become a popular unit of analysis in the social sciences, including history, sociology, political science, and international relations. Although the variables of religion and culture are examined in aca- demia, these units of analysis have increasingly become subsumed within the study of civilisation. Depending on the discipline and one’s worldview, Islam, Christianity and Judaism are simultaneously referred to as religion, culture and civilisation. A cluster of academics from eclectic fields seek to interpret