Tajseer, Volume 1, Issue 2, 2020, Ibn Khaldon Center for Humanities and Social Sciences Peer-Reviewed Journal Published by QU Press 75 Research article The Contemporary Significance of Ibn Khaldun for Decolonial Sociology: Methodological and Theoretical Dimensions Syed Farid Alatas Professor, Departments of Sociology & Malay Studies, National University of Singapore alatas@nus.edu.sg Abstract This paper discusses the significance of Ibn Khaldun for the social sciences with reference to a number of methodological and theoretical dimensions. The discussion revolves around what I refer to as the levels of scholarship on Ibn Khaldun, which range from the meta-theoretical to the empirical and applied. It is claimed that in order for Ibn Khaldun to be taken seriously by the major disciplines in the social sciences, more work of a meta-theoretical and theoretical nature on his writings needs to be done. It is further argued that when considered in terms of all the levels of scholarship, Ibn Khaldun’s work should be viewed as an exemplar for a modern social science that is rooted in Islamic tradition. The paper makes the case for Khaldunian sociology as an aborted tradition in the modern social sciences, introduces the levels of scholarship, and discusses the levels at which Khaldunian scholarship is more and less prominent. The paper also raises a methodological and theoretical issue in relation to Ibn Khaldun’s work. Keywords: Ibn Khaldun; Decolonial; Sociology; Method; Theory Cite this article as: Alatas S. F., “The Contemporary Significance of Ibn Khaldun for Decolonial Sociology: Methodological and Theoretical Dimensions”, Tajseer, Volume 1, Issue 2, 2020 https://doi.org/10.29117/tis.2020.0025 © 2020 (1441 Hijri) Alatas, licensee QU Press. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits non-commercial use of the material, appropriate credit, and indication if changes in the material were made. You can copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format as well as remix, transform, and build upon the material, provided the original work is properly cited. OPEN ACCESS Submitted: 21 August 2019 Accepted: 6 November 2019