The definitive account of the life and thought of the medieval Arab genius who wrote the MuqaddimaIbn Khaldun (1332-1406) is generally regarded as the greatest intellectual ever to have appeared in the Arab world-a genius who ranks as one of the world's great minds. Yet the author of the Muqaddima, the most important study of history ever produ

"In Robert Irwin, Ibn Khaldun has finally found a biographer and interpreter almost as versatile and learned as he was himself."—Eric Ormsby, Wall Street Journal"A compelling new account of the 14th-century Arab historian and polymath. . . . Irwin has produced an exemplary work."—Gavin Jacobson, Financial Times"As an introduction to Ibn Khaldun’s fascinating life and times, his ideas, and how they have been understood and misunderstood over the centuries, you could hardly wish for something better."—Thomas Small, Times Literary Supplement"Irwin offers his readers a superb work of intellectual recovery."—Francis Ghilès, The Spectator"Robert Irwin sets out to demythologize and, at the same time, remystify a man whose mind was formed far from the seminar rooms of 20th-century social science. . . . Concise and compelling."—Nile Green, Los Angeles Review of Books"Few scholars are more fun to read than Robert Irwin."—Michael Dirda, Pulitzer Prize–winning critic and author of Classics for Pleasure and Browsings