Maroc: Anthologie d'al-Melhun
(Maison des Cultures du Monde, Paris)
--Andalusian musical tradition, musical modes based on Galenic medicine, addressing humors of the body (such as lymphatic system)



"group feeling" (asabiyya; modern translation: fanaticism)
nomads and sedentary civilization
Ibn Khaldun's meeting with the late Mongol conqueror Timur (Tamerlane)



Ibn Khaldun, pp. 91-122, 263-95
chapter 2, Bedouin civilization, savage nations and tribes, and their conditions of life

1. both Bedouins and sedentary people are natural groups
2. Bedouins are a natural group in the world
3. Bedouins are prior to sedentary people.  The desert is the basis and reservoir of civilization and ethics
4. Bedouins are closer to being good than sedentary people
5. Bedouins are more disposed to courage than sedentary people
6. the reliance of sedentary people upon laws destroys their fortitude and powers of resistance
7. only tribes held together by group feeling can live in the desert
8. group feeling results only from blood relationship or something corresponding to it
9. purity of lineages found only among the savage Arabs of the desert and other such people
10. how lineages could become confused
11. leadership over people who share in a given group feeling cannot be invested in those not of the same descent
12. only those who share in a group feeling can have a "house" and nobility in the basic sense and reality
13. "house" and ability come to clients and followers only to their masters and not through their own descent
14. prestige lasts at best four generations in one lineage
15. savage nations are better able to achieve superiority than others
16. the goal to which group feeling leads is royal authority
17. obstacles on the way toward royal authority are luxury and the submergence of the tribe in the life of prosperity
18. meekness and docility to outsiders that may on to be found in the tribe are obstacles on the way toward royal authority
19. a sign of royal authority is a person's eager desire to acquire praiseworthy qualities, and vice versa
20. while a nation is savage, its royal authority extends farther
21. as long as a nation retains its group feeling, royal authority that disappears in one branch will, of necessity, pass to some other branch of the same nation
22. the vanquished always want to imitate the victor in his distinctive characteristics, his dress, his occupation, and all his other conditions and customs
23. a nation that has been defeated and has come under the rule of another nation will quickly perish
24. Bedouins can gain control only over flat territory.
25. Places that succumb to the Bedouins are quickly ruined.
26. Bedouins can acquire royal authority only by making use of some religious coloring, such as prophethood, or sainthood, or some great religious event in general.
27. the Bedouins are of all nations the one most remote from royal leadership
28. Desert tribes in groups are dominated by the urban population

Break: Islamic Coins Group

Chapter 4, Countries and cities, and all other forms of sedentary civilization

1. Dynasties are prior to towns and cities.  Towns and cities are secondary products of royal authority.
2. Royal authority calls for urban settlement.
3. Only strong royal authority is able to construct large cities and high monuments.
4. Very large monuments are not built by one dynasty alone.
5. Requirements for the planning of towns and the consequences of neglecting those requirements.
6. The mosques and venerated buildings of the world.
7. There are few cities and towns in Ifriqiyah and the Maghrib.
8. The buildings and constructions in Islam are comparatively few considering Islam's power and as compared to preceding dynasties
9. buildings erected by Arabs, with very few exceptions, quickly fall into ruin.
10. The beginnings of the ruin of cities.
11. with regard to the amount of prosperity and business activity in them, cities and towns differ in accordance with the different size of their population
12. Prices in towns.
13. Bedouins are unable to settle in a city with a large population.
14. Differences with regard to prosperity and poverty are the same in countries as in cities.
15. The accumulation of estates in farms and cities.  Their uses and yields.
16. capitalists among the inhabitants of cities need rank and protection.
17. Sedentary culture in cities comes from the dynasties.  It is firmly rooted when the dynasty is continuous and firmly rooted.
18. Sedentary culture is the goal of civilization.  It means the end of its lifespan and brings about its corruption.
19. Cities that are the seats of royal authority fall into ruin when the ruling dynasty crumbles and falls into ruin.
20. Certain cities have crafts that others lack.
21. The existence of good feeling in cities and the superiority of some of the inhabitants over others.
22. the dialects of the urban population.

What are the anxieties that drive Ibn Khaldun's view of nomads and cities?