Gouverner les hommes : généalogie de la violence chez Ibn Khaldûn

Abstract

Ibn Khaldûn has often been presented as a precursor of historical materialism: the Machiavelli or the Arab Marx of the 14th century. He is undeniably materialistic in his methodology: the origin of power is thought to stem from the need to force men to cooperate so they can reproduce their material existence. But from his anthropological study of tribal societies and state societies, he developed an original analysis of power and of its corollary: violence. Politics can be conceived of, from the work of Ibn Khaldûn (his Muqaddima in particular), as the organisation and coordination of violence. Violence is a vector of social unity, thanks to the esprit de corps in tribal societies, because it is directed outwards: the attack of enemy tribes and the defence of the community. In state societies, the weakening of the esprit de corps requires the establishment of a political authority (wazi’), which directs violence inwards to regulate natural aggressiveness. Far from being the negation of politics, violence is consubstantial with politics: it is the condition to the possibility of preserving a totality and a social unity. When a social group loses its capacity for violence, the community collapses, just like the city of Damascus ravaged by the troops of Tamerlane before the helpless eyes of the philosopher.

Keywords

• Ibn Khaldûn
• violence
• politics
• Arabic philosophy
• state
• tribe