The Original "Introduction"

"However, during its author's lifetime the original introduction and the first book became an independent work known under the title Muqaddimah. In the 1394 edition of his Autobiography, Ibn Khaldûn speaks of the first book of his History in this way. At the same time, the table of contents prefixed to our oldest manuscripts of the Muqaddimah states that "this first book went by the name of Muqaddimah until (that name) came to be a characteristic proper name for it."Thus, it is not surprising that, in a late addition to the Muqaddimah itself, Ibn Khaldûn refers to it as the Muqaddimah and that he gave lectures exclusively devoted to it. To all later ages, Muqaddimah was the title almost universally used.

With respect to its literary form, the Muqaddimah would not seem to deserve unqualified praise. Like the last two volumes of the History, it is Ibn Khaldûn's original creation in the main; it is not influenced by the literary character of its sources, as is frequently the case in Muslim historical writing and as is the case with the middle volumes of Ibn Khaldûn's work. The Muqaddimah was written in the precise, cultured speech that was used in academic discussion by Ibn Khaldûn, his friends, and his contemporaries in the Muslim West. This language is as much, or as little, down-to-earth as the formal speech of the educated anywhere in the world  tends to be. Both the language and the style of the Muqaddimah clearly reflect the discursive manner of the academic lecturer, concerned primarily with an audience that is listening to him, and driving his points home viva voce. A large segment of Muslim literature was influenced in style and content by classroom needs; thus, it became customary and easy for an author to use the lecture tyle even when not writing for school use or for a listening audience. This was the case when Ibn Khaldûn wrote the Muqaddimah, quite apart from the consideration that he used the work later as a textbook for lectures ..." (op. cit., ibid., pp. lxviii-lxix)

"The excellence of historiography. - An appreciation of the various approaches to history. - A glimpse at the different kinds of errors to which historians are liable. Something about why these errors occur."

(translated by R. A. Nicholson, Translations of Eastern Poetry and Prose, Cambridge, 1922)