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Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology

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Popularized by Ibn Khaldun in his The Muqaddimah, the notion of asabiyya refers to group solidarity. This includes unity, cohesion, and a collective consciousness shared among a group of persons. Often such a group can contain members of a clan, tribe, or persons of common descent, but the connection between two members of a group need not be one of blood. The asabiyyah can be a force that makes or breaks the success of a group or individual, and thus it will certainly play a role in the development and spread of Islamic civilizations. See page xli of the Rosenthal's introduction to The Muqaddimah for another discussion of the term. While the Prophet may have initially used asabiyya, or his ties to the Quraysh, to support his early work, he needed more than kinship ties to spread his message. Steven Caton explains that, as the community grew, early Muslims became more united by shared religious beliefs and values than by feelings of shared space or descent.

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Posted at Feb 19/2009 10:24AM:
ian: Remember that Khaldun is writing his theory in the 14th century so long after the prophetic era. Clearly he sees it as a significant motor of history despite new forms of identity and cohession based on Islam. What is the relationship of asabiyya to the notion of the state?