Asabiyyah: The Cyclical Rise and Fall of Civilizations
Ibn Khaldun · 1377
"Dynasties rise on group solidarity forged by hardship and collapse within three to four generations as comfort dissolves the very bond that built them."
Writing in 1377, Ibn Khaldun mapped a cycle every empire since has repeated: hardened outsiders unite, conquer the soft center, get soft themselves within a few generations, and get conquered by the next hardened outsiders.
Ibn Khaldun called the bonding force asabiyyah — solidarity forged by shared hardship. He argued cohesion is strongest among people without luxury, which is exactly what lets them topple comfort-softened dynasties. But asabiyyah has a shelf life: in power, rulers urbanize and accumulate wealth, diluting the loyalty that got them there within three or four generations, leaving them open to the next hungrier group.
According to Ibn Khaldun, what causes a dynasty's founding group solidarity (asabiyyah) to erode?
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- The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to HistoryInternet Archive
Why Nations Fail
"Nations grow rich or stay poor mainly because of their political and economic institutions — whether they're 'inclusive' (broadly distributing power and property rights) or 'extractive' (concentrating both in a narrow elite) — not because of geography, culture, or the knowledge available to their leaders."