This study is an attempt to gain a better understanding of Ibn Khaldun's political theory contained in The Muqaddimah from the stance that religion and his faith in Islam are at the core of his political theory. Though there is a great deal of scholarship that has been dedicated to the interpretation of Ibn Khaldun's political theory contained in The Muqaddimah, there are a limited number of works that deal exclusively with the role of religion in his conception of the State. Those that do tend to either exaggerate Ibn Khaldun's secular thought in the realm of politics or understate his originality as a political scientist. Thus, this study will attempt to prove that his political theory is indeed theocentric by way of examining the true nature of 'aṣabiya, which to Ibn Khaldun was the basis for all forms of human social and political organization, and its relationship with religion in terms of its function in the establishment and propagation of the State. In addition, we will also attempt to dispel the notion that the overall tone of The Muqaddimah is pessimistic and fatalistic; indeed when one examines the political theory contained in The Muqaddimah from a theocentric viewpoint it is made apparent that it was Ibn Khaldun's strong religious convictions that ultimately present a sense of optimism in his work.

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Ce mémoire constitue une tentative de relire l’ouvrage phare d’Ibn Khaldûn et d’en proposer une interprétation entièrement nouvelle pour le lecteur francophone grâce à la prise en compte des analyses proposées par Muhsin Mahdi. En partant d’une réinterprétation du titre de l’ouvrage complet, nous tentons d’aboutir à un renouvellement de la réflexion sur la portée scientifique de la contribution intellectuelle de l’auteur. Cette réinterprétation nous ouvre alors la porte à une nouvelle perspective quant à la structure du plan du texte. À son tour, cette nouvelle perspective permet de conceptualiser avec plus de précision le cadre épistémologique de la science sociale que propose le philosophe maghrébin. Nous montrerons comment ce cadre fut extrait par Ibn Khaldûn à partir d’une forme particulière de syncrétisme, intégrant le bagage de la tradition philosophique aristotélicienne au bagage de la tradition intellectuelle arabe classique. Le résultat se trouve à être un modèle de discipline scientifique spécifiquement arabe dédié à l’étude des sociétés humaines réelles. Ce dernier nous permettant alors de proposer une série de comparaisons entre les différents modèles scientifiques étudiant un objet similaire en nous appuyant sur l’exemple du modèle scientifique de Machiavel. / This essay constitutes an attempt to elaborate a new reading of Ibn Khaldûn’s seminal work and proposes an entirely new interpretation for the French-speaking reader by taking into account Muhsin Mahdi’s analysis. Starting by a reinterpretation of the work’s complete title, we try to achieve a renewal of the reflection on the scientific reach the author’s intellectual contribution. This reinterpretation opens the door to a new perspective on the structure of the text’s plan. This new perspective, in turn, allows us to conceptualize with more precision the epistemological frame of the social science the North-African author proposes. We will show how this frame has been extracted, by Ibn Khaldûn, starting by a particular form of syncretism integrating the intellectual baggage of the Aristotelian philosophical tradition to the baggage of the Arab classical intellectual tradition. The result happens to be a specific Arab model of scientific discipline dedicated to the study of real human societies. This model allowing us then to propose a series of comparisons between the different scientific models studying a similar object by relying on the example of Machiavelli’s scientific model.

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This thesis examines the extent to which Ibn Khaldun can legitimately be considered a founding father of sociology. To pursue this research, Khaldun's theoretical framework will be compared with four Western scholars: Auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim, Giambattista Vico, and Ludwig Gumplowicz. This paper begins with an Introduction (Chapter I), followed by a general overview of Khaldun's work (Chapter II). Next, Khaldun's work is compared to that of Auguste Comte (Chapter III), Emile Durkheim (Chapter IV), Ludwig Gumplowicz (Chapter V) and Giambattista Vico (Chapter VI). In each of these chapters, Khaldun is compared and contrasted to the other social theorist, illustrating their similarities and considering their differences. Finally, in Chapter VII, I put forth conclusions that consider the extent to which Khaldun can validly be considered a founding father of sociology.