Q0584

“Royal authority and large-scale dynastic power are attained only through group feeling…” — Ibn Khaldun (Muqaddimah (Rosenthal))

Verified English quotation. Primary source: Muqaddimah (Rosenthal). Theme: power.

English

Royal authority and large-scale dynastic power are attained only through group feeling (ʿaṣabiyya).
Thinker Ibn Khaldun
School Islamic Philosophy
Source Muqaddimah (Rosenthal)
Theme Power
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to Muqaddimah (Rosenthal) and files it under Islamic Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Ibn Khaldun

Ibn Khaldūn (1332–1406) served courts across the Maghrib and Egypt before composing the Muqaddimah as a prolegomenon to his universal history. Drawing on political experience, he treated history as a science of social causes rather than a chronicle of wonders.

How to read this passage

Philosophers analyze domination, authority, freedom, and the micro-politics of everyday life. Power can enable justice or crush it. This passage enters that discussion through power, time.

Concepts in this quote

Power
Power is the capacity to affect others and to shape what counts as possible—central to politics and ethics.
Time
Philosophy of time asks what tense and duration are—and how memory, death, and history shape a human life.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Ibn Khaldun. (n.d.). Royal authority and large-scale dynastic power are attained only through group feeling (ʿaṣabiyya). In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0584

MLA: Ibn Khaldun. “Royal authority and large-scale dynastic power are attained….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0584.

Chicago: Ibn Khaldun. “Royal authority and large-scale dynastic power are attained….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0584.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “Royal authority and large-scale dynastic power are attained…”?

The passage is attributed to Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah (Rosenthal). The archive attributes this English wording to Muqaddimah (Rosenthal) and files it under Islamic Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Ibn Khaldun mean by power?

Philosophers analyze domination, authority, freedom, and the micro-politics of everyday life. Power can enable justice or crush it. This passage enters that discussion through power, time.

Same thinker

More from Ibn Khaldun

  1. Man is a child of customs, not of his ancestors.
  2. History is a discipline that has a large number of approaches. Its useful aspects are very many. Its goal is distinguished.
  3. The past resembles the future more than one drop of water another.
  4. When luxury and sedentary culture take hold, group feeling weakens and the dynasty declines.

All quotations by Ibn Khaldun

Same theme

More on power

  1. For knowledge itself is power.
  2. When the age changes, affairs change; when affairs change, preparations must change.
  3. During the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called War.
  4. The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.
  5. Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is an eternal law.

Browse the power theme