Ibn Haldun's viwes related to the process of education

Ibn Haldun (1332-1406) is generally accepted as a founder of the philosophy ofhistory and one of the pioneer of the sociology. But at the same time, in his works,especially in Mukaddime we can find some important and interesting views about thenature and methodologies of education.According to him when God created a special ability or organ for animals toprotect themselves and to sustain their life, he also gave humans the ability of reasoningand using of hands as well. The human, who is above than other organisms or creatures,can have knowledge about universe, soul, and cognitive area and transcendental fields.Ibn Haldun emphasized on environment and education rather than heredity. Heputs forward that education and teacher are compulsory need for each human being,because there is a close relationship between action and knowledge. Education andlearning are necessary items of the development and mature of the human soul andreason as the food and nourishment are compulsory for the physical development of thebody.He believes that the sense of co-operation/collaboration is the base of the all socialactivities. Because the cooperation leads to increase of production and it successivelyleads to the development of culture and civilization and increase of the prosperity. Andthese developments promote the quality of education and made it widespread amongpeople. In summary, education leads to the economical improvement, it also successivelyleads to the development and the improvement of sciences.On the other hand, Ibn Haldun classifies sciences in two groups as rational andtraditional ones. This shows that he separates between reason and revelation. While hewas accepting the revelation as a source knowledge on the subjects which related to thefaith, he accepts only the datum of observation and social and the laws of nature on thesubjects which related to social, economical and political matters.As a result, it can be said that Ibn Haldun comes close to modern educationalapproaches at least in his some views within a time which the traditional educationalapproaches were very powerful.Key Words: 1)Ibn Haldun, 2)Mukaddime, 3)Education and Teaching, 4)Reason,5) Co-operation