Bridging Ashʿarite Philosophy and Historiography: Ibn Khaldūn’s Epistemological Synthesis

Abstract This article investigates the philosophical underpinnings of Ibn Khaldūn’s Muqaddima , focusing on how he reconciles Ashʿarite theology with his historiographical methodology. While previous scholarship has often emphasized the tensions between Ibn Khaldūn’s theological occasionalism and his apparent reliance on natural causality, this study argues that he integrates these frameworks into a coherent epistemological system. It challenges Mahdi’s Straussian interpretation by demonstrating how Ibn Khaldūn unites Ashʿarite theology and empirical analysis into a synthetic vision of knowledge. Ibn Khaldūn critiques falsafa for organizing the world through the universals of logic, faulting its abstraction and excessive reliance on metaphysics. In contrast, he advocates an approach grounded in empirical observation and theological principles. His critique of universals draws on post-classical Islamic philosophy and reflects an increasingly pronounced nominalist tendency. Within this framework, causality functions to link events within a historiographical narrative while remaining consistent with the ontological dependence of each occurrence on God.