Ibn Khaldun was born in Tunis in 1332 and died in Cairo in 1406. In 1995 a thoroughly annotated Hungarian translation of his masterpiece al-Muqaddima (Introduction to History) was published. Simon then capped his 25 years of studying Ibn Khaldun by describing his construction of history as a scientific endeavor, and his elaboration of patrimonial empires, using his own society as a model. Ibn K…