This book tells the life story of the scholar Ibn Khaldun, the father of sociology and the philosophy of history. He lived in the fourteenth century and moved between North Africa, the Levant, and Andalusia. He served as a minister, ambassador, chief judge, Sufi master, and scholar of Hadith. He wrote a great historical encyclopedia with an immortal introduction known by his name, in which he explained the rise of civilization, the development of the economy and culture, and the advancement of nations through evidence, logic, and real events—thus preceding sociologists by four centuries. The “Scientists of Islamic Civilization” series presents the biographies of outstanding Arab and Muslim scholars and their contributions to human civilization.