Early Muslim sociology
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Early Muslim sociology responded to the challenges of social organization of diverse peoples all under common religious organization in the Islamic caliphate, the Abbasid and later Mamluk period in Egypt. It was rooted in methods from early Muslim philosophy and it reflected the strong concern of Islam with social cohesion.
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[edit] Social responsibility in commerce
The development of Islamic banks and Islamic economics was a side effect of this sociology: usury was rather severely restrained, no interest rate was allowed, and investors were not permitted to escape the consequences of any failed venture - all financing was equity financing (Musharaka). In not letting borrowers bear all the risk/cost of a failure, an extreme disparity of outcomes between "partners" is thus avoided. Ultimately this serves a social harmony purpose.
Muslims also could not and cannot (in shariah) finance any dealings in forbidden goods or activities e.g. alcohols, pork, gambling etc. Thus ethical investing is the only acceptable investing, and moral purchasing is encouraged.
[edit] Ecological responsibility
Perhaps due to resource scarcity in most Islamic nations, there was an emphasis on limited (and some claim also sustainable) use of natural capital, i.e. producing land. Traditions of haram and hima and early urban planning were expressions of strong social obligations to stay within carrying capacity and to preserve the natural environment as an obligation of khalifa or "stewardship".
[edit] Khaldun's conflict theory
Without doubt the most important figure in early Muslim sociology was Ibn Khaldun, who conceived both a central social conflict ("town" versus "desert") as well as a theory (using the concept of a "generation") of the necessary loss of power of city conquerors coming from the desert.
Sati' al-Husri suggested that his Muqaddimah is essentially a sociological work, sketching over its six books a general sociology; a sociology of politics; a sociology of urban life; a sociology of economics; and a sociology of knowledge.
[edit] Asibiyah
Khaldun's central concept of asabiyah, or "social cohesion," seems to anticipate modern conceptions of social capital arising in social networks:
This cohesion arises spontaneously in tribes and other small kinship groups; and it can be intensified and enlarged by a religious ideology. Khaldun's analysis looks at how this cohesion carries groups to power but contains within itself the seeds - psychological, sociological, economic, political - of the group's downfall, to be replaced by a new group, dynasty or empire bound by a stronger (or at least younger and more vigorous) cohesion.
Interestingly, Khaldun's concept is instinctive and does not involve any social contract or explicit forms of constitution or other instructional capital that would provide a basis for appeals, in law or otherwise.
[edit] Khaldun's economics
A similar dialectic approach was taken to describe the sociological implications of tax choices, which is now of course part of economics:
"In the early stages of the state, taxes are light in their incidence, but fetch in a large revenue...As time passes and kings succeed each other, they lose their tribal habits in favor of more civilized ones. Their needs and exigencies grow...owing to the luxury in which they have been brought up. Hence they impose fresh taxes on their subjects...and sharply raise the rate of old taxes to increase their yield...But the effects on business of this rise in taxation make themselves felt. For business men are soon discouraged by the comparison of their profits with the burden of their taxes...Consequently production falls off, and with it the yield of taxation."
This analysis anticipates the modern economic concept known as the Laffer Curve.
[edit] Khaldun's history
The Muqaddimah further emphasized the role of systemic bias in affecting the standard of evidence. Khaldun was quite concerned with the effect of raising standard of evidence when confronted with uncomfortable claims, and relaxing it when given claims that seemed reasonable or comfortable. He was a jurist, and sometimes participated reluctantly in rulings that he felt were coerced, based on arguments he didn't respect.
Khaldun had few successors in his thinking about history until Arnold J. Toynbee, a 20th century British historian.
[edit] Similarity to modern sociology
Early Muslim sociology is more similar to the theories developed by Hegel or Marx in emphasizing dialectic or feedback loops, or systems theory as applied to fields such as corporate social responsibility, than to the theories of Durkheim and others who emphasized structures. There is a remarkable similarity between modern economic ideas and some ideas developed by the thinkers evoked here, especially Khaldun.
