The Historical Criticism and Causality in The Philosophy of History: Ibn Khaldun’s Perspective

This study will reveal how Ibn Khaldun’s philosophy of history, especially on his historical criticism and the concept of causality. This research is based on literature and qualitative research that uses a philosophical approach to explain the meaning of philosophy of history. As there is theoretical speculation in the writing of history, there are some inaccuracies in historical reports arises from the errors of historians. Ibn Khaldun shows those errors as a historical criticism that historians should avoid them. Ibn Khaldun’s main method of history is observing nature and society’s laws that control historical events, beside ta’dil and tajrih methods. According to him, the study of history is to explain the things behind an event, not restricted on the question about when what, and how an event occurred, but also explain about why the possibility exists. This method leads to the knowledge of causality. Ibn Khaldun argued that there was no event caused by accident. An event occurred because it was caused by a cause that preceded it. There are four causes make the nature of civilization: ‘umrân as material cause, daulah as formal cause, ‘ashabiyah as efficient cause, and mash âlih ‘â mmah as final cause. Therefore, if any historical information deviates from these laws of causality, then critical reasoning is necessary to assess the validity of the historical facts.