Ibn Khaldún és a hatalom ciklikus természete

Absztrakt

This paper examines Ibn Khaldūn’s theory of political power from a legal-theoretical perspective. Its central claim is that Ibn Khaldūn does not understand state authority merely as formal rule, institutional command, or coercive power, but as a historically changing social and normative structure grounded in ʿaṣabiyyah (social cohesion). The study shows how political authority first emerges from collective solidarity, then becomes stabilised through law, administration, taxation, and institutionalised coercion.

The paper pays particular attention to the legal significance of Ibn Khaldūn’s cyclical theory of dynastic rule. In this model, law and institutions do not simply express power, but also preserve, formalise, and eventually conceal its weakening social foundations. The decline of a dynasty therefore appears not only as a political or military process, but also as a crisis of legal and institutional legitimacy. Ibn Khaldūn’s thought thus offers a valuable framework for understanding the relation between authority, legality, social cohesion, and the exhaustion of political order.