Muslim Scholars and Identification of Islamic Civilization

Ibn Khaldun is the first person who discussed civilization in his book, “Introduction” (The Muqaddimah), but he did not talk about Islamic civilization. It seems that the European intellectuals in the contemporary era, after perceiving the concept of civilization and speaking about the European civilization, discussed the Islamic civilization for the first time. Here comes a question: when did the Muslim scholars start paying attention to and identifying the Islamic civilization? Investigating the works written by the Muslim scholars on civilization and Islamic civilization reveals that Muslim scholars - along with discussing some issues regarding culture and the initiation of the civilization historiography in the West- from the fourth to the seventh decades of the nineteenth century, have paid attention to the ancient Islamic civilization and gained an abstract understanding about it. Starting from the eighth decade of this century, with writing serious works about Islamic civilization, they tried to well identify it.