Seyed Farid Alatas on Ibn Khaldun’s Sociological Theory: A Criticism of Eurocentrism in Mainstream Sociology.

Ibn Khaldun founded ilm al-‘umran in the Mugaddimah and For this reason, he is often hailed as the founder or at least the precursor of sociology; But his sociology has not developed and he has been neglected as a theorist. Farid Alatas considers the continuation of Eurocentrism in the social sciences as an obstacle to attention to non-western sources of theories and concepts; in a way that has put Ibn khaldun's thinking on the margins of modern social sciences. The project to Islamization of knowledge was introduced as a reaction to the Eurocentrism in the Islamic world. Farid Alatas considers this project to be unsuccessful in the development of Khaldunian sociology as a model for alternative sociology. While Ibn Khaldun has been marginalized in the Modern social sciences، his sociological approach sits between two opposing approaches of knowledge production: Islamization of knowledge and Eurocentrism. The purpose of this study is to investigate Farid Alatas's critical view of Eurocentric social sciences and its role as an obstacle to the development of Khaldunian sociology. The method of this study is documentary and by referring to Farid Alatas's works in a descriptive-analytical way, these questions were examined: How does Farid Alatas present Eurocentrism as an obstacle to the emergence of Ibn Khaldun's sociology? Why does Farid Alatas consider the project to Islamization of knowledge unsuccessful in developing Khaldunian sociology? What conditions does Farid Alatas consider necessary for the development of Khaldunian sociology? According to the findings of study, Farid Alatas is both opposed to the European social sciences and its adversary, the project to Islamization of knowledge, has not been sufficient; Therefore, Khaldunian sociology has not been successful in the mainstream of sociology and also in Islamic social sciences. Thus, Farid Alatas has made suggestions for Ibn Khaldun entering the mainstream of sociology and developing Khadunian Sociology.