3. MUSLIM CONTRIBUTION TO SCIENCE

~ 138 ~ claimed that he was the founder of sociology, and there is no reason to dispute his claim. Khaldun’s greatness was acknowledged in a similar vein by Robert Flint: “As a theorist on history he had no equal in any age or country until Vico appeared, more than three hundred years later; Plato, Aristotle and Augustine were not his peers.”69 It was indeed Ibn Khaldun who gave to Europe the modern science of history. And it was Islam, which bestowed this gift upon him. The Islamic revolution produced Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Khaldun produced the modern science of history. Professor Philip K. Hitti writes: The fame of Ibn-Khaldun rests on his Muqaddama (Introduction to his book on history). In it he presented for the first time a theory of historical development which takes due cognizance of the physical facts of climate and geography as well as of the moral and spiritual forces at work. As one who endeavoured to formulate laws of national progress and decay, Ibn Khaldun may be