Ibn Khaldun quotes
1332 – 1406 · North Africa, 14th century · historian, statesman, jurist and philosopher
About Ibn Khaldun
Born in Tunis in 1332 and died in Cairo in 1406, Ibn Khaldun combined administrative and judicial careers with historical writing. During a withdrawal at Qalʿat Ibn Salāma he began the Muqaddimah and the Kitāb al‑ʿIbar, developing concepts such as ʿasabiyyah and relating economy, geography and institutions to political change.
Works: Muqaddimah; Kitāb al-ʿIbar; autobiography (Taʿrīf)
Quotes
“Man is the child of customs, not the child of his ancestors.”
Source: no specific work is documented · Check the source
Disputed attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- Scholars judge the short wording disputed but likely grounded in a Muqaddimah passage about how customs form people.
- What remains uncertain
- The precise Arabic wording, chapter, edition or earliest translation for the concise English sentence remain undocumented; consider the line a modern paraphrase.
Ibn Khaldun argues that people are shaped mainly by customs and habitual practice rather than by bloodline alone. This claim fits his broader Muqaddimah analysis of social formation and change. The familiar one-line version is a modern rendering of a passage attributed to that work, not a securely documented verbatim sentence.