Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406 CE) combined the sharp mind of a scholar and judge with the practical experience of an aristocratic politician. He hailed from an Andalusian (Muslim Spanish) family of scholars and government officials. He was born in Tunis in North Africa, where his grandparents had emigrated to escape the Christian Reconquista. They served the Hafsid dynasty in their new home as the family had served earlier Andalusian kings. Though living most of his life in the Maghrib, Ibn Khaldun drops the occasional hint that he still identified with the family’s old homeland, such as when he remarks that because Andalusians avoided the heavy spices and rich wheat favored by the “Berbers” (Imazighen), the people of his ancestral homeland “have a sharpness of intellect, a nimbleness of body, and a receptivity for instruction that no one else has” (66). His theory of how geography and diet affect human physiology and psychology lead him to claim superiority for the people he considers his group.

Ibn Khaldun had a rich education in religion, law, literature, and philosophy. He followed family tradition into government service. However, he chose to enter the service of the Merinids in Fez rather than the Hafsids of his native Tunis.