Ibn Khaldun

About Ibn Khaldun

Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) was a pioneering Arab sociologist, historian, and philosopher whose comprehensive work, the Muqaddimah, is considered a foundational text in the philosophy of history and early sociology. Ranking #276 in historical importance by MIT's Pantheon project, his contribution lies in developing an analytical framework for understanding the rise and fall of civilizations, emphasizing the role of social cohesion (asabiyyah) and environmental factors in shaping dynastic cycles. His methodology was remarkably modern for the 14th century, prefiguring later European social science theories.

Despite this profound historical significance, Ibn Khaldun's modern internet attention is relatively modest. In 2025, his Wikipedia pages garnered 348K annualized views, resulting in an Attention Gap of approximately 1x, meaning his online visibility aligns closely with his established historical rank, suggesting a stable, albeit low, level of mainstream digital engagement. This contrasts sharply with contemporary figures like Ruhollah Khomeini (#679 importance), who achieved 2.4M views, or even medieval peer Rollo (#557 importance), who attracted 802K views, indicating that his critical contributions have not broken into the high-volume search traffic enjoyed by more recent or less intellectually specialized figures.

Looking ahead, the data shows a slight cooling of current interest, with a year-over-year view change of -11.4% and a -9% dip between Q1 and Q3 2025 momentum, suggesting the need for continued scholarly or educational efforts to maintain his digital footprint against more current historical narratives.