- 27 Jun 2016 20:17
#14696484
(From the Fourth Prefatory Discussion of Al Muqaddimah by Abd Ar Rahman bin Muhammed ibn Khaldun)
This version was translated by Franz Rosenthal (a German Jew) in the 1950s, so the vocabulary used ("negro") often reflects the culture of the translator more than the culture of Ibn Khaldun.
Other than the un-PC words, I find the philosophical direction of this text... very interesting and fresh.
Ibn Khaldun wrote:The influence of the air (climate) upon human character
WE have seen that Negroes are in general characterized by
levity, excitability, and great emotionalism. They are found eager to dance whenever
they hear a melody. They are everywhere described as stupid. The real reason for
these (opinions) is that, as has been shown by philosophers in the proper place, joy
and gladness are due to expansion and diffusion of the animal spirit. Sadness is due
to the opposite, namely, contraction and concentration of the animal spirit.
It has been shown that heat expands and rarefies air and vapors and increases their
quantity. A drunken person experiences inexpressible joy and gladness, because the
vapor of the spirit in his heart is pervaded by natural heat, which the power of the
wine generates in his spirit. The spirit, as a result, expands, and there is joy.
Likewise, when those who enjoy a hot bath inhale the air of the bath, so that the heat
of the air enters their spirits and makes them hot, they are found to experience joy. It
often happens that they start singing, as singing has its origin in gladness.
Now, Negroes live in the hot zone (of the earth). Heat dominates their
temperament and formation. Therefore, they have in their spirits an amount of heat
corresponding to that in their bodies and that of the zone in which they live. In
comparison with the spirits of the inhabitants of the fourth zone, theirs are hotter
and, consequently, more expanded. As a result, they are more quickly moved to joy
and gladness, and they are merrier. Excitability is the direct consequence.
In the same way, the inhabitants of coastal regions are somewhat similar to
the inhabitants of the south. The air in which they live is very much hotter because
of the reflection of the light and the rays of (the sun from) the surface of the sea.
Therefore, their share in the qualities resulting from heat, that is, joy and levity, is
larger than that of the (inhabitants of) cold and hilly or mountainous countries.
To a degree, this may be observed in the inhabitants of the Jarid in the third zone. The
heat is abundant in it and in the air there, since it lies south of the coastal plains and
hills.
Another example is furnished by the Egyptians. Egypt lies at about the same
latitude as the Jarid. The Egyptians are dominated by joyfulness, levity, and
disregard for the future. They store no provisions of food, neither for a month nor a
year ahead, but purchase most of it (daily) in the market.
Fez in the Maghrib, on the other hand, lies inland (and is) surrounded by cold hills.
Its inhabitants can be observed to look sad and gloomy and to be too much concerned for the future.
Although a man in Fez might have provisions of wheat stored, sufficient to last him for years,
he always goes to the market early to buy his food for the day, because he
is afraid to consume any of his hoarded food.
This version was translated by Franz Rosenthal (a German Jew) in the 1950s, so the vocabulary used ("negro") often reflects the culture of the translator more than the culture of Ibn Khaldun.
Other than the un-PC words, I find the philosophical direction of this text... very interesting and fresh.
***
The goal is to use Afghanistan to wash money out of the tax bases of the US and Europe through Afghanistan and back into the hands of a transnational security elite.
The goal is an endless war, not a successful war.
— Julian Assange
The goal is to use Afghanistan to wash money out of the tax bases of the US and Europe through Afghanistan and back into the hands of a transnational security elite.
The goal is an endless war, not a successful war.
— Julian Assange