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The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History (translated by Franz Rosenthal)

Ibn Khaldun; Franz Rosenthal (trans.) · Princeton University Press (Bollingen Series) · 1958

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Type: Book
Author: Ibn Khaldun; Franz Rosenthal (trans.)
Accessed: 2026-09-01
Reliability notes: Three volumes; the URL is vol. 1 (digitised by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts), which contains chapter 3, section 12 on the life span of dynasties (from p. 343).

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EstablishedIbn Khaldun observed that at the beginning of a dynasty taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments, and at the end a small revenue from large assessments, an argument later cited by Arthur Laffer.TheoryIn the Muqaddimah Ibn Khaldun held that the life of a dynasty as a rule does not extend beyond three generations (about 120 years), as the group feeling ('asabiyya) that brought it to power is eroded by luxury and the ruler comes to depend on clients and followers.