Influence of Ibn - Atir on Ibn Khaldun

Though thoughts and ideas of Ibn Khaldun had special originality and innovation with numerous creative subjects, there is no doubt that some of these issues are under the influence of preceding thoughts and there are some commonalities between his thoughts and those of preceding Muslim scholars. One of the predecessors who influenced Ibn Khaldun was Ibn Athir, the writer of al-Kāmil, who had a spark of historical thoughts in his work. Ibn Khaldun had been impressed by Ibn Athir in al-Kitābu l-ibār, but he did not mention him in the introduction (Muqaddimah known as Prolegomena) of his book. The aim of this article is to signify the influence of Ibn- Athir on Ibn Khaldun and discuss the issue of Ibn Khaldun’s silence on Ibn Athir’s influence in his works.