Abu Zaid ‘bd ar-Rahman ibn Khaldun’s comments on social solidarity form a key component of his Kitab al-‘ibar (Book of Examples), a landmark universal history written in the fourteenth century. Ibn Khaldun was a member of the inner circle of several royal courts and an eminent scholar of Islamic history, and he excelled as a philosopher. The theories he presented in the Muqaddimah—the first book of the Kitab al-‘ibar, also known as the Prolegomena (Introduction)— has earned him the title “father of sociology” among some scholars. The purpose of his seven-volume text was to understand the rise and fall of civilizations. Within the Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun introduced his sociological theories, identifying the characteristics of civilization and outlining how an empire may rise and fall. A central feature is the cohesion of a social group: ‘asabiyyah, or “social solidarity.” The extracts presented here highlight aspects of this notion of social solidarity.