Ibn Khaldun: the same tribal bond that builds an empire dooms it later

Writing in 1377, Ibn Khaldun argued that group solidarity, or asabiyyah, is what lets rugged outsiders conquer soft, settled civilizations — but the comfort of ruling then dissolves that same bond within a few generations, until a new tightly-knit group repeats the cycle. It's one of history's first systematic theories of why civilizations rise and fall.

— Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah — 1377
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