Ibn Khaldun is one of the most prominent figures in Islamic and world thought. In the Muqaddima, he developed a comprehensive theory of the emergence, flourishing, and collapse of states, drawing on his political and social experience and on the concept of tribal and religious ʿaṣabiyya. His theory identifies three principal stages: strong ʿaṣabiyya at the state's foundation, a period of relative equilibrium and stability, and a final phase of weakening that leads to the decline of royal authority and the collapse of the state. Rather than presenting these ideas as abstract assumptions, Ibn Khaldun supported them with historical examples drawn from states of his own time and situated them within a broader account of human civilisation. His theories of the state and ʿaṣabiyya became central to his social thought and influenced later Western scholarship in the social sciences and intellectual history.