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Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) was an Arab scholar, historian, philosopher, and sociologist. Born in Tunis into an upper-class Andalusian family of Arab descent, his family's high rank enabled him to study with prominent teachers in the Maghreb, where he received a classical Islamic education including the Quran, as well as mathematics, logic, and philosophy. He lost both his parents to the Black Death at the age of 17. As was traditional for members of his family, Ibn Khaldun then went on to have a career in politics. His best-known book is the Muqaddimah or Prolegomena (Introduction). This influenced 17th-century and 19th-century historians such as Kâtip Çelebi, Mustafa Naima and Ahmed Cevdet Pasha, who used its theories to analyse the growth and decline of the Ottoman Empire. Ibn Khaldun is regularly ranked among the most prominent Muslim and Arab scholars and historians in history. This bust of Ibn Khaldun is situated in the entrance of the kasbah in Béjaïa, Algeria.Sculpture credit: unknown; photographed by Reda Kerbouche