From Tribalism to Historical Mass

Abstract

The research highlights the intellectual path of Muhammad Abed Al-Jabri in his political vision, Beginning with the inspiration of the concept of tribalism in the emergence of the state as Ibn Khaldun stated, and ending with the concept of historical bloc. (i) Explanation and clarification stage, Al-Jabri was impressed with Ibn Khaldun and his theory in tribalism, his writings were confined to explanation, and indicating the historical and economic conditions at Ibn Khaldun's time. (ii) Development and addition stage, Al-Jabri goes beyond tribalism theory, which he considers insufficient to explain the Arab-Islamic history; he proposes three factors to study the Arab-Islamic history, namely: tribe, booty, and faith. Al-Jabri criticizes the Sunni theory, because it depends on the Hadith saying: Imams must be from Quraish, Just as he criticized Shiite theory, which adopts the idea of the will. Al-Jabri concludes that there is a constitutional vacuum in the system of government in Islam. (iii) The call for change, Al-Jabri, at this stage, was preoccupied with the crisis of governance in the Arab world, so he proposes the concept of a "historic bloc" to achieve democratic transformation.