İbn Haldûn’un (ö. 808/1406) ilimlere (şer‘î ve aklî ilimler) bakışı üç boyutludur: Birincisi, ilimler tarihî-toplumsal bir niteliğe sahiptir. Buna göre ilimler ilk defa İbn Haldûn’un ilkelerini vazettiği tarihî-toplumsal varlık alanının bir parçasıdır. Dolayısıyla bu varlık alanının hâlleri ya da ilkeleri (ahvâl-i umran) çerçevesinde oluş, gelişim ve bozuluş sürecine tabidir.

In this article we will analyze Ibn Khaldun’s approach to Sufism, a subject which he included among the sciences and identified as being a science that appeared after the advent of Islam. This analysis will be separated into two sections: history and thought. In the first section the derivation of the Sufi thought of Ibn Khaldun as a historical phenomenon, the period of recording (the issue of classification) and other matters of his thought will be held to a problematical analysis. In the second section the topics and problems of Ibn Khaldun’s Sufi thought will be examined. Subsequently, these two parts will be analyzed in connection with one another. The analysis will develop around those who came after the first period of Sufism, in particular Ibn Arabi and those seekers of the truth who developed the topic further after him. In this way there Ibn Khaldun’s approach to Sufism will be examined and critiqued.