World system development has been always triggered by large-scale population movements. Ibn Khaldun, a fourteenth-century Islamic historian and perhaps the first world system theorist, viewed history as a continuing struggle for hegemony between nomadic and sedentary populations. He thus provided an ingenious explanation for the rise and fall of successive dynasties in the Islamic world. But he also provided a key for understanding much of world history in terms of population movements and migrations. This article argues that his perspective may explain some of the major trends of our own times, notably those of globalization, localization, and indigenization movements, such as that of Islamism.
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