Applying Ibn Khaldun’s Theory Into The Islamic Preaching’s Movement in The Period of Demak Empire: Reflection for the Contemporary Muslim Society

Ashabiyah and Mulk are positioned as a driving force in the big frame of Ibn Khaldun’s theory about the Rise and Fall of Dynasty. Although many studies on Ashabiyah and Mulk have been carried out, there have been very few attempts to apply them into the empirical phenomena in various society. This paper intends to apply Ashabiyah and Mulk’s theory of Ibn Khaldun in the history of the role of saints’ da’wa and their alliances with the rulers in the period of Demak’s Empire. The research was compiled using literature studies, with the main source of Muqaddimah and various related research articles. The analysis results show that Ibn Khaldun’s theory is suitable for explaining the essence of the end of Demak's Empire, namely the weakening of the Ashabiyah. Furthermore, Ashabiyah and Mulk are proven to be still relevant in analyzing the socio-religious phenomenon both in the empirical history and in the contemporary muslim’s society.


INTRODUCTION
Since Ibn Khaldun was known to Western scientists through the translation of the Muqaddimah written by Franz Rosenthal, much scientific research has been conducted to explore Ibn Khaldun's thoughts. The research covers various fields, including sociology political regimes in Indonesia, the history of the emergence of Islamic kingdoms in Indonesia, the role of the ulama in politics in Indonesia, and so on. Therefore, it becomes fascinating and important for us to see from a different angle or perspective, so that the various socio-historical situations can be interpreted in a relatively broader perspective, especially through the perspective of Ashabiyah and Mulk Ibn Khaldun. This article employs Ashabiyah and Mulk's theory into the role of religious leader in the rise of Demak Empire in Java, and analyzing several factor that contributed to the fall of the dynasty. Furthermore, the analysis's result will be contextualized in the contemporary of Indonesian Muslim society in order to make some lesson for them. This article is based on literature study, including the Muqaddimah in the Ashabiyah chapter, and is strengthened by sources of articles from other authors who specifically discuss the thoughts of Ibn Khaldun's theory and several Demak Empire's literature. The collected data are categorized and abstracted to form the arguments that will be built in this paper.
After that, it will be presented in several chapter: the socio-historical context of Ibn Khaldun's thought, the explanation of Ashabiyah and Mulk, applying Ashabiyah and Mulk'theory into the rise and fall of Demak's Empire, and analysis some lesson for solve the problem of contemporary Indonesian Muslim.

A. The Socio-historical Context of Ibn Khaldun's Thought
Ibn Khaldun was born in Tunisia, and his family is a descendant of aristocrats and bureaucratic government officials. Since childhood, Ibn Khaldun has studied politics through his family role. Ibn Khaldun's career began when he moved to Maghribi after the tha'un plague attacked Tunisia. He is trusted to be the secretary of Sultan Abu Inan in Fez, Morocco (1354Morocco ( -1362. According to Syafii Ma'arif (1996), his political career was filled with various intrigues. He also got the position of Prime Minister when he moved to Algeria.
His last political end was in Egypt.
In general, the condition of the Abbasid dynasty in Ibn Khaldun's lifetime was a transition from the peak of civilization to collapse, and the initial phase of the rise of the Fatimid Dynasty after that. This socio-political condition affected intellectual stagnation in several dynasties that were far from the center of the Abbasid government, such as in the Maghribi region and Spain (Hasyim, 2012). The Abbasid's territorial breadth factor did not allow the center of government, especially during the time of the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil, to reach Western areas such as the Maghribi and Andalusia. So, those area always tried to break away from Abbasid rule. Moreover, the Abbasids were known to be more focused on developing Islamic science and culture than managing their expansion areas. The geographical position of the Maghreb, which is very far from Iraq (as the center of knowledge), ultimately produces a different type of knowledge. The intellectuals in this area are more focused on deepening conventional religious studies in the field of the Qur'an and Hadith, which were brought by the tabi'in and became the legacy of Khulafaur Rasyidin. It is very different from Iraq and Egypt, which had a very strong Helennism influence (Hasyim, 2012). So it is not surprising that it became the center of civilization and science during the Abbasid Dynasty.
We can conclude that there are 2 (two) historical contexts that underlie Ibn Khaldun's thoughts. First, the political decline created conflict between dynasties, especially in the western areas of Islamic rule, which was caused by starting to reduce the legitimacy of the Abassiyah Dynasty. Second, political conflicts in parts of the West of the Abbasid rule gave rise to intellectual stagnation, thereby eliminating criticality in history and the method of narrating hadith in particular.
At the first point, we can understand that the political dynamics that occurred during his lifetime were quite influential in his thinking. It can be seen from how he describes the conditions of the dynasties in the Maghreb, Tunisia, Syria, Egypt, and Andalusia in Chapters 3, 4, and 5 of the Muqaddimah. Ibn Khaldun explains how each of these dynasties emerged, developed, and met its destruction, whose explanation later became the basis for generalizations in his thought (Bosley, 2010). In modern social research methodology, this method is commonly known as the empirical method, and also proves that in the Middle Ages before the Enlightenment in Europe appeared, Ibn Khaldun had used the principle of empiricism in building social science (Dhaouadi, 2008;Stowaser, 1984).

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As for the second point, this intellectual streak generally diminished the critical capability among Islamic intellectuals at that time. It can be seen in the Introduction in the Muqoddimah where Ibn Khaldun specifically criticized several names of well-known Islamic historians, who according to him in some cases convey the irrational stories. Al Jabiri explained that doctrinal nuances still influenced the Muslim Maghreb at that time in understanding the Qur'an and Hadith. It seems that this situation also influenced the writing of Islamic history at that time, whose method according to Ibn Khaldun adopted the hadith study method which relies heavily on track records of perawi, without trying to think and weigh the information of historical stories critically (Khaldun, 2008). As Bosley 'provoked' this with a single question, can a history filled with extraordinary stories be believed to be true (Bosley, 2010)? So that's why Ibn Khaldun argued in the Muqaddimah, that in examining the truth of a phenomenon, we must take the essence of the phenomenon. Referring to Al Mahdi, this method is known as mantiq, which is a method that can guide a person to be able to distinguish between right and wrong (Alatas, 2015).
Basically, this basic concept is not something new in science. Syed Farid Alatas said that Ibn Khaldun did not convey a new methodology in science (Alatas, 2015). However, Syed Farid Alatas emphasized that Ibn Khaldun had applied the previous philosophers' methods to historical phenomena, which could be called a novelty. This is reinforced by Hodgson's opinion that the science claimed by Ibn Khaldun is a form of empirical generalization of social change. This generalization at a later stage be based on 'higher' premises. In modern social research, this methodology is often called as an abstraction. In this context, we can conclude that Ibn Khaldun used the inductive method with the object of historical research and society in his time (Bedouin and Hadlarah).

Application in Islamic Preaching's Movement in the Periode of Demak's Empire
In this chapter, first, the author will convey the nature of man and society as an introduction before entering the core of Ashabiyah. First, Ibn Khaldun assumes that community organization is a must (Alatas, 2015;Khaldun, 2008 this characteristic is requires a social organization. This community organization was later referred to by Ibn Khaldun as al-umran. Ibn Khaldun calls this trait as human nature from God, with which humans will use it to fulfill primary life needs, such as finding food and surviving (Khaldun, 2008).
Second, humans are influenced by the social, physical, and psychological environment (Alatas, 2015). These factors result in the development of various sciences and handicraft products, as well as differences in forms of earning a living. Then, this difference became the basis for Ibn Khaldun to divide society into two forms, nomadic society (Bedouin) and sedentary society (city/hadlarah).
Ibn Khaldun stated that this social's organization is human nature, which must be realized to fulfill God's will (Khaldun, 2008: 73). Furthermore, when the social's organization existed, Ibn Khaldun said that it would not work if no one would exercise their authority and look after them. Because, in addition to the potential for goodness in humans, humans also have a hostile character. Therefore, social's organizations need a royal authority (Mulk) to protect and safeguard community members from things that endanger their existence. He continued that this authority must be owned by someone who has the strongest Ashabiyah among its members (Khaldun 2008: 76).

Religious Leader
Ashabiyah has many meanings (Luhtitianti, 2020). The author will take Ashabiyah terminology from the Prophet, Rosenthal, Al Mahdi, and Syed Farid Alatas. Refers to Halim (2012), the Prophet Muhammad saw said Ashabiyah is a situation when there is injustice, one human helps another. Meanwhile, Rosenthal, credited with translating Muqaddimah into English, defines Ashabiyah as "group feeling" (Y. Lacoste, 1984).
Meanwhile, Mahdi concludes that Ashabiyah is closer to the meaning of 'solidarity' (M. Mahdi, 1957). Then, Syed Farid Alatas, the Sociologist of NUS, said that Ashabiyah is of the same type as the principles of social cohesion and 'group feeling' (Alatas, 2015).

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In general, this Ashabiyah is firmly attached to the Badawah (nomadic's group) compared to the Hadlarah (sedentary's group) (Khaldun, 2008). The first cause is that humans in social groups need cooperation to fulfill their basic needs and survive the attacks of groups outside their ethnic groups (M. Mahdi, 1957). The second cause is religious ties.
Members of the tribe depend heavily on their saint or shaykhs in interpreting religion as their basis for implementing good values in their community groups (Alatas, 2015). Farid Alatas explains this second cause as a result of religious propaganda in such a way that tribal members are called to fulfill God's orders by adopting good values that exist in religion, all of which depend on the direction of the syaikh and tribal leaders. Under this religious authority, members of the tribe become one unit as a social group, develop the number of followers, and eventually form a royal authority/Mulk (Alatas, 2015).
Concerning this religious bond, if such strong solidarity is needed to survive, the same can be true for every other human activity, such as prophecy, preaching, and building the country, as quoted from Ibn Khaldun's sentence below: "…Because all of this (prophecy, preaching, and building the country) will not be achieved without a struggle, there is a nature of resistance. And for that struggle, Ashabiyah is needed …" (Khaldun, 2008: 151).
Based on the above, Ashabiyah in Ibn Khaldun's perspective refers to the following conditions (Alatas, 2015): 1) Kinship ties, with this bond they will be easier to help and protect each other.
2) Religious ties that have high social cohesion, for example, is Islam in Arab.
3) Material ties, which depend on the strength of group leaders (tribal heads) in carrying out commercial economic activities.
Rosenthal added that religious ties have more power to generate Ashabiyah than kinship ties and property ownership (material ties). It is because religious ties have great strength in the group's efforts to spread religion, eliminate social jealousy among its members, and become a spiritual force that encourages members to work together to achieve the goals they expect from the group (Halim et al., 2012).

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However, Ibn Khaldun emphasized that Ashabiyah would weaken when it was at the stage of a settled society. In addition to the luxury factor and kinship ties that became worthless, several political economy factors also influenced the weakening of the Ashabiyah, including the deteriorating economic sector in society due to the monopoly of entrepreneurs and rulers. This political-economic aspect ultimately influenced high taxes and military costs, in the end, Ashabiyah was weak, and the social group was threatened by other social groups that had stronger Ashabiyah.
Ibn Khaldun explained this process of domination through the relationship between the Badawah and the Hadlarah people. The Badawah are characterized as having stronger Ashabiyah, accustomed to a limited physical, the social and economic environment that requires them to be more resilient. As well as their simple life, 'clean' descendants (not mixed with other descendants), obedience to religious leaders, all of this is a great potential to be able to dominate other ethnic groups (Khaldun, 2008). It is very different from the type of Hadlarah society whose Ashabiyah are weaker. Because they are accustomed to living in luxury, their kinship ties are reduced because of the number of mixed marriages in the city, accustomed to being comfortable in getting their various needs, and do not need to think about their group because the authorities have arranged them. Thus, the people of Hadlarah can often be easily conquered by the Badawah tribe. It is implied that Ashabiyah has an important role in the strength and weakness of a social organization.

Furthermore, one of the inevitable parts of community organizations other than
Ashabiyah is sovereignty, power, or authority, which Ibn Khaldun calls Mulk (sovereignty/authority). Ibn Khaldun emphasized that without sovereignty, social groups will not function properly to fulfill these natural needs.
Mulk is not always synonymous with leadership, but Ibn Khaldun mentioned it as an authority that can make other people obey the existing rules. Referring to Rosenthal's definition of Mulk, this ability is possessed by someone who has the strongest Ashabiyah feelings in the group, and with this Mulk, he uses it to organize his group members and force them to follow these rules (Alatas, 2015;Halim et al., 2012). This Mulk will function as a "controller" (Khaldun 2008: 229). As the author has explained in the sub-chapter above, according to Ibn Khaldun, humans have a controlling character. This is a consequence of human nature to seek and cooperate in fulfilling their daily needs. In this process, each group will move its 'hand' to get the needs of other groups or other people. On the other hand, the person or group who has been harmed has become their character to try to block and defend themselves (Khaldun, 2008: 229).
The function of "controlling" is to control the aggressiveness and defensiveness of the people whom each has the desire to rule. According to Ibn Khaldun, this person must be the strongest Ashabiyah among the members of society and have the power to rule.
Thus, according to Ibn Khaldun, Mulk's function is to gather these various Ashabiyah and become one community unit with the help of broader social solidarity.
Ibn Khaldun mentioned several people who can have this control (Mulk), namely community leaders (tribes) who still have blood relations (kinship), and religious leaders (saints/guardians/shaykhs) (Alatas, 2015). Ibn Khaldun did not explicitly mention that these two types were ideal conditions. However, Ibn Khaldun mentioned a significant example in the Muqaddimah that the Prophet Muhammad saw was an ideal type with these two conditions. Muhammad (saw) came from the descendants of the Quraish, the most powerful Ashabiyah tribe in Arabia, and the most respected Bani Hashim family in Quraisy's tribe. Apart from that, Muhammad was a Prophet, a holy man who was a religious leader who became the religious reference for all tribes in Arab society. Muhammad saw proved successful in uniting all the Ashabiyah tribes in Arabia through his religious leadership.
The explanation above implies the argument of Ibn Khaldun that leadership is not referring to a particular tribe. His argument became debatable among many Islamic scholars from Hadist's studies that leadership requirements must come from Quraisy's tribe. Ibn Khaldun emphasized that religious leaders are also political leaders, as known he  He also wrote that Muhammad saw never nominated his successor as the leader of Muslim society after he died.
Based on his argument regarding human as a political man, Ibn Khaldun wants to show that leadership can change appropriate with the character of civilization. Ibn Khaldun wrote how Majusi built civilization even Nubuwwah's era has not come yet (Khaldun, 2008), in order to show that Prophecy and Quraisy's tribe are not requirements for a leadership.
The socio-historical context especially in Abbasyd era affected Ibn Khaldun's thought, especially the stagnation of Hadist studies in the text only, for him it is must to be criticize because the character of society always changing. In other hand, he also seen the reality in many dynasti leader can rises from any tribe who has strong Ashabiyah. It was make him to taken different argument with previous Islamic scholar. Syed Farid Alatas explained in the article "A Khaldunian Theory of Muslim Reform" that after Khulafaur Rasyidin, the expansion of territory through the control of other dynasties did not always aim to spread Islam (Alatas, 2014). However, the role of religious leaders within a tribe still plays an important role in forming a country. So, it is clear that Ibn Khaldun taken different argument with many Islamic scholar regarding to the criteria of leadership.
Eventhough, he recognized Quraisy as the tribe in Arab that have strongest  (Spickard, 2017).
Furthermore, the role of Ashabiyah is also essential for socio-religious movements.
He took this premise from the inductive process he carried out on several historical- ISSN: 1411-1632  At first, this move got several people interested, but it did nothing but add to the chaos. In fact, when the rebellion attempt to overthrow al Makmun was successful, Ibrahim al Mahdi quickly defeated the Khalid ad-Durbus group. Some of his followers even fled.
From these examples, Ibn Khaldun implies that the basic premise of his theory is religious leadership, that to carry out religious reform is by upholding social solidarity (ashabiyyah). Through this Ashabiyah, the Mulk can be enforced, which can keep proselytizing efforts away from the dangers that would quickly weaken their movement.
Religious movements carried out sporadically, and without awareness to rally, the power of the Ashabiyah will only pose an even greater danger to society as a whole.
The next important is that the Ashabiyah does not depend on kinship. That the role of religious leaders in uniting the tribes under religious ideology is proven to encourage the formation of bigger and stronger bonds of social solidarity, such as the state, however, the failure of religious and political reform will occur when the movement is for personal interests, such as the urge to want to be a leader. Ibn Khaldun emphasized that this method will inevitably face many obstacles and usually meet failure. So as stated by Alatas, that for RELIGIA Vol. 24 No. 1 April 2021 Ibn Khaldun, religion plays a fundamental role in consolidating all segments of society (Alatas, 2015).

Wali and The King of Demak Empire
In this chapter, the author does not analyse Demak's Empire in a whole, but only take several angles that related with the aim of this paper, namely the role of The Javanese tradition of making a community figure or leader as a respected person allowed these 9 (nine) ulama to play a role as a religious authority (Mulk) at that time. This is due to the strategy of the wali in preaching Islam to the Javanese people who still have animistic beliefs, they do this with a cultural approach. It is very different from what Ibn Khaldun exemplified above regarding several religious reform movements that tend to be sporadic and easily defeated, Walisongo has applying da'wa step by step. They were very understood about Javanese culture and its influence in the whole of Javanese behavior. As Ibn Khaldun shown in the example of Al Muwahidun's movements, the effort to do taghyir (social change) or amar makruf nahi munkar can not be carried out with sporadic. If religious leader or Islamic organization notice it, the Islamic da'wa will last longer.
For example, these approaches can be seen from Sunan Kalijaga's efforts to spread relationship. This certainly implies Walisongo's awareness of the importance of building group feelings (Ashabiyah) among themselves and Javanese society in general, even though they continue to penetrate Islam through various means.
In other hand, Walisongo understood that Javanese peoples follows the religion of their King. It is expressed in their effort to develop Islamic Kingdom in Java with Raden Fatah. When these saints succeeded in Islamizing a small part of the people of Java, in the end, they needed Mulk (sovereignty) to make it easier to spread Islamic da'wa, to become regulators and controllers to keep the community within the scope of Javanese Islamic Ashabiyah. Furthermore, the existence of Mulk and Ashabiyah during the Demak Kingdom was ultimately proven to be able to accelerate the expansion of Islamic territory.
Mulk is not only limited to leadership for political legitimacy, but as in Ibn Khaldun's theory, Mulk becomes a necessity to enforce rules based on religious teachings.
These rules are needed as a way to bind society and establish solidarity. During the leadership of Sultan Trenggono (the third generation of the leader of the Demak Kingdom), the spread of Islam was in its glory. Several areas were successfully controlled, starting from Madiun, Blora, Surabaya, Pasuruan, Lamongan, Blitar and so on. Islam eventually became a source of values adhered to by the Javanese people who were culturally very attached to and obedient to the King, as "sesuhunan" ("worship") for all Javanese people.
However, this Ashabiyah can be weakened, when certain factors trigger this weakness. Here, the author will focus more on fraternal conflicts between members of the Demak Kingdom, which, according to the author's analysis, is a sign of the weakening of the 1) Strengthen social solidarity so that the existence of Islamic da'wa can survive while accelerating regional expansion. It was needed in the early period of Islamic preaching (da'wa).
2) Mulk is used to nurture the Javanese people, regulate their needs for religion and fulfill their livelihoods.
3) After the Demak Kingdom was stable and the area was expanding, there was a civil conflict, here Mulk became the "controller" because of the human nature of always wanting to control each other.
As Ibn Khaldun's explanation, that the important thing of socio-historical phenomena is to take the essence of the event. The fall and rise of the Demak's Kingdom resulted from the weakening of the Ashabiyah, which was based on kinship ties. From this weakness of Ashabiyah, the dignity of a leader and his sovereignty in society will also weaken. However, Mulk is still needed as a nature of Islamic preaching to be able to maintain society, protect the existence of the Javanese Islamic kingdom from other dangerous Ashabiyah, and even facilitate the achievement of the spread of Islam.  (Khaldun, 2008). Therefore, Ibn

RELIGIA
Khaldun emphasized how a leader should maintain Mulk and Ashabiyah with religious solution: "In appointing a substitute, it must have endeavored that as much as possible there is pure intention. Without it, someone will experience futility in a religious organization." (Khaldun, 2008: 262) In addition to the prerequisites for intention, Ibn Khaldun also requires moral qualities that religious and political leaders must possess, including being polite, gentle, and generous (Khaldun, 2008). These three aspects are closely related to the economy and the stability of the morality of society. Ibn Khaldun argued that when a leader acts arbitrarily and imposes his will, the community will act defensively, and morality chaos occurs. It is one of Ibn Khaldun's theses that the decline in societal morality and the materialist lifestyle in the Hadlarah community is the cause of the weakening of the Ashabiyah ties, which if left untreated, will lead to the end of dynastic rule. In the case of Demak, the current Muslim community can reflect that the competition between Aryo Penangsang and Jaka Tingkir is a concrete form of how the power struggle resulted in the end of the Demak Kingdom.
The last point is also the writer's criticism of Ibn Khaldun's theory, Ashabiyah can indeed be a unifying factor, especially in multicultural society (Spickard, 2017 the history of dynastic conflicts during the Abbasid and Fatimid periods as well as in Indonesia in the Demak case, Ashabiyah proved to have a significant role in building society and ending a power. In Demak, for example, the role of religious leaders like Walisongo in enforcing Mulk through Raden Fatah, who has the strongest Ashabiyah in Java, has proven to be a means of building a strong Islamic base in Java.
Ibn Khaldun also gave an example of how the Quraisy, which he recognized as the strongest tribe in Arabia, were getting weaker when they were in conflict and materialism.
Ibn Khaldun argues that in the end Quraisy was at a stage where they were too weak to master the leadership, so that in the end, the non-Arab nations were able to conquer them (Khaldun, 2008). It is the basis for Ibn Khaldun's rejection of the hadith scholars' agreement on the descendants of Quraisy as a condition of leadership in Islam.
However, in contemporary society today, Ashabiyah and Mulk can be two issues that lead people to the polarization of certain groups. Especially in this case, it can further confirm the existence of the majority group. As Ibn Khaldun's statement that religious and political leaders are a unity and taken from the strongest Ashabiyah group, indicates the contradiction of Ibn Khaldun's theory with the democratic spirit that some Muslim communities want to build, especially Indonesian Muslim. The issue of majority and minority in Indonesia has long been at the root of conflicts between religions and intrareligions. Therefore, the author argue that the interpretation of the meaning of Ashabiyah must be adapted to the context of the society in which we are. As the definition of Ashabiyah itself varies from experts, so do we interpret it, so as not to get trapped into group fanaticism, which will only further exacerbate differences.

As a Muslim theorist through his Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun has succeeded in
showing his genius side in reading and analyzing a social change process in Islamic society.
Ashabiyah and Mulk are 2 (two) concepts that are fundamental in analyzing historical phenomena in North Africa, Spain, Arabia, and several countries in the Middle East, such as Egypt. Based on this article, the author argues that Ashabiyah and Mulk can also be used to analyze the da'wa role of Walisongo and Islamic's kings in Demak. In fact, the results of