Travelling in search of knowledge and meeting teachers adds greater…

Learning directly from different teachers broadens understanding. Travel brings contact with new methods and experiences, going beyond the knowledge available in a person’s usual surroundings.

The sentence is a chapter heading in the Muqaddimah’s discussion of sciences and teaching. Ibn Khaldun emphasises the value of meeting teachers in person.

The heading distinguishes seeking knowledge from meeting those who teach it. A teacher’s presence offers an experience of transmission that a text alone cannot entirely replace. Travel therefore appears as a means of diversifying learning and gaining a better understanding of the practices of knowledge.

المقدمة, الكتاب الأول، الباب السادس في العلوم، عنوان الفصل الحادي والأربعين, 1377

The text appears in the indicated source. A traditional attribution remains distinct from proof of authorship: see the context.

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