The systematic and objective study of the relations between religion and society existed long before Auguste Comte (1798–1857) coined the word sociologie. Xenophanes (c. 560–c. 478 BCE) was already dabbling in the discipline of sociology when he noted that the gods of the Ethiopians were black and had snub noses, while those of the Thracians had light blue eyes and red hair. Similarly, the Muslim philosopher Ibn Khaldūn (1332–1406 CE), in the Muqaddimah, or introduction (1377), to his Kitāb al-ʿibar (History of the world), displayed a keen understanding of the concept of social solidarity (ʿaṣabīyah) in his analysis of the role of religion in the rise and fall of the kingdoms of North Africa. In modern times, classicists, historians of religion, and "secular" historians have undoubtedly written more, and probably better, studies of religion than have professional sociologists. The...