Lecture on the Historical Classification of Civilizations and the Standard of their Elements By prof. Khazal Al-Majidi

The center hosted Prof. Khazal Al-Majidi; a researcher of science and history of civilizations and religions to give a lecture on the historical classification of civilizations and the standard of their elements.

The symposium was supervised by Mr. Mohamed Hammam Fekri who introduced the lecturer and organized the discussions.

In the first part of the lecture, the lecturer referred to a set of necessary dates and definitions such as history, historiography, chronology, culture, civilization, and city.

In the second part, he discussed the classification of civilizations according to the scientists of cultural studies. He mentioned that there are ten types of classifications throughout history. Of these are the classification of Gustave Le Bon,WilliamDurant,Arnold Toynbee,Oswald Spengler, and Samuel Huntington. He examined each one of these classifications and referred to their pros and cons.

In the third part, he touched on the historical classification and standard of civilization that he established for writing a comprehensive and vast history of the civilizations of the world-28 civilizations- from their birth to the present.

• Ancient civilizations (24)
• Medieval civilizations (3)
• Modern civilization (1) with its four stages (European, Western, Modern, and Contemporary).

He introduced all of them briefly. He divided ancient civilizations into three historical categories, and to bring his work to perfection, he established 15 elements for each civilization on the standard of civilization that is governed by the element of morals.

In the fourth part, he discussed the present and the future of civilizations and referred to the history of contemporary civilization with its Western and European roots. He described it as being morally deviant, which made it more vulnerable to collapse during every phase, and as having brought harm, occupation, and colonization to many nations and states. He thinks that this civilization faces currently the birth of multipolarity that will be led by a set of new poles, while itsAmerican unipolaritywill come to an end, where the Americal pole will be one among other poles. This will enrich this civilization with various views and visions. He expected that this polarity will serve in the future to convert the multipoles into new civilizations. These civilizations will mutually adopt science to be the basis of this huge human city as the lecturer called it.

In the fifth part, he touched on his project the “series of civilizations' history”. In terms of the plan, this project constitutes an ambitious endeavor to write a book about each one of those civilizations. These will be in a total of thirty-five books, including theoretical books, about civilizations. He has already finished the first nine books, while three of four new books will be published this year.

Attendants asked questions and conferred with the lecturer. He answered all the questions in an atmosphere of positive discussion that enriched this symposium on the history of civilizations. 

Author

Aly