AL-ANSAR UNIVERSITY, MAIDUGURI

BORNO STATE

COURSE CODE : AUM 101

COURSE TITLE : ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION

COURSE OUTLINE
 THE ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION

 BASIC CONCEPT AND APPROACHES IN THE FIELD OF HISTORY AND

CIVILIZATION

 THE MODERN CONCEPT OF HISTORY MODERN

 NATURE AND SCOPE OF ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION

 HOW AND WHY CIVILIZATION FIRST EMERGED

 ORIGINS OF NUMEROUS WORLD RELIGIONS

 THE FALL OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION AND THE RISE OF CIVILIZATIONS

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THE ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION
The world of Islam spreads from Spain and North Africa to the surrounding
Byzantine in Egypt, Palestine and Syria. For centuries, Islam has always been a
threat and a source of new ideas to the Greek East and Latin West. The prophet
left a great spiritual legacy which enveloped the world in its light and guided
man's civilization throughout the ages. This legacy left by the prophet has in no
small measure had greater effect in the past and the future.

The civilization established by Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) at Allah's commands

for the benefit of mankind is inseparable from others. Islamic civilization is that of
science and rationalism. Incidentally, it is on the same foundation on which
western civilization is laid today that Islam as a religion is also based; individual
thinking and intellectual logic. Relationship between religion and its propositions
divided civilization and its foundation on the other hand is binding. Islam links
metaphysical thought and personal feelings with the rules of logic and precept of
science.

DIFFERENCE WITH WESTERN CIVILIZATION

Islamic civilization is radically different from Western civilization. In description of
life and the foundation on which they based, the two civilizations can be described
as radically contradictory to each other. Islamic civilization emphasizes the Qur'an
and Sunnah as its base of civilization and acquires knowledge steaming from it.

THE CHURCH AND THE STATE

The continued struggle between the church and state led to their separation. The
struggle left deep effects upon the whole of Western thought. Thus, the phrase
give unto Caesar what is to Caesar and unto Rome what is to Rome.

ECONOMIC SYSTEM
This is the victory of the materialist thinking and attributed to the establishment
of Western civilization. Everything is explained in terms of the waves of progress
or retrogression, which constitute the economic history.
In the same vein, spiritual aspect is purely based on individual as regarded by the
west. He is rationally incapable of being the object of any group which the west
has sanctioned.

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HAPPINESS TO MAN
A civilization that is founded upon economic activity and erects its moral system
on that activity as a base gives no weight in public life to faith. Thus, it brings no
happiness to man. Such is the case with western civilization. Rather than bringing
happiness to man, it brings calamities to humankind. It is also difficult to prevent
war and bring universal peace. Its success depends on the "the might is right"
competition and struggles are the first principle of economic system; they are the
forces of man's guide. Socialist’s is system meant to destroy those classes and
bring the destiny of society under the control of workers. It is the necessary logic
of nature. The socialists regard struggle and competition for wealth as the
essence of life and class struggle is the law of nature.

BASIC CONCEPT AND APPROACHES IN THE FIELD OF HISTORY AND

CIVILIZATION
History is the study of life in society in the past, in all its aspect, in relation to
present developments and future hopes. It is the story of man in time, an inquiry
into the past based on evidence. Indeed, evidence is the raw material of history
teaching and earning. It is an Inquiry into what happened in the past, when it
happened, and how it happened. It is an inquiry into the inevitable changes in
human affairs in the past and the ways these changes affect, influence or
determine the patterns of life in the society. History is, or should be an attempt to
re-think the past.
Collingwood (1945) is particularly interested in this concept of history. History
aims at helping students to understand the present existing social, political,
religious and economic conditions of the people. Without the knowledge of history
we cannot have the background of our religion, customs institutions,
administration and so on. The teaching of history helps the students to explain
the present, to analyze it and to trace its course. Causeand-effect relationship
between the past and the present is lively presented in the history. History thus
helps us to understand the present day problems both at the national and
international level accurately and objectively. In this unit we will be dealing with
meaning, nature and scope of history, aims and objectives of teaching history at
secondary level and values of teaching history.

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The modern concept of history Modern
History has gone beyond the traditional status of an antiquarian and leisure time
pursuit to a very useful and indispensible part of a man’s education. It is more
scientific and more comprehensive. It has expanded in all directions both
vertically and horizontally. It has become broad-based and attractive. According to
modern concept, history does not contain By : Pallavi Talekau, Dr. Jyotrimayee
Nayak , Dr.S.Harichandan 5 of 72 only the history of kings and queens, battles
and generals, but the history of the common man-his house and clothing, his
fields and their cultivation, his continued efforts to protect his home and hearth,
and to obtain a just government, his aspirations, achievements, disappointments,
defeats and failures. It is not only the individual but the communities and the
societies are the subject of study of history. Study of history deepens our
understanding of the potentialities and limitations of the present. It has thus
become a future-oriented study related to contemporary problems. For all these
reasons, history has assumed the role of a human science.

History-a Science or an Art Opinions are very much divided on the question
whether history is a science or an art. History is a science in the sense that it
pursues its own techniques to establish and interpret facts. Like other natural
sciences such as the Physics and Chemistry uses various methods of enquiry such
as observation, classification, experiment and formulation of hypothesis and
analysis of evidence before interpreting and reconstructing the past. History also
follows the scientific method of enquiry to find out the truth. Though historian
uses scientific techniques, experiment is impossible since history deals with events
that have already happened and cannot be repeated.

Arguments against History as a science

forecasting: Rickman has rightly said, “History deals with sequence of events,
each of them unique while Science is concerned with the routine appearance of
things and aims at generalizations and the establishment of regularities, governed
by laws.”A historian cannot arrive at general principles or laws which may enable
him to predict with certainty the occurrence of like events, under given conditions.
A scientist on the other hand, looks at knowledge from a universal angle and
arrives at certain generalizations that help him to control the present and predict
the future.

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Complex: The facts of history are very complicated and seldom repeat in the real
sense of the term.

Varied: The underlying facts of history have wide scope. They are so varied that
they can seldom be uniform.

Observation and Experimentation: Historical data are not available for

observation and experimentation.

Dependable Data: historical data are the products of human thoughts and
action which are constantly changing. They therefore cannot provide dependable
data for the formation of general principles and laws.

History is both a Science and an Art History is a unique subject possessing the
potentialities of both a science and an art. It does the enquiry after truth, thus
history is a science and is on scientific basis. It is also based on the narrative
account of the past; thus it is an art or a piece of literature. Physical and natural
sciences are impersonal, impartial and capable of experimentation. Whereas
absolute impartiality is not possible in history because the historian is a narrator
and he looks at the past from a certain point of view.

History cannot remain at the level of knowing only. The construction and
reconstruction of the past are inevitable parts of history. Like the work of art, its
wholeness, harmony and truth are inseparable from a concrete and vivid
appreciation of its parts. History, in fact, is a social science and an art. In that lie
its flexibility, its variety and excitement.

Scope of History
The scope of History is vast; it is the story of man in relation to totality of his
behavior. The scope of history means the breadth, comprehensiveness, variety
and extent of learning experiences, provided by the study. History which was only
limited to a local saga, has during the course of century become universal history
of mankind, depicting man’s achievements in every field of life-political, economic,
social, cultural, scientific, technological, religious and artistic etc., and at various
levels-local, regional, national, and international. It starts with the past; makes
present its sheet-anchor and points to the future. Events like wars, revolutions,
5
rise and fall of empires, fortunes and misfortunes of great empire builders as well
as the masses in general are all the subject matter of history.

History is a comprehensive subject and includes-History of Geography, History of

Art, History of Culture, History of Literature, History of Civilization, History of
Religion, History of Mathematics, History of Physics, History of Chemistry, History
of Education, History of Biology, History of Atom, History of Philosophy-in fact
history of any and every social, physical and natural science we are interested in.
History today has become an all-embracing, comprehensive subject with almost
limitless extent.

Nature and scope of Islamic Civilization

the teachings of Islam, but also to the reality of life itself, the present and future
of mankind and the historic role played by Muslims in the development of culture
and the building up of a flourishing civilisation.

This is a subject important enough to receive the attention of an academic body

instead of by just a single individual. In its depth and scope, it can compare with
any discipline of thought pertaining to the life of man. It covers an immense area
in time and space, from the first century of the Islamic era to this day and from
one corner of the world to the other. In its immanence, it encompasses
everything from creed to morals and behaviour, individual as well as social, and is
linked with diverse phenomena, whether if be law, political, international relations,
arts, letters, poetics, architecture, cultural refinement, etc.

Each of these aspects of human life are indeed many-sided and, hence, an
academic body composed of scholars of different disciplines is required to study
them so that each may undertake objective research and present his detailed
findings courageously, without fear or favour. Each of these scholars, specialist in
his own field, can discuss the issues in greater detail as, for example, one can
study the creed and religious thought of Islam, another sociology and culture, a
third Islamic law, a fourth the equality and dignity of man, a fifth the position of
women, and so on.

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A Delicate Task
An analysis of the ingredients of any developed culture is perhaps a very difficult
and delicate task. For the intrinsic constituents of any culture become assimilated
over time; these are always elusive and their interaction is difficult to indicate
after they have shaped themselves into a wholeness that is known as a society
and its culture. They enter into peoples lives imperceptibly and become a part of
their soul and life blood; give it a distinct identity much in the way that instincts,
education and training, circumstances and it go to make the personality of an
individual. No chemical laboratory exists which is of any help in such a historical
analysis nor has a microscope been invented which can minutely examine the
constituent elements of any culture.

Such difficulties mean that the only way to achieve this is by an in-depth study of
different nations and their cultures so that their past and present may be
compared to determine the effects of Islamic teachings and, the revolutionary call
of the Prophet (peace be upon him) for the reformation and the guidance of
human society.

The part played by this call in reforming or changing earlier creeds, pagan ways of
thought, the manners and customs of the ancient world as well as in giving birth
to new ideas and values that have helped give rise to a new culture and
civilisation, has to be studied and examined. This is stupendous task but one
which is also rewarding enough to be undertaken by an academic body or
university in any Islamic country, if not by organizations like UNESCO or the more
developed academic centres of Europe or America. There is not the least doubt
that such research would be more useful than those in which these universities
and literary bodies are engaged at present.

Difficulties Confronting the task

Identifying the influences of Islam on human life and culture is an extremely
difficult task since these have by now become part and parcel of the life and
culture of different nations. This to such an extent that these people themselves
cannot indicate whether they are extrinsic or intrinsic, borrowed from Islam or
evolved by them internally. Many of these Islamic influences are now the flesh
and bone of their existence and are integrated with their modes of thought and
culture.
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The all-pervasive Influence of Islam
Here I would first like to cite a passage from my own work Islam and the World in
which I have delineated the impact of Islamic civilisation in shaping the attitudes
of people and their cultural advancement during the heyday of its glory:

“The rejuvenating currents of Islam ran through the world, infusing men
everywhere with a new life and an unparalleled enthusiasm for progress. The lost
values of life had been discovered. Paganism became a sign of reaction, while it
was considered progressive to be associated with Islam. Even nations that did not
come directly under the influence of Islam, profoundly, though unconsciously,
benefited by the freshness and vitality of the new creative impulses released by
its impact on large parts of the world. Numerous aspects of their thought and
culture bear evidence to the magic touch of Islam. All the reform movements that
arose in their midst, owed their origin to Islamic influences.”

(Nadwi, S. Abul Hasan Ali, Islam and the World, Lucknow, 1980 p.87)
It is well-nigh impossible to enumerate the influence exerted by Islam in different
fields and on different nations and countries. We can only attempt here to
describe these in a few spheres where they have played a conspicuous role in the
reformation, guidance and progress of humanity towards a better and healthier
existence in contradiction to the norms usually adopted by the Muslims during the
period of their decadence.

During the same sliver of cosmic time, cities, states, and civilizations emerged
independently in several places around the world.
The first agrarian civilizations developed in about 3200 BCE. These early farming
societies started in three areas: Mesopotamia; in Egypt and Nubia (now northern
Sudan); and in the Indus Valley. More appeared in China a bit later and in Central
America and along the Andes Mountains of South America at about 2000–1000
BCE. Why in these places?

We'll answer that question in a minute. First, we must clearly define the words
"city," "state," and "civilization." A “city” contains tens of thousands of people. It's
larger than a town which contains only thousands of people. A village is made of
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just hundreds. In cities, people had specific jobs. They weren't all farmers. The
food they ate was grown by farmers nearby.

A “state” is a city, or several cities, and the surrounding villages and farms. A
state could include hundreds of thousands of people, even millions. There were
levels of power and wealth. A few people called "elites" were on top. Elites
typically made up no more than one-tenth of the population. Yet, they had more
wealth and power than the bottom nine-tenths combined. States were ruled by
these elites. They controlled the military. And they might use force to keep order
and collect taxes.

Empires arose out of states. Empires were led by a single ruler who controlled
large territories of cities and farmland. These large states are often called
“civilizations.”

All civilizations share certain traits. They have populations crowded together who
are controlled by elites. This does not mean they are better than other kinds of
societies. However, they are more complex. These early civilizations always
depended on the farming around them. For that reason, we call them “agrarian
civilizations.”

Places of early civilizations

Four of the earliest agrarian civilizations rose in river valleys where food grew
easily. People had earlier learned to grow plants and raise animals in those areas.
They paved the way for civilizations to form.
The first civilization formed in Mesopotamia. Now that land is in Iraq. What made
Mesopotamia so rJich was the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. With
ample water, people could now grow a great deal of food in this river valley.
Wheat and barley became the major crops. Mesopotamians also grew lentils and
chickpeas and herded sheep and goats.

HOW AND WHY CIVILIZATION FIRST EMERGED

The next three agrarian civilizations emerged in the Nile River Valley in Egypt and
Nubia, the Indus River Valley in India, and the Yellow River Valley in China. Each
river valley had its own type of plants and animals. Like in Mesopotamia, they had

9
been domesticated nearby. The Egyptians and Nubians had wheat, barley, cattle,
fish, and birds. The Indus Valley people raised cattle and cotton, as well as wheat,
barley, lentils, sheep, goats, and chickens. In China, wheat was grown in the
north. Rice was cultivated later in the south. Pigs, chickens, and soybeans were
also standard foods in China.

Large states developed a couple of thousand years later in the Americas. The food
options there were quite different. There were only a few large animals. People in
Central America learned to grow maize (corn), peppers, tomatoes, squash, beans,
peanuts, and cotton. Their only domestic animals were dogs and turkeys. Along
the Andes Mountains in South America, people used llamas and alpacas for wool
and transportation. For food they depended mostly on potatoes and quinoa, a
grain rich in protein. They had guinea pigs, and fish were brought up from the
coast.

Why and how did states emerge?

Domesticating plants and animals marked a turning point. Now early people
learned to use animals for a variety of things. Instead of eating animals right
away, they used them for milk, wool, manure, and muscle power. This caused the
world’s population to grow dramatically. In 8000 BCE, it stood at perhaps 6
million. By 3000 BCE, it was maybe 50 million.

At the same time, the climate was changing. The Earth had reached a stable level
of warmth by about 8000 BCE. It had been warming since the height of the last
Ice Age, which was about 20,000 BCE. After 8000 BCE, the climate in the
northern hemisphere became drier. Scientists believe slight changes in the Earth’s
orbit might have caused this. The drying climate drove people from mountain
areas down into river valleys to find water. During floods, soil was deposited into
the valleys. It made the land excellent for farming.

As extra food became more plentiful and people lived closer together, the social
structure changed. A handful of people became much wealthier and more
powerful than the rest. Why did the majority of people allow this to happen?
We can only guess. But maybe leaders were needed to manage projects like
building large watering systems or handing out extra food. They also provided
armed protection against groups nearby. At the same time, priests and rulers
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could take opportunities to control the food supplies. Controlling food meant
power. Gradually, their power grew. They formed political or religious groups that
controlled land and people.

Areas without early civilizations

Some areas of the world did not produce full-blown cities and states early on.
Even so, agriculture was beginning almost everywhere.
In sub-Saharan Africa, people were separated from the northern coast by the
harsh desert. Rain forests covered much of the land. The Bantu people lived in
modern Nigeria. They grew yams, oil palm trees, and herded cattle. Eventually,
camels replaced horses and donkeys for travel across the Sahara. Merchants
could now make their way across the desert. Small states and kingdoms emerged.
But a major agrarian civilization never sprung up.

Small islands in the Pacific didn't create full-scale agrarian civilizations. But their
smaller states and chiefdoms had features similar to those around the world. In
Australia, agriculture never really materialized. The soil was poor, and the island
was isolated.

Archaeologists have long believed the Amazon River basin could not grow enough
for large populations. But recent evidence suggests that people there fertilized soil
by adding charcoal.

Comparing early agrarian civilizations

All of the earliest agrarian civilizations had power structures. In each, elites used
the threat of force to collect taxes. It seems that only central control of states
could effectively bring together large populations of people and keep them fed.
Yet, these early civilizations developed many other similar characteristics,
including:
 Storage of extra food
 Development of a class of priests. States had one religion, based on
gods/goddesses
 Central rule (such as a king, pharaoh, or emperor)
 Specialized jobs and division of labor
 Social divisions (levels based on wealth, birth, and job)
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 Increased trade
 Systems of writing or recording information; increased collective learning
 Armies; increased warfare
 Monumental architecture (temples, pyramids)
 Increased inequality between men and women; male-dominated traditions

Despite all these similarities, early civilizations differed in important ways. Perhaps
most importantly, the civilizations in northern Africa and Eurasia connected with
each other soon after they began. Together they formed an Afro-Eurasian zone.
People traded goods back and forth and exchanged ideas and technology. Roads
running east-west connected them. Sea routes ran from port to port.
In contrast, early civilizations in the Americas were hardly connected at all. They
had fewer kinds of transport animals. The terrain separating them was difficult to
get through.

With a closer look, we can see fascinating details that made early civilizations
different. All the early civilizations developed writing — except the Inca in the
Andes. They instead used a system of tying knots in different colored string,
called quipu. They used it to record their trade and possibly even their stories.
All early civilizations engaged in warfare — except, perhaps, in the Indus Valley.
Some arrowheads and spears have been found there. Yet, no swords, helmets, or
shields have been discovered. Every civilization with writing started by using
pictographs but switched to some form of alphabet — except the Chinese. To this
day, they still use pictographs in their writing.

Every civilization sacrificed humans to the gods, but the Aztecs took it the
furthest. They believed that the world would end if the chief god did not receive
his daily offering. They believed human blood kept the Sun shining. While early
civilizations shared many common features, the differences form a collage of
human culture.

ORIGINS OF NUMEROUS WORLD RELIGIONS

As people created more efficient systems of communication and more complex
governments in early agrarian civilizations, they also developed what we now call
religion. Having done some research on the common features of early agrarian
cities, I’m interested in finding out why all civilizations adopted some sort of
12
religion and how these religions spread over vast regions. I know that by 1200
BCE, there were developed cities in most parts of the world. Having examined
some early writing from the city of Sumer in Mesopotamia, I know that people
had already conceived of gods that looked out for them and the welfare of their
crops and cities. But the world religions I know of — Hinduism, Judaism,
Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam — were bigger than a single city or even a
single region of the world. In fact, these religions have survived for thousands of
years, and all of them seem to have developed around the same time. Since
people do not appear to have lacked for religious life on a local scale from very
early times, why did several large-scale belief systems emerge between 1200 BCE
and 700 CE? In fact, why did all the major world religions appear in that era.

Why religions became global

One possibility is that by about 100 BCE, the population in Afro-Eurasia had
climbed to over a million. As a result of increasing commercial and cultural
interaction between people across this large area, religions were shared. The new
religious systems provided foundations of cultural communication, moral
expectation, and personal trust among people who were meeting, sharing ideas,
and doing business with one another far beyond their local neighborhoods.

The historians J.R. and William McNeil call this the development of “portable,
congregational religions.” Common features of these religions are the following:
there is usually a founding man who receives the word of God; there is a key text
or set of texts that defines man’s relationship with God; there are recommended
ways of living and worshipping; people come together regularly to have God’s
word interpreted for them by an authority; and there is a path to self-trans-
formation and eternal salvation in one way or another. In The Human Web: A
Bird’s-Eye View of World History, the McNeills argue that religion took hold during
this time period for the following reasons:
“In subsequent centuries, urban dwellers, and particularly
poor, marginal persons, found that authoritative religious
guidance, shared faith, and mutual support among
congregations of believers could substitute for the tight-knit
custom of village existence (within which the rural majority

13
 continued to live) and give meaning and value to ordinary
lives, despite daily contact with uncaring strangers. Such
religious congregations, in turn, helped to stabilize urban
society by making its inherent inequality and insecurity more
tolerable. (61)”

So what they’re saying is that religion provided structure and meaning for
large groups of people in ways that small, tight-knit village communities
used to do. Religion, especially faiths that were shared by large groups of
people, actually provided stability in cities. These religions were accepted by
thousands of followers because they appealed to many different people
from all social classes and occupations. If the texts and tenets of these
faiths spoke to such a wide variety of people then the religious

As people created more efficient systems of communication and

more complex governments in early agrarian civilizations, they
also developed what we now call religion.

Having done some research on the common features of early agrarian cities, I’m
interested in finding out why all civilizations adopted some sort of religion and
how these religions spread over vast regions. I know that by 1200 BCE, there
were developed cities in most parts of the world. Having examined some early
writing from the city of Sumer in Mesopotamia, I know that people had already
conceived of gods that looked out for them and the welfare of their crops and
cities. But the world religions I know of — Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism,
Christianity, and Islam — were bigger than a single city or even a single region of
the world. In fact, these religions have survived for thousands of years, and all of
them seem to have developed around the same time. Since people do not appear
to have lacked for religious life on a local scale from very early times, why did
several large-scale belief systems emerge between 1200 BCE and 700 CE? In fact,
why did all the major world religions appear in that era?

Why Religions Became Global

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One possibility is that by about 100 BCE, the population in Afro-Eurasia had
climbed to over a million. As a result of increasing commercial and cultural
interaction between people across this large area, religions were shared. The new
religious systems provided foundations of cultural communication, moral
expectation, and personal trust among people who were meeting, sharing ideas,
and doing business with one another far beyond their local neighborhoods.
The historians J.R. and William McNeil call this the development of “portable,
congregational religions.” Common features of these religions are the following:
there is usually a founding man who receives the word of God; there is a key text
or set of texts that defines man’s relationship with God; there are recommended
ways of living and worshipping; people come together regularly to have God’s
word interpreted for them by an authority; and there is a path to self-trans-
formation and eternal salvation in one way or another. In The Human Web: A
Bird’s-Eye View of World History, the McNeills argue that religion took hold during
this time period for the following reasons:
In subsequent centuries, urban dwellers, and particularly poor,
marginal persons, found that authoritative religious guidance, shared
faith, and mutual support among congregations of believers could
substitute for the tight-knit custom of village existence (within which
the rural majority continued to live) and give meaning and value to
ordinary lives, despite daily contact with uncaring strangers. Such
religious congregations, in turn, helped to stabilize urban society by
making its inherent inequality and insecurity more tolerable. (61)

So what they’re saying is that religion provided structure and meaning for large
groups of people in ways that small, tight-knit village communities used to do.
Religion, especially faiths that were shared by large groups of people, actually
provided stability in cities. These religions were accepted by thousands of
followers because they appealed to many different people from all social classes
and occupations. If the texts and tenets of these faiths spoke to such a wide
variety of people then the religious beliefs were more likely to spread along trade
routes, unlike the earlier village-based religions.
beliefs were more likely to spread along trade routes, unlike the earlier village-
based religions.

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THE FALL OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION AND THE RISE OF
CIVILIZATIONS

Though modernity is relatively new, international relations are as old as

civilization. Humans have existed for several hundred thousand years, but until
the last 7,000 years they wandered the earth in small groups hunting, gathering
edible plants, and attempting to survive threats from other humans, beasts, and
vile weather.
1. After mastering tools, weapons, and fire, the first major step toward
civilization was the domestication of animals for food, clothing, transport, and
companionship.

2. Next came the domestication of plants as groups settled in river valleys and
began sowing and reaping crops. Over centuries some of these settlements
developed into complex civilizations that included most or all of the following
components: herding and farming; complex, hierarchical political, social,
economic, military, and religious institutions, each with a division of labor; the
use of metals, the wheel, and writing; clearly defined territories; and trade
with other peoples. The first “civilization” emerged in Mesopotamia around
5,000 BC, and for the next 6,500 years or so, great civilizations there and

16
 elsewhere rose, extended their rule, then collapsed for a variety of interrelated
political, technological, economic, military, and ecological reasons.

3. During the fifteenth century, beyond Christian Europe, advanced and powerful
civilizations sprawled across vast stretches of the globe: Ming China, Aztec
Mexico, Inca Peru, Benin Africa, Mogul India, Ashikaga Japan, and Ottoman
Asia Minor. In Southeast Asia alone, there was a patchwork.

The Western Civilization

The West has achieved significant accomplishments in the fields of science and
technology and made important contributions to their advancement to the point
of surpassing all other civilizations, such as the Arab civilization which made great
achievements, but started to decline at a quick pace after Western civilization
started competing with it.

The question here is whether Western civilization will undergo the same decline at
a quick pace if another civilization appears and starts to compete with it?
Spalinger applied his theory to Western civilization. In light of his theory, he
embarked on the study of Western civilization through his book: "the Decline of
the West." In his book, Spalinger sought to determine the reasons for the collapse
and demise of Western civilization. Thus this study was made to highlight the
factors of ascent and decline of the West.

Sociology
Sociology is one of the sciences that discuss the infrastructures of societies. It
seeks to study the behavior of individuals, social relations and the surrounding
circumstances. Therefore most sociological researchers and philosophers sought
to make studies, research and to form intellectual views that deal with and
analyzes human action, patterns of behavior and the influence of the surrounding
environment. This brought to the picture the diversified theories devised by some
philosophers and sociologists who greatly influenced human sociology.

Cycle of Social change

The cycle of social change is one of the theories which was studied by some
philosophers. It revealed that the process of social change continues to climb and

17
then ends at the point from which it started. The theory says that social life
proceeds in a systematic movement, and therefore, societal change resembles in
terms of its systematic and cyclic approach, the growth and death of the living
organism. Spalinger is one of the philosophers of the nineteenth century who tried
to interpret the reason for the rise and fall of civilizations "in accordance with the
foregoing theory of cyclic succession." His theory about civilization and society (1)
is one of the most important theories that interpreted human history. The
importance of this study rests in the fact that it offers a new pattern of research
that focuses on the theories of cyclic succession of civilizations and their impact
on society. It is a new approach in the field of social studies.

Problem of the Study Western civilization

The problem of the study Western civilization is currently undergoing a process of
decline and retreat after a long history of great achievements and innovations.
This was the reason for this study which sought to cast light on the factors of the
decline of Western civilization.

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