Islamic Civilization and Culture2

4.

Islamic Civilization
and Culture

Islamic Civilization and Culture

1.
2.
3.
Meanings and the Vital Elements

Role of Civilization in Development of Human Personality and
Communities
Distinctions of Islamic Civilization
Tauheed
Spiritualism
Dignity of Man
Equality
Social Justice
Moral Values
Tolerance
Rule of Law
2
Civilization
The Philosophy of Civilization(1923),Albert
Schweitzeroutlines two opinions:
One purelymaterialand the other material andethical
"the sum total of all progress made by man in every
sphere of action and from every point of view in so
far as the progress helps towards the spiritual
perfecting of individuals as the progress of all
progress.
The world crisis was from humanity losing the ethical idea
of civilization
3
What characterize civilization

1. Tool making, /Industry-Food making and Non food Making
2. This permits a division of labor
3. The gathering of these non-food producers into permanent settlements-cities
4. Some form of ruling system or government
5. A social hierarchy consisting of different social classes
6. A form of writing will have developed-communication
7. The establishment of complex, formal social institutions -religion and
education
8. Development of complex forms of economic exchange. Trade/money and
markets.
9. A concept of a Higher being- sovereignty
10.A concept of time, by which the society links itself to the past and looks
forward to the future
Every society, civilization or not, has a specific set of

ideas and customs, and a certain set of items and arts,
that make it unique
Civilizations have more intricate cultures, including
literature, professional art, architecture,
organizedreligion, and complex customs associated
with the elite
Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations, defined
"the highest cultural grouping of people and
the broadest level of cultural identity people

have short of that which distinguishes
Civilization and Culture

Civilization" has been used almost synonymously with culture
This is because civilization and culture are different aspects of
a single entity
Civilization can be viewed as the external manifestation, and
culture as the internal character of a society
Civilization is expressed in physical attributes, such as tool making,
agriculture, buildings, technology, urban planning, social structure,
social institutions
Culture, on the other hand, refers to the social standards and norms of
behavior, the traditions, values, ethics, morality, and religious beliefs
and practices that are held in common by members of the society
6
Vital elements
Cultural Identity
Complexity of System
Cultural Identity
Consists of the beliefs, behaviors, objects and other
characteristics common to the members of a particular group
or society
Through culture, people define themselves, conform to
society's shared values, and contribute to society
Culture includes many societal aspects:
language, customs, values, norms, mores, rules, tools,
technologies, products, organizations, and institutions
Institutionrefers to clusters of rules and cultural meanings associated with
specific social activities.
Common institutions are the family, education, religion, work,
8
Complexity of system
Social scientists such as V. Gordon Childe have named a number of traits that
distinguish a civilization from other kinds of society.[23] Civilizations have been
distinguished by their means of subsistence, types of livelihood, settlement patterns,
forms of government, social stratification, economic systems, literacy, and other
cultural traits.
Culture
Laws
Government
Institutions
Religion
Economy
Art and Architecture
Identity/Ideology
Collective Consciousness
9
Role of Civilization in Development of Human Personality

and Communities
10
Distinctions of Islamic Civilization
11
Fall of a civilization
Ibn Khaldn's Muqaddimah
He suggested repeated invasions from nomadic peoples limited
development led to social collapse
Edward Gibbon's work The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Final act of the collapse of Rome was the fall of Constantinople to the
Ottoman Turks in 1453 CE
The decline was natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness
Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the cause of the destruction
multiplied with the extent of conquest;
Time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous
fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight
12
Joseph Tainter in "The Collapse of Complex Societies"

There were diminishing returns to complexity, due to which, as states achieved
a maximum permissible complexity
They would decline when further increases actually produced a negative return
Jared Diamond in his 2005 book "Collapse: How Societies Choose to

Fail or Succeed"
suggests five major reasons for the collapse of 41 studied cultures:
1. Environmental damage, such as deforestation and soil erosion;
2. Climate change;
3. Dependence upon long-distance trade for needed resources;
4. Increasing levels of internal and external violence, such as war or invasion;
5. Societal responses to internal and environmental problems
13
Oswald Spengler, in his "Decline of the West"

There had been only eight "mature civilizations."
Growing cultures,tend to develop into imperialistic civilizations
which expand and ultimately collapse
with democratic forms of government ushering in plutocracy
and ultimately imperialism
Arnold J. Toynbee in his "A Study of History"

The cause of the fall of a civilization occurred when a cultural
elite became a parasitic elite, leading to the rise of internal
and external proletariats
14
Peter Turchin in his Historical Dynamics

fiscal-demographic" model can be outlined as follows: during the initial phase of a
sociodemographic cycle we observe relatively high levels of per capita production and
consumption, which leads not only to relatively high population growth rates, but also to relatively
high rates of surplus production. As a result, during this phase the population can afford to pay
taxes without great problems, the taxes are quite easily collectible, and the population growth is
accompanied by the growth of state revenues. During the intermediate phase, the increasing
overpopulation leads to the decrease of per capita production and consumption levels, it becomes
more and more difficult to collect taxes, and state revenues stop growing, whereas the state
expenditures grow due to the growth of the population controlled by the state. As a result, during
this phase the state starts experiencing considerable fiscal problems. During the final pre-collapse
phases the overpopulation leads to further decrease of per capita production, the surplus
production further decreases, state revenues shrink, but the state needs more and more resources
to control the growing (though with lower and lower rates) population. Eventually this leads to
famines, epidemics, state breakdown, and demographic and civilization collapse
15
Peter Heather argues in his book The Fall of the Roman

Empire: a New History of Rome and the Barbarians
that this civilization did not end for moral or economic reasons, but
because centuries of contact with barbarians across the frontier
generated its own nemesis by making them a much more
sophisticated and dangerous adversary
The fact that Rome needed to generate ever greater revenues to
equip and re-equip armies that were for the first time repeatedly
defeated in the field, led to the dismemberment of the Empire
Although this argument is specific to Rome, it can also be applied to
the Asiatic Empire of the Egyptians, to the Han and Tang dynasties of
China, to the Muslim Abbasid Caliphate, and others
16
Bryan Ward-Perkins, in his book The Fall of Rome and the End of
Civilization
The collapse of complex society meant that even basic plumbing
disappeared from the continent for 1,000 years. Similar Dark Age
collapses are seen with the Late Bronze Age collapse in the Eastern
Mediterranean, the collapse of the Maya, on Easter Island and elsewhere
Arthur Demarest argues in Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a

Rainforest Civilization
No one explanation is sufficient but that a series of erratic, complex
events, including loss of soil fertility, drought and rising levels of internal
and external violence led to the disintegration of the courts of Mayan
kingdoms which began a spiral of decline and decay
17
Jeffrey A. McNeely
That past civilizations have tended to over-exploit their forests, and that such abuse of important resources
has been a significant factor in the decline of the over-exploiting society
Thomas Homer-Dixon in "The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of
Civilization",
The fall in the energy return on investments; the energy expended to energy yield ratio, is central
to limiting the survival of civilizations. The degree of social complexity is associated strongly, with
the amount of disposable energy environmental, economic and technological systems allow. When
this amount decreases civilizations either have to access new energy sources or they will collapse
18
Feliks Koneczny in his work "On the Plurality of Civilizations"

calls his study the science on civilizations
Civilizations fall not because they must or there exist some cyclical or a
"biological" life span. There still exist two ancient civilizations BrahminHindu and Chinese which by no means are ready to fall any time soon
that "a person cannot be civilized in two or more ways" without falling
into what he calls an "abcivilized state" (as in abnormal). He also stated
that when two or more civilizations exist next to one another and as
long as they are vital, they will be in an existential combat imposing its
own "method of organizing social life" upon the other.
Absorbing alien "method of organizing social life" that is civilization and
giving it equal rights yields a process of decay and decomposition.
19

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4.

Islamic Civilization and Culture

Meanings and the Vital Elements

What characterize civilization

Every society, civilization or not, has a specific set of

the broadest level of cultural identity people

Civilization and Culture

Role of Civilization in Development of Human Personality

Distinctions of Islamic Civilization

Joseph Tainter in "The Collapse of Complex Societies"

Jared Diamond in his 2005 book "Collapse: How Societies Choose to

Oswald Spengler, in his "Decline of the West"

Arnold J. Toynbee in his "A Study of History"

Peter Turchin in his Historical Dynamics

Peter Heather argues in his book The Fall of the Roman

Arthur Demarest argues in Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a

Feliks Koneczny in his work "On the Plurality of Civilizations"

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