A walk through the cemetery of history

“History is experimental politics; this is the best or rather the only good politics” (19th century French conservative thinker Joseph de Maistre)

What future can we see in the light of history – “experimental politics”?

To answer this question, we will have to take a brief historical excursion to the Middle East, the cradle of civilization.

We will compare two epochs: the epoch before the Muslim ruling and the present one.

Egypt

Before the Arab conquest

• Although the ancient Egyptian civilization was replaced by the Hellenistic one, the Ptolemies showed great interest and respect for the Egyptian mysteries. The magic of ancient Egyptian legends fascinated Greek philosophers, especially Plutarch.
• The Alexandrian school was the greatest and most ancient seat of thought; the Alexandrian library was a repository of centuries of knowledge.
• Egypt was the “breadbasket of the world”, a country with the most diverse and developed economy of its day.
• Egypt was full of spiritual, religious and philosophical ideas: Neoplatonists, Epicureans, Skeptics, Stoics, School of Philo of Alexandria, Gnostics were absorbed by early Christianity, and after that by the whole Western civilization.
• Science, mathematics, astronomy, art and architecture flourished.

We remember the great names: Archimedes and Euclid, Dionysius Thrax – the author of the first grammar textbook in history, the geographer Strabo – the author of an invaluable work on the Ancient World, and many others.

• The Hellenistic law, a combination of Greek and ancient Egyptian legislation, was in effect here.
• Epigrams, tragedies and comedies of Callimachus of Cyrene, as well as poems of Apollonius of Rhodes, were studied until recently (until these authors were declared DWEM) in schools and philological departments of leading universities.
• The Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the “Seven Wonders of the World,” was a symbol of Egypt’s architectural achievements, and the Nile mosaic of Palestrina of the 1st century BC was a pearl of ancient art.

Egypt today:

A giant anthill, living under Sharia law, without any signs of intellectual or spiritual life – disenfranchised impoverished population, twilight ossified world, graveyard of ideas; oppression of women; absence of science; bans on theater and art. Christians Copts are dhimmis: lower grade people. This is a tyranny, whose only rival is the “Muslim Brotherhood”, promising a dogmatic theocracy and even more cruel tyranny.

Persia

• One of the greatest ancient civilizations and a birthplace of unique dualistic religions – Mazdeism and Zoroastrianism.
• Brilliant architecture: the palace of Darius in Susa, the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, the palace of Apadana with a ceremonial hall with 72 columns and the tomb of Cyrus, bas-reliefs.
• Mythology close to the Vedic mythology of India; unique Persian painting (prohibited by Islam because of the depiction of faces); extensive literature, jurisprudence, philosophy, and medicine.
• In the 3rd century CE, academic centers such as the Academy of Jondishapur operated in Iran. Persians were the first creators of the modern hospital system.
• Great Persian poetry survived the Islamic conquest for several centuries and gave such names as Rudaki, Ferdowsi, Ibn Sina, Omar Khayyam, Rumi.

Iran today

Aggressive cruel Shiite theocracy.

The Fertile Crescent (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus)

The cradle of modern civilization.

The commandments of the Torah and Nevi’im (the Books of the Prophets) so radically changed the previously pagan world. The Bible was written here, and the Judeo-Christian civilization was formed.

The Sumerians, Assyria, Babylon, Phoenicia were replaced by the Persian, then Greek and Hellenistic culture, and finally Byzantine Christianity but The Fertile Crescent has always remained a center of genuine cultural diversity.

• Mathematics, astronomy, and architecture flourished in the Sumerian culture. The Sumerians are known as the creators of the world’s first calendar.
• The Babylonians are known for their achievements in geometry. Babylon went down in history not only for their empire, but also for the the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Ishtar Gate, and other architectural creations.
• During the late antiquity period, there was a brilliant constellation of spiritual and religious movements: Mandaeans, Jews, Gnostic sects, Manichaeans, and different Christian communities. The Babylonian Talmud was created here. It was a genuine and amazing diversity.
• One of the richest cities of the late antiquity period (destroyed by ISIS) was Palmyra, whose ruler Zenobia challenged Rome. Its founder was King Solomon.

This cultural and intellectual flourishing continued for several centuries by inertia under the Abbasid and Ummayad dynasties.

The Fertile Crescent countries today (except Israel and Cyprus):

(See Egypt today. Plus, endless turmoil and bloody outbreaks of sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites, as well as fanatics in the form of al-Qaeda and ISIS. Complete (or almost complete) disappearance of ancient religious minorities – Jews, Christians, Mandeans, Yazidis and others).

Türkiye

• After the collapse of the empire of Alexander the Great, the Pergamon state emerged here – an important Hellenistic center of culture and science. The court in Pergamon attracted writers, philosophers, architects, sculptors, artists and craftsmen from all over the Hellenistic world.
• The Pergamon Library was the second most important library in the Greek world (after Alexandria). The sculptures (“Dying Gaul”, “Gaul Killing His Wife”) became part of the classics, as did the famous Pergamon Altar.
• Byzantium created the greatest culture of its time, combining Christianity, Hellenistic philosophy, Judaism and Manichaeism.
• The Academy of Trebizond became the main center for the study of astronomy and mathematics.
• Great mathematicians – Isidore of Miletus and Michael Psellus. Leo the Mathematician gave impetus to the development of algebra. He also created automatic mechanisms and a system of light and sound signaling.
• The philosopher John the Grammarian inspired Galileo Galilei. Hand-trebuchets, flamethrowers, ship mills, Greek fire, and the Theory of impetus were the inventions of the Byzantines.
• The Byzantines created their own model of early Renaissance humanism and managed to pass on ancient Greek literature to Italy in the early Renaissance. Byzantine humanism, like later Italian humanism, combined faith and science.
• At the University of the Palace Hall of Magnaura (University of Constantinople), young people were taught philosophy, rhetoric and law. The first public hospitals were established in Byzantium; here, Siamese twins were separated for the first time.

(Voltaire urged Catherine the Great to reach Istanbul in the war with the Turks, turn it back into Constantinople, destroy Turkey and bring Byzantium back to life. Unfortunately, the project was never realized).

Türkiye today

Byzantium was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453 and underwent a unique century-long revival after the secular reforms of Kamal Ataturk. Today, Turkey today turned into intellectual desert ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Western Europe and [perhaps] parts of North America

• Ancient Greece and Rome.
• Christianity, Gothic, Italian humanism, Renaissance, Reformation.
• Great geographical and scientific discoveries: Columbus, Magellan, Leonardo da Vinci, Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Newton, Pascal, Descartes.
• Philosophy: Francis Bacon, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Leibniz, Kant, Adam Smith.
• French Enlightenment, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Diderot.
• Art, Classicism, Romanticism and Surrealism. Titian, Goya, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Dickens, Goethe, Heine, Balzac, Rembrandt, Rubens, Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Henry James, Herman Melville, Faulkner.
• Industrial Revolution, great scientific and technical inventions. Einstein, Marie Curie, Niels Bohr.
• Democracy, freedom of conscience, human rights, equality for women, emancipation of minorities. John Mill, Alexis de Tocqueville, Washington, Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin. High technology.

Western Europe and parts of North America in 2080

(See: see “Egypt Today”, “The Fertile Crescent countries today” and “Türkiye today”).

As was said: History is experimental politics.

Alexander Maistrovoy is a graduate of Moscow Univ. in Journalism, worked there in his field and made aliyah in 1988. He works at the Russian language newspaper Novosty Nedely, has had articles posted on many internet sites and authored “Ways of God” about different religious and ethnic groups in the Holy Land, Agony of Hercules or a Farewell to Democracy (Notes of a Stranger), and with Mark Kotliarsky the Russian book Jewish Atlántida.