কিতাব পর্যালোচনা (Book Reviews)

8

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Name: The Fate of Empires and Search For Survival
Author: Sir John Glubb (Glubb Pasha)
Pages: 24

There is a well-known saying that "the only thing we learn from history is that man never learns from history." This is indeed a bitter truth. Learning from history is a very broad sphere. We may learn from separate events in history that are the fruit of vanity, selfishness, immorality, and vice versa. Maybe we can learn more if we examine the histories of more empires and civilizations. Then we could gain vast experience and inevitable realities, which are common symptoms of the rise and fall of an empire. The first to do this job and realize it is Ibn Khaldun, who is still alive by his magnum opus 'Kitab al-'Ibar', aka 'The Muqaddimah'. Although this work was just based on an observation of Arab, Persian, and Muslim Spain's empire, but the major and necessary part of this knowledge has been incorporated into this book. He is the pioneer of today's science of history and sociology, the two prominent faculties of knowledge. Even many European thinkers were strongly influenced by him and spread this knowledge. And here goes on.
 
'The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival' by Sir John Glubb is a kind of representation of the rise and fall of any empire with experience from mankind's history. We love to read history, but fewer of us seem to acquire the morals of history. But this is the main goal of reading history. Such as Allah SWT described the history of Aad and Thamud, the children of Israelites in the Quran, to be not like them.

John Bagot Glubb was born in 1897, his father being a regular officer in the Royal Engineers.
At the age of four he left England for Mauritius, where his father was posted for a three-year
tour of duty. At the age of ten he was sent to school for a year in Switzerland. These youthful
travels may have opened his mind to the outside world at an early age.
He entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in September 1914, and was
commissioned in the Royal Engineers in April 1915. He served throughout the first World War
in France and Belgium, being wounded three times and awarded the Military Cross. In 1920 he volunteered for service in Iraq. as a regular officer, but in 1926 resigned his commission and
accepted an administrative post under the Iraq Government.
In 1930, however, he signed a contract to serve the Transjordan Government (now Jordan).
From 1939 to 1956 he commanded the famous Jordan Arab Legion, which was in reality the
Jordan Arny. Since his retirement he has published seventeen books, chiefly on the Middle
East, and has lectured widely in Britain, the United States and Europe.
 
The author focused on two things in the introduction: to gain experience from history and mankind's life, and his plea to history should be for the human race, not for any specific country or period. He actually tried to gather together the histories of the many races and empires and gained experience and morals, and this is how he writes.
 
He started this book by dealing with the major question, "Why can't we learn from history?" He indicated three causes: reading the history of short periods or countries; reading this history as propaganda narrative from the ruling class; and reading world history, usually disconnected from events before or after. Then he goes to the average age of empires comparatively, then the variants of rising of any empire and his quantities, such as energetic nation, sea power, commercial extension, etc. After that, he mentioned the factors that contribute to the downfall of any empire, like increasing immorality, art and luxury, wealth, useless intellectuality, lack of religion and religious value, courage, etc. He concluded by discussing the possibilities for learning history using this method. The summary of the whole book comes into this line: “The life-expectation of a great nation, it appears, commences with a violent, and usually unforeseen, outburst of energy and ends in a lowering of moral standards, cynicism, pessimism, and frivolity.”
 
The book is as short as words and as comprehensive as meanings. His way of thinking and contents are truly mentionable, and he organizes the topics very stepwisely, and he didn't ignore to describe Arab Empires very truthfully, whereas other western writers feel stingy to discuss Arab due to a Eurocentric and west-supremacy mindset. And yes, he finished the book with the total summary of the book by mentioning the essential headings, which is very helpful to see the total book in a few long glimpses.
 
However, this book is for those who want to learn the methods of learning from history. May the world be a better place for readers!