A Critique of the Compileristic Approach in Writing Textbooks (General History of Islamic Civilization and Culture by Mohammad Hadi Yousefi Gharavi)

The Generalities of Islamic History, Civilization, and Culture, written by Ayatollah Mohammad Hadi Yousefi Gharavi, has been organized as an educational work for a general course in the history of Islamic culture and civilization. Since the compilation and development of such a work focused on education at the higher education level for students and scholars of religious sciences in the field of history and civilization, the authors were prompted to review and examine the style and manner of compilation in the compilation, considering the important history and organization of Islamic history and civilization curriculum knowledge and the change in the innovative pattern in this field.
The findings of this critical essay demonstrate the most important feature of this work, which is that it uses the methods and research methods collected to produce a study with an education-centered approach and innovative educational values ​​in the field. In addition, this work is a specific framework of the main topic in question, meaning that Islamic culture and civilization are not presented so that the researcher can go anywhere and select and criticize the material in a visual way. This is evident in examining the effects of haste and lack of humanity in two areas: and it has been shown that this work is without innovative principles and values ​​in creating educational texts, which is the reason for this, both from a formal perspective and because it lacks the characteristics of an educational, innovative, and creative work in education. form and effect. This work aims to address these issues and the issues in which they are included.
Introduction:
The study of history from a civilizational perspective, with a cultural focus, based on a civilization-centered framework, and emphasizing aspects of cultural and civil affairs, represents a departure from common historiographical methods that began in the days of Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, which interpreted the history of societies primarily through political, war-centered, and religion-centered lenses. Of course, in Islamic history, Ibn Khaldun can be considered the pioneer of such an approach in understanding the history of societies and cultures. In this regard, the study and analysis of Islamic civilization had limited precedent among contemporary Muslim researchers, especially Iranians, and it was only in the 19th century that orientalists began to develop this subject and create works in this field. For example, Baron von Kreimber wrote History of Islamic Culture, Francesco Gabrielli wrote History and Islamic Civilization, and Gustave Bon wrote Civilization of Islam and the Arabs (Alvieri, 2019: 154). This paved the way for Arabic-speaking researchers, including George Zidan, to write and publish History of Islamic Civilization, Muhammad Kurdali's Islam and Arab Civilization, and Amir Ali's History of the Arabs and Islamic Civilization. However, in contemporary history, Iranian researchers began to address Islamic civilization with some delay. The dominance of a literary and political perspective on the history of Islam contributed to limited attention to the cultural history and civilization of Islam. Nevertheless, Seyyed Mufid Moljai wrote Religion and Civilization, Islam and Philosophy, and Sheikh Qasem Mohajer wrote Civilization of Islam, both among the first writings in the field of Islamic civilization (Jafarian, 2010: 18-38). Later, Zabihullah Safa, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Abdolhossein Zarrin Koob entered this field by emphasizing aspects of the history of Iranian and Islamic civilization.
After the Islamic Revolution, translated books from Latin or Arabic continued to dominate this field and were taught in academic circles. However, given the need for students of various academic fields to become familiar with Islamic culture and civilization and emphasize Iranian-Islamic identity through general course units, teaching these translated works—due to their large volume and lack of focus on Iranian identity—did not sufficiently help students recognize or appreciate Iranian-Islamic cultural and civilizational identity. Consequently, in recent decades, the Research Vice-Chancellorship of the University of Islamic Education has focused on publishing works that both critique the works of orientalists and the dominant perspectives in their writings while portraying an important part of the Islamic nation’s identity by emphasizing the Iranian element. The extent to which these works have fulfilled their mission remains a separate issue. Examples of these works include History of Islamic Culture and Civilization by Ali Akbar Velayati (2012: 48th edition), Fatemeh Jan Ahmadi (2012: 8th edition), Zahra Eslamifard (2011: 4th edition), and Mohammad Mustafa Asadi (1401).
Method:
This article aims to discuss, review, and critique, using a descriptive-analytical method and a critical approach, one of the works published in this field by the Education Publishing Office (affiliated with the Supreme Leader’s Representative Institution in Universities) entitled Generalities of the History of Islamic Civilization and Culture, written by Ayatollah Mohammad Hadi Yousefi Gharavi. The authors hope that by critically examining the formal and content shortcomings of the work, the author and other writers will pay greater attention to these aspects in future editions. They also hope that adopting a critical method and approach to such works will open a more favorable path for writing educational works in the field of culture and civilization. This work is an educational book used in universities and seminaries. The innovative aspect of this essay is a critical approach and a formal and content examination of the work to present diverse perspectives, highlight shortcomings, and improve the knowledge and learning level of religious studies students in compiling educational resources.
Conclusion:
As stated in the article, the book History, Civilization, and Islamic Culture was written as an educational text, and educational books as teaching resources should be a valuable, documented model with analytical approaches for researchers, students, and scholars. Since such works are repeatedly brought to the attention of audiences, they should be a suitable model for transmitting knowledge, documentation, news, hadiths, trustworthiness, and to some extent, innovation and analysis.
The study and analysis of the book show that addressing Islamic culture and civilization requires sufficient time, knowledge of sources from each historical period, mastery of historical text composition, and skill in critique and review. However, the aforementioned book has not provided a significant contribution in this field. The lack of an initial plan led the author to hastily collect historical data and sometimes selectively gather information. For instance, chapters three, four, and six, and parts of chapters five and seven, are almost verbatim transcriptions of Ali Akbar Velayati’s Islamic Culture and Civilization. Except for the last chapter, dedicated to “Revival of Islamic Civilization” (221-232), which is a relatively new topic, the rest of the material is largely repetitive and offers little novelty compared to previous works.
Compiling and writing in the field of Islamic cultural and civilizational history is complex and challenging due to the vastness of the research field, diversity of historical data, texts, and sources. Even if a work follows a compilation approach, it should be appropriate, documented, innovative, and consider the necessities of addressing this subject carefully. Properly executed, such works leave a meaningful educational impact. Finally, this critical article, by examining shortcomings, presents suggestions for improving and enhancing the quality and comprehensiveness of the work in terms of form and content.