The Iraqi historian Khazal Al-Majidi is one of the leading Arab researchers who managed to come up with a historical project that monitors the biography of religions from a purely historical angle, but this historical love does not stop at the borders of religions, but rather branch out more and more towards beliefs, myths, prehistoric civilizations, their arts and aesthetics, in addition to his poetic writings. And theatrical, which made his books more than 90 books of multiple visions, dreams, creative paths, methodological and cognitive premises that establish the path of his awareness of writing.
The historian, who holds a doctorate in ancient history, and currently resides in the Netherlands, has published 95 books, and 7 of his books have been translated into English, French, Romanian, Persian and Kurdish.
In the field of history of civilizations, religions and mythology, he published 55 books, including "The Science of Religions... Prehistoric Civilizations, Sumerian Civilization, Egyptian Civilization, Indian Civilization, Babylonian Civilization, Assyrian Civilization."
In the field of art history, he issued a number of important books that constitute a basic reference in the history of the artistic image, such as: Greek Art and Prehistoric Art.
In the field of poetry, his poetic works were published in 8 volumes and 40 poetry collections, and he has a comprehensive theoretical book on poetry entitled “The Poetic Mind.” In the field of theater, his theatrical works were published in two volumes, published at the Arab Institute for Studies and Publishing in Beirut.
In this interview, Al-Jazeera Net interviewed the Iraqi historian Khazal Al-Majidi about many issues of historical writing, its authority and its predicaments within contemporary Arab history.
home of writing
Khazal Al-Majidi, first, you have published about 95 books, how can - in your opinion - the thinker/historian/poet/theatrical find enough time to write of this size in front of a world that is chasing after dullness and consumption?
He can, if he has a goal and knows what he wants from writing and why he writes, my eyes do not close my eyes on my goal, half a century ago, since my first beginnings, I sought for writing only to be my only goal, and everything else works for it, and therefore my goals were programmed, modified, increased and decreased I was polite, and in the end I found that I was preoccupied with it and not with other genres of writing.
More than a quarter of a century ago, I completely stopped writing any media or quick articles, and decided to write only quality books, even in poetry. I did not collect - like others - my texts and put them in a book, but I was making my poetry books very carefully long before their publication, as well as in The theater.
When I started my intellectual works, I classified them carefully and did not confuse them, so they appeared in basic fields "civilizations, religions, myths, art history, orientalism" in precise tandem with poetry and theater.
The book "Prehistoric Arts" attempts to present a comprehensive picture of the arts, beliefs and ideas made by mankind throughout its history (Al-Jazeera)
Your writings vary between history, poetry and theater, and this is not easy due to the divergence of the cognitive fields that establish the path, awareness and form of your writing, and although there are subtle ties between these fields, but how do you live in your body this multiplicity of knowledge at the moment of thinking and then writing?
Rather, this is what enhances the coexistence of these diversities, so that they water some of them and subsist on others. I used to say that all the creators of poetry, for example, stop in the middle of the road because they only wrote it, and start repeating themselves.
The convergent diversity in writing gives its diversity double energy and makes it more creative. As for the moment of thinking about writing, not one window opens, but a house opens with a number of rooms and windows, and the melody is more beautiful and louder.
From literature to history
In your historical writings, there is a great interest in ancient history at the expense of other stages and times within the medium, modern or even contemporary. How did the choice of ancient history, especially the beliefs, myths, religions and arts related to it?
Because my academic specialization is in ancient history and not in anything else, and therefore you will find my abundance there, but I take care of what happened in medieval, modern and contemporary history, in order to follow what I observed in the ancient towards the following ages, and this is an intellectual requirement and not an academic, but it does not mean abandoning the tools of scientific research Therefore, I investigated civilizations, arts, religions, and myths in them.
Many books have been issued to you about other civilizations outside Mesopotamia, but despite this this Arab historical geography remains so important within your writings that it has become a prominent mark in its history. Why?
Also for the same reason as before, because my doctoral thesis was on medicine, magic, myth and religion in Mesopotamia, and it appeared in a book called “The Incense of the Gods” which was issued in two editions, and therefore you find this Mesopotamian geography and what it produced the focus of my greatest interest, then Mesopotamia is the most ancient history. The abundance of its civilizations, religions, myths and texts.
In the many books that I have completed on the history of art - whether through Arab models or other Western representations - they still raise some problems for me, including those related to the concept of historical investigation. Is Khazal Al-Majidi when he intends to write an art history of visual arts that depends on the known historical investigation? Academically, that is, what political and social histories are subject to, or does art in general need its own investigations?
As long as we call it the history of art, we must adhere to the academic historical records, because in it the artistic developments and turns are manifested and varied more clearly, but if I wrote about a specific specific current such as surreal or abstract arts, I would be outside the historical period and would write more freely.
Curriculum Anxiety
What about the method for approaching and writing the history of art, is there a single method that extrapolates the artistic phenomena and their historical contexts that produced a painting, sculpture or rock inscriptions, or is the multiplicity of methods what implicitly contributes to the creation of writing that penetrates more into the pores of the artworks?
Undoubtedly, the multiplicity of historical and intellectual approaches increases research and analysis richness and fertility, and the researcher here can use more than one methodological lens to reach the essence of the artistic work. The important thing is to present the intellectual and critical presentation of the arts in a clear manner and in multiple systematic synonyms, and not to rely on axioms.
The investigation leads us directly to the crisis of Arab historical writing, including its frightening isolation towards social phenomena and political events closely related to the sultans and the succession of their rule. Does this not affect, in your opinion, the concept of the margin from which many arts crystallized?
Attention is a means and not an end, so if we put it as a way of looking, its limits must be crossed when we want to formulate deep ideas about the phenomenon, so it may be a trap when we adhere to it to a large extent, but I would like to draw your attention to the Arab art history books - both those devoted to the past of our region Or for the present - very few and non-existent in some places and eras. I hope that mature scientific books will be published in our art history, and that books on the care of art will accompany them as an essence, vision and method of view.
The book "The Eternal Return..A Return to Origins and the Conflict between Myth and History" by Khazal Al-Majidi (Al-Jazeera)
Is it possible to say that the crisis of historical writing begins with the sources that historians deal with, which in their entirety do not depart from official material documents, which gives the reader that the contemporary historian has become as if he is writing a specific history that does not depart from authoritarian history and its Orientalist stereotypes?
No, not only the sources, but the way in which the history of cultural and artistic phenomena is written. Academics play a key role, but it is restricted and does not move freely in the space of knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary to start from the academic effort towards an open knowledge and cultural space that probes the depths and horizons and comes out of the prisons of all official authorities. Social, religious, political, Oriental and others.
literature and history
Khazal Al-Majidi, do literary sources, for example, help you to write authentic and diverse Arabic writing and have the ability to encompass the concept of the event?
- Never.. Rather, it is impossible, and it is always necessary to look at foreign sources in all living languages, and even extinct languages as well because they are historical languages that directly codified the past.
There is a dry relationship between the historian and the writer within the Arab world. The historian benefits greatly from contemporary literary writings, both in terms of language and as historical references, especially in Islamic history in which historical literature occupies a prominent place in its program based on what is usually called travel literature. What is the secret of the decline Interest in this relationship within Arab historical writing?
Perhaps because many historical literary genres have become deserted, the writer no longer cares about them, and the matter has become the domain of the historian, and this is what raises my personal surprise, and it is the way in which writers deal with history, genders, and literary and artistic genres that appeared in it, he despise them as they did not continue to be effective. , and I see it as a catalyst for development, take what I did in my book "The Book of Enki" when I analyzed the types and genera of Mesopotamian literature for nearly 3 thousand years, and what I added in "The Literature of Alkala...The Literature of Fire" of reconstructing new races for old literature.