Arnold Joseph Toynbee

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Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889 – 1975) was a British historian, philosopher of history, research professor of International History at the London School of Economics and the University of London and author of numerous books. Toynbee in the 1918–1950 period was a leading specialist on international affairs.

Toynbee has identifies Massagetae with the Jats.[1]

Toynbee's works

  • A Study of History
    • Vol I: Introduction; The Geneses of Civilizations
    • Vol II: The Geneses of Civilizations
    • Vol III: The Growths of Civilizations
(Oxford University Press 1934)
  • A Study of History
    • Vol IV: The Breakdowns of Civilizations
    • Vol V: The Disintegrations of Civilizations
    • Vol VI: The Disintegrations of Civilizations
(Oxford University Press 1939)
  • A Study of History
  • Vol VII: Universal States; Universal Churches
  • Vol VIII: Heroic Ages; Contacts between Civilizations in Space
  • Vol IX: Contacts between Civilizations in Time; Law and Freedom in History; The Prospects of the Western Civilization
  • Vol X: The Inspirations of Historians; A Note on Chronology
(Oxford University Press 1954)
  • Vol XI: Historical Atlas and Gazetteer
(Oxford University Press 1959)


  • A Study of History
Vol XII: Reconsiderations
(Oxford University Press 1961)
  • The Armenian Atrocities: The Murder of a Nation, with a speech delivered by Lord Bryce in the House of Lords (Hodder & Stoughton 1915)
  • Nationality and the War (Dent 1915)
  • The New Europe: Some Essays in Reconstruction, with an Introduction by the Earl of Cromer (Dent 1915)
  • Contributor, Greece, in The Balkans: A History of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Rumania, Turkey, various authors (Oxford, Clarendon Press 1915)
  • British View of the Ukrainian Question (Ukrainian Federation of U.S.A., New York, 1916)
  • Editor, The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915–1916: Documents Presented to Viscount Grey of Fallodon by Viscount Bryce, with a Preface by Viscount Bryce (Hodder & Stoughton and His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1916)
  • The Destruction of Poland: A Study in German Efficiency (1916)
  • The Belgian Deportations, with a statement by Viscount Bryce (T. Fisher Unwin 1917)
  • The German Terror in Belgium: An Historical Record (Hodder & Stoughton 1917)
  • The German Terror in France: An Historical Record (Hodder & Stoughton 1917)
  • Turkey: A Past and a Future (Hodder & Stoughton 1917)
  • The Western Question in Greece and Turkey: A Study in the Contact of Civilizations (Constable 1922)
  • Introduction and translations, Greek Civilization and Character: The Self-Revelation of Ancient Greek Society (Dent 1924)
  • Introduction and translations, Greek Historical Thought from Homer to the Age of Heraclius, with two pieces newly translated by Gilbert Murray (Dent 1924)
  • Contributor, The Non-Arab Territories of the Ottoman Empire since the Armistice of the 30 October 1918, in H. W. V. Temperley (editor), A History of the Peace Conference of Paris, Vol. VI (Oxford University Press under the auspices of the British Institute of International Affairs 1924)
  • The World after the Peace Conference, Being an Epilogue to the “History of the Peace Conference of Paris” and a Prologue to the “Survey of International Affairs, 1920–1923” (Oxford University Press under the auspices of the British Institute of International Affairs 1925). Published on its own, but Toynbee writes that it was "originally written as an introduction to the Survey of International Affairs in 1920–1923, and was intended for publication as part of the same volume".
  • With Kenneth P. Kirkwood, Turkey (Benn 1926, in Modern Nations series edited by H. A. L. Fisher)
  • The Conduct of British Empire Foreign Relations since the Peace Settlement (Oxford University Press under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs 1928)
  • A Journey to China, or Things Which Are Seen (Constable 1931)
  • Editor, British Commonwealth Relations, Proceedings of the First Unofficial Conference at Toronto, 11–21 September 1933, with a foreword by Robert L. Borden (Oxford University Press under the joint auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs and the Canadian Institute of International Affairs 1934)
  • Editor, with J. A. K. Thomson, Essays in Honour of Gilbert Murray (George Allen & Unwin 1936)
  • D. C. Somervell, A Study of History: Abridgement of Vols I-VI, with a preface by Toynbee (Oxford University Press 1946)
  • Civilization on Trial (Oxford University Press 1948)
  • The Prospects of Western Civilization (New York, Columbia University Press 1949). Lectures delivered at Columbia University on themes from a then-unpublished part of A Study of History. Published "by arrangement with Oxford University Press in an edition limited to 400 copies and not to be reissued".
  • Albert Vann Fowler (editor), War and Civilization, Selections from A Study of History, with a preface by Toynbee (New York, Oxford University Press 1950)
  • Introduction and translations, Twelve Men of Action in Greco-Roman History (Boston, Beacon Press 1952). Extracts from Thucydides, Xenophon, Plutarch and Polybius.
  • The World and the West (Oxford University Press 1953). Reith Lectures for 1952.


  • An Historian's Approach to Religion (Oxford University Press 1956). Gifford Lectures, University of Edinburgh, 1952–1953.
  • D. C. Somervell, A Study of History: Abridgement of Vols VII-X, with a preface by Toynbee (Oxford University Press 1957)
  • Christianity among the Religions of the World (New York, Scribner 1957; London, Oxford University Press 1958). Hewett Lectures, delivered in 1956.
  • Democracy in the Atomic Age (Melbourne, Oxford University Press under the auspices of the Australian Institute of International Affairs 1957). Dyason Lectures, delivered in 1956.
  • East to West: A Journey round the World (Oxford University Press 1958)
  • Hellenism: The History of a Civilization (Oxford University Press 1959, in Home University Library)
  • With Edward D. Myers, A Study of History


  • D. C. Somervell, A Study of History: Abridgement of Vols I-X in one volume, with a new preface by Toynbee and new tables (Oxford University Press 1960)
  • Between Oxus and Jumna (Oxford University Press 1961)
  • America and the World Revolution (Oxford University Press 1962). Public lectures delivered at the University of Pennsylvania, spring 1961.
  • The Economy of the Western Hemisphere (Oxford University Press 1962). Weatherhead Foundation Lectures delivered at the University of Puerto Rico, February 1962.
  • The Present-Day Experiment in Western Civilization (Oxford University Press 1962). Beatty Memorial Lectures delivered at McGill University, Montreal, 1961.
  • The three sets of lectures published separately in the UK in 1962 appeared in New York in the same year in one volume under the title America and the World Revolution and Other Lectures, Oxford University Press.
  • Universal States (New York, Oxford University Press 1963). Separate publication of part of Vol VII of A Study of History.
  • With Philip Toynbee, Comparing Notes: A Dialogue across a Generation (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1963). "Conversations between Arnold Toynbee and his son, Philip … as they were recorded on tape."
  • Between Niger and Nile (Oxford University Press 1965)
  • Hannibal's Legacy: The Hannibalic War's Effects on Roman Life
Vol I: Rome and Her Neighbours before Hannibal's Entry
Vol II: Rome and Her Neighbours after Hannibal's Exit
(Oxford University Press 1965)
  • Change and Habit: The Challenge of Our Time (Oxford University Press 1966). Partly based on lectures given at University of Denver in the last quarter of 1964, and at New College, Sarasota, Florida and the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee in the first quarter of 1965.
  • Acquaintances (Oxford University Press 1967)
  • Between Maule and Amazon (Oxford University Press 1967)
  • Editor, Cities of Destiny (Thames & Hudson 1967)
  • Editor and principal contributor, Man's Concern with Death (Hodder & Stoughton 1968)
  • Editor, The Crucible of Christianity: Judaism, Hellenism and the Historical Background to the Christian Faith (Thames & Hudson 1969)
  • Experiences (Oxford University Press 1969)
  • Some Problems of Greek History (Oxford University Press 1969)
  • Cities on the Move (Oxford University Press 1970). Sponsored by the Institute of Urban Environment of the School of Architecture, Columbia University.
  • Surviving the Future (Oxford University Press 1971). Rewritten version of a dialogue between Toynbee and Professor Kei Wakaizumi of Kyoto Sangyo University: essays preceded by questions by Wakaizumi.
  • With Jane Caplan, A Study of History, new one-volume abridgement, with new material and revisions and, for the first time, illustrations (Thames & Hudson 1972)
  • Constantine Porphyrogenitus and His World (Oxford University Press 1973)
  • Editor, Half the World: The History and Culture of China and Japan (Thames & Hudson 1973)
  • Toynbee on Toynbee: A Conversation between Arnold J. Toynbee and G. R. Urban (New York, Oxford University Press 1974)
  • Mankind and Mother Earth: A Narrative History of the World (Oxford University Press 1976), posthumous
  • Richard L. Gage (editor), The Toynbee-Ikeda Dialogue: Man Himself Must Choose (Oxford University Press 1976), posthumous. The record of a conversation lasting several days.
  • E. W. F. Tomlin (editor), Arnold Toynbee: A Selection from His Works, with an introduction by Tomlin (Oxford University Press 1978), posthumous. Includes advance extracts from The Greeks and Their Heritages.
  • The Greeks and Their Heritages (Oxford University Press 1981), posthumous
  • Christian B. Peper (editor), An Historian's Conscience: The Correspondence of Arnold J. Toynbee and Columba Cary-Elwes, Monk of Ampleforth, with a foreword by Lawrence L. Toynbee (Oxford University Press by arrangement with Beacon Press, Boston 1987), posthumous
  • The Survey of International Affairs was published by Oxford University Press under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs between 1925 and 1977 and covered the years 1920–1963. Toynbee wrote, with assistants, the Pre-War Series (covering the years 1920–1938) and the War-Time Series (1938–1946), and contributed introductions to the first two volumes of the Post-War Series (1947–1948 and 1949–1950). His actual contributions varied in extent from year to year.
  • A complementary series, Documents on International Affairs, covering the years 1928–1963, was published by Oxford University Press between 1929 and 1973. Toynbee supervised the compilation of the first of the 1939–1946 volumes, and wrote a preface for both that and the 1947–1948 volume.

On Jat History

The highly reputed historian, Arnold Joseph Toynbee advocated:

"It may not be fantastic to conjecture that the Tuetonic-speaking Goths and Gauts of Scandinavia may have been descended from a fragment of the same Indo-European-speaking tribe as the homonymous Getae and Thyssagetae and Massagetae of the Eurasian Steppe who are represented today by the Jats of the Panjab."[2]

Arnold Joseph Toynbee, also wrote:

"It had been carried from the Oxus-Jaxartes Basin into the Indus Basin by the Massagetae themselves, together with their tribal name (the Jats), in their Volker wandering in the second century BC."[3]

Bhim Singh Dahiya[4] refers to Toynbee who was of the opinion that Mahabharata is the product of Scythians.[5]

Referring to the people of northwestern India at the time of Alexander's invasion, Arnold J. Toynbee says, "It is tempting to conjecture that the warlike communities, that were encountered by Alexander the Great in the Indus Valley in 327-324 B.C. were the descendants of Eurasian nomads, who had been deposited there by a more recent Volkerwanderung than that of the Aryas. The most recent period of aridity and effervescence on the Steppes may have run from about 825 to about 525 B.C. and this period partly coincides in date with both the Babylonic 'Time of Troubles' (1000-600 B.C.) and the Syriac 'Time of Troubles' (925-525 B.C.). [6]It is gratifying to find a historian of the Status of Toynbee, inclined to the same theory.

Hukum Singh Panwar[7] writes that Incidentally, we learn that the region of the new settlement of Brahma's sons along with their followers was known as Gete[8] which includes a homonymous mountain, known by its ethnonym, Jityam Tau[9]. This fertile territory enclosed by Sogdiana, Kashgar, lake Balkhash and the Aral Sea, was sensu stricto known as Gete in very remote period[10]. It was the Saptanada (Sapta Sindhu) of Rahul Sankritayana[11], the Jiti-su[12] of ancient Turks and Mongols, the Semiryecheye[13] of the Russians and the Jatah of Changez Khan[14], Tamer Lane (Tamur Ling). All the names, except Jatah and Gete, signify 'land of seven rivers', (now Krighizia). The plethora of these names is not merely homophonic acrobatics but a reality. Sankritayana even suggests that Sapta Sindhu was the original name of the country of Gete and he [15] finds the Scythian (Saka) tribes occupying the region from the middle of the 3rd millennium B.C. upto practically the middle of the 1st millennium B.C. This is the very country of the Massagetae whom Toynbee[16] identifies with the Jats.

External links

References

  1. Toynbee, Arnold; A Study of His. Vol. XI-His, Atlas and Gaz., Mp No. 24, pp. 122-23.
  2. Toynbee, Arnold Joseph (1939). A Study of History. Volume 2. London: Oxford University Press. p. 435.
  3. Royal Institute of International Affairs; Toynbee, Arnold Joseph (1962). A Study of History (2 ed.). Volume 10. Oxford University Press. p. 54.
  4. Jats the Ancient Rulers (A clan study)/The Antiquity of the Jats,p.314
  5. A.J. Toynbee, A Study of History, Vol. V, pp. 605-606
  6. ibid., p. 274
  7. The Jats:Their Origin, Antiquity and Migrations/Jat-Its variants,p.355
  8. Kephart, op.,it., p. 116.
  9. Ali. S.M.; Geog. of the Puranas, pp. 91-92, Fig. 10, i.e. map on Ketumal. facing p. 96. ,cf. also Vladimir Minorsky, Hudud-i-Alam. pp. 6. 10. 15. 445). Jityam Tau lies in the Kumedh ranges in the Oxus basin and derived its name from Jit. the Turkish form of Jat; Tau means mountain in Turkish
  10. Kephart, op.cit., pp .. 116, 261-62 The name Gete was given to the region by the Getae, the progenitors of the Nordics who migrated there from Indus about years ago. (Ibid. pp. 228-29).
  11. Sankrityayana. Rahul: His. of Cen. Asia: pp. 2, 11. New Age Publishers Private Ltd. New Delhi. 1964. He believes that Saptanada was derived trom Sapta-Sindhu.
  12. Turkish and Mongolian name of Gete or Saptanada, Buddha Prakash, Pol. and Soc. Movement, in anc. Pb. p. 74. V.V. Barthold, 'Four Studies in the his. of C. Asia', trans. by V. &. T. Minorsky, Vol. I, p. XIII, seiden (Jiti-Su is Turkish name of Saptanada or Saptasindhu or Semirechye ) which denoted the basis of the Lakes Issikul and Balkhas with some areas in the west (Gete). Note the resemblance of Gete. Jit, jiti and Jityam and Jatah. The toponym, the ethnonym and the hydronym are the same unequivocally for Sapta-Slndhu of the Vedic age.
  13. Kephart, op.eit .. pp. J45, 167, 172,229,520. According to Sankrityayana, the Russians derived the name Semyrechye (Semi Rechye) fron the Turkish and Monglian languages.
  14. Raverty, Maj, II.C.; Tabkat-i-Nasiri, Vol. II, Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1970, Pp. 889n, 959n, Index. p. 203: For antiqulty and alteration of Gete Into Jatah, another name of Mughalistan during Chengiz Khan's time, cf. Shrifuddin's (Sherefeddin 's) his. of Timur (Petis de La Croix's French translation to English by J. Darby in 1722, Vllis. 1 & 2). According to it. Gete name dates in history from very early times, (q. by Kephart, Op.Cit.).
  15. Sankrityayana, op.ci., p. 11.
  16. Toynbee, Arnold; A Study of His. Vol. XI-His, Atlas and Gaz., Mp No. 24, pp. 122-23.

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