Prison Writings: The Roots of Civilisation

Abdullah Ocalan is in prison in Turkey serving a life sentence. He was the leader of the Kurdish revolutionary party, the PKK. He was eventually kidnapped while abroad in 1999, and has been in prison in Turkey ever since.

Preface
Translator's introduction

Section 1: Slave-Owning Society and the Development of Civilisation
Introduction
1 The birth of civilisation on the banks of Tigris and Euphrates 
2 The historical role of Sumerian civilisation 
3 Permanent effects of Sumerian civilisation
4 Some methodological problems concerning historical development and expansion
5 The expansion and maturity of slavery
6 Tribal confederations, local and territorial states 
7 Resistance to slaveholder civilisation and its reform 
9 Medes, Persians and the making of the East

Section 2: The Age of Feudal Civilisation
1 The ideological identity of the feudal age
2 Islam as a revolutionary force of the feudal age 
3 Institutionalisation and expansion of feudal civilisation 
4 Climax and decay of feudal civilisation 
5 Some conclusive remarks on Sections 1 and 2

Section 3: The Civilisation of the Age of Capitalism
1 The birth of capitalism and its new ideological identity 
2 The development and institutionalisation of capitalist civilisation
3 Capitalist expansion and the climax of capitalist civilisation
4 The overall crisis of civilisation and the age of democratic civilisation

Section 4: Ideological Identity and Timespace Conditions of the New Development in Civilisation
1 Ideological identity in the third millennium
2 A new programme for the Kurdish movement
3 Reflections on strategic and tactical approaches
4 Time as a creative element
5 Global aspects and perspectives

Section 5: Can a New Synthesis of Civilisations Arise From the Cultural Traditions of the Middle East?
1 The renewal of ideological identity is a task of historic priority
2 The preconditions of a new synthesis
3 Theory and practice of Middle Eastern civil society

Notes
Index