Machine summary:
In fact, its underlying concept goes back in an unbroken chain to Saint Augustine (354-430 CE), the major Christian thinker and philosopher of history who, in The City of God, combined the parochial historical traditions of the Greeks, Romans, and Jews, along with a few references to other traditions,' into a single ideological scheme claiming universal validity.
And the same author has to pander directly to the stereotypical Western model of history in his Western Civilization: An Urban Perspective, a work likely to have a far wider currency than his world Civilizations, as Western civilization, or "world civilization" in the traditional mold, remains a subject in far greater demand at American colleges and universities than any broader examination of the world's past which would include the Islamic world, India, China, Japan, Africa, and the Native Americans in any but subordinate roles.
In addition, since the focus of ancient history in the Western view continuously narrows in a westerly direction, the idea of progress is conveyed, implying that the accomplishments of the Greeks and the Romans were superior to those of the Near Eastern peoples.
28 The early efforts aimed at reforming the ancient- medieval- modern scheme were followed in the period after the Second World War by the foundation of various area studies programs in American universities as well as by the addition of professors and courses specializing in non-Western history.
Thus, they have taken up the seemingly broader Western scheme of ancient- medieval - modern history for the rest of the world and imposed it on their countries' own institutions, while making "Islamic history;' meaning the history of the core Muslim countries from the time of the Prophet to the present, a marginalized, parochial field.