Past present: Knowledge is power

After conquering and defeating Asian and African countries, European imperial powers militarily subdued and crushed any resistance that surfaced. However, they could not wipe out the opposition completely and the political struggle of the vanquished nations continued.

To create obedience and acceptance of their rule, the imperial powers adopted an alternative method. As a first step, cultural institutions and traditions were demolished in order to weaken native identity. Secondly, they successfully introduced Western values and norms to replace the native culture and traditions. Conse*quently, the hegemony of colonial masters was psychologically and intellectually accepted.

In 1799, collaborating with the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Marathas, the East India Company finally defeated Tipu Sultan. His collection of antiquities was looted and his library which had rare manuscripts and books was plundered. The motive behind this was to deprive the Indians of their sources of knowledge. In another case, when the state of Awadh was abolished and Wajid Ali Shah exiled, the East India Company took control over royal property, including the library.

Imperial hegemony of knowledge has made us intellectually inferior, lacking confidence in our ability to understand our history and culture
Dr Springer, an Austrian employee of the East India Company, was assigned the task of preparing a catalogue for the library. While cataloguing, Springer took away some important manuscripts and books, and left India before the 1857 rebellion. Springer donated his collection to German and Swiss libraries and it is difficult for South Asian scholars to access this treasure of knowledge.

In 1857, after crushing the rebellion, the British systematically destroyed the private libraries of the Mughal nobility, taking away books and paintings as war booty. Besides, we also find many instances, where notable Indians presented manuscripts and miniatures to the British officials, in order to please them for favours. When they returned to England after completing their service, they took their collections along with them to England and donated these to various libraries. Some of these books are at the India Office library which has now been converted to the British Library — a repository of the archives of the East India Company, containing manuscripts, books, maps, letters, diaries and personal papers.

Scholars from the subcontinent have lost important material needed to write history of the subcontinent and instead have to visit London in pursuit of research material.

On the other hand, American and European libraries and universities have so much research material available to them that their scholars can use it and establish their academic hegemony. In Pakistan, libraries such as Punjab Public Library and the library of Punjab University have large collections of manuscripts and books, but these have not been catalogued, and hence not easily accessible to researchers.

Archives in Punjab, Sindh and the Balochistan contain precious documents and papers, books and manuscripts, but sadly, there is no arrangement for scholars to use them. When the state of Bahawalpur was abolished, an inheritance dispute on property followed and the state library suffered neglect. The books were not properly preserved and consequently became scattered everywhere.

Some families in Punjab and Sindh inherited ancestral libraries containing a number of beautifully calligraphed and illustrated manuscripts, not accessible to outsiders. Occasionally, they were sold to European libraries at high prices. As a result, our scholars were unable to carry out well-documented and referenced research, while we relied on the work of foreign scholars, who interpreted our history and culture according to their point of view.

This reliance, as a matter of fact, is the intellectual domination of European and American scholars. Their hegemony of knowledge has made us intellectually inferior, lacking confidence in our ability to understand our history and culture. It seems that we are intellectually colonised by Western knowledge. Therefore, we need to become independent and liberate ourselves from Western control of knowledge.

Source: Knowledge is power
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, June 5th, 2016

Past present: The historiography of early Islam

In the case of pre-Islamic society, the Arabs were divided into different tribes. There was no state, or its institutions, or legal system that could unite and bind them. Therefore, each tribe had a history, culture, customs, traditions, rituals, and a past which maintained the continuity of its identity.

The common events remembered were tribal wars and festivals, which provided them with an opportunity to unite. The famous festival of Okaz in particular, which was held annually in Taif, would bring together all the tribes that were scattered in far off places. Besides commercial activities, a poetic competition would also be organised and the best poem would be hung up in the Kaaba as a symbol of honour for the poet (Mu’allaqat).

This pre-Islamic past is known as Ayyam (days). This genre of historiography remained popular among the tribes even after their conversion to Islam.

When the Arabs conquered Syria and Iraq, they found cantonment towns of Kufa and Basra, where poets and storytellers would recite tribal history to gatherings of soldiers to inspire them with their glorious tribal past. The past events were verbally passed on from one generation to another, as they were narrated in poetic form which charged the listeners emotionally, creating in them a pride for their tribes. Later, the Arab conquest of Islam was included in the historiography of Ayyam. Therefore, it became a historical source of not only pre-Islamic, but also of the early Islamic period.

In the absence of original manuscripts, court narratives are described as history
On the contrary, unlike Arab society, Yemen had a state, institutions, as well as a legal system, which united all tribes of the society as one. In the first century Hijri (Islamic calendar), the history of Yemen was written down, marking the beginning of historiography in Islamic tradition. In pre-Islamic Arab tribal society, each tribe had a genealogist who traced the history of the tribe and the origin of the families and their ancestors. Besides him, there was a ravi or narrator who would describe important historical events verbally. In its present meaning, it was used for the first time in the 9th century of the Christian era, therefore the task of history was to determine the occurrence of events, their time and era chronologically.

History books written before the year AD750 are not available any more. However, there is evidence of some historians’ work but these books are not accessible in their original form. Later on, when history became popular, their pupils and admirers popularised history written by them on the basis of memory. All historical sources of the Umayyad period were either destroyed by the Abbasids or disappeared with the passage of time. Therefore, the systematic writing of history started during the Abbasid period.

Historiography radically changed after the Muslim conquest of Iraq and Iran. When the people of other nations and races converted to Islam, they also brought along with them not only their cultural values and norms but also their history. This expanded the boundaries of history and included in it the non-Arab historical past of other nations. In ancient Arabia, the word Khabar or news was used to transmit historical and important information and those who narrated it were called as Akhbari and Ravi. Akhbari historians collected important pre-Islamic events in order to prove the cultural and political domination of the Arabs, in view of the growing influence of the Persian culture.

When Islamic power extended and number of events increased, the method of Khabar could not convey them easily to everyone; therefore, a new genre known as Annals was introduced through which important events of a year were collected and written down, taking care that these events related to each other and expressed context. In this way, society acquired historical consciousness.

Historiography further changed with the expansion of Islamic states and the emergence of new political, social and economic institutions. To handle past sources of history, a new system, known as Tabaqaat, was devised and in each Tabaqa the history of every ten years was described. It was also customary to write the history of poets, ulema and scholars related to a century, such as poets of the 8th century and ulema of the 4th century.

With the establishment of kinship in Islamic society, historiography became dynastic. In dynastic history, court historians focused their narratives on activities of the rulers, the aristocracy and scholars.

Historiography reflects the social, cultural and economic conditions of a society. If a historian is patronised by the royal court, his observations are limited to the activities of the rulers and aristocrats and he only depicts the high culture of his time.

On the other hand, an independent historian covers events beyond the royal court and highlights the contribution of common people and portrays the popular culture of a society. However, an active and dynamic society contributes academically and militarily, providing history with plenty of material to narrate and analyse. But if a society is stagnant and sterile, history becomes barren and unattractive.

Dynastic history covered only those events which related to the ruling classes such as wars, administration, and contribution of literature, music, paintings and architecture. Common people generally remained absent from their narratives.

Source: The historiography of early Islam
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, June 19th, 2016

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The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion !

Past present: In quest of the truth

In the early period of Islamic history, the most important and significant task was to collect material on the life of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). His personality was the centre of important events which happened during his lifetime in the early period of Islam. Efforts were made to preserve all his actions for the guidance of the Muslim community. Firstly, Hadith or traditions were collected and carefully examined and verified through a method known as asnaad. This methodology was also applied in writing history.

Historians divided the material on the life of the Prophet into three categories. The first category covered the time period from Hazrat Adam to Hazrat Ismail. The second covered the period from Hazrat Ismail to the death of the Holy Prophet, and the third category dealt with the events which occurred during the lifetime of the Holy Prophet. The sources of the material were the Old and New Testaments, the Holy Quran, Traditions of the Holy Prophet and the history of the Arab tribes.

Ibn Ishaq (d.768 AD) was the first historian to collect material on the life of Holy Prophet, producing it in the form of his book, Seerat-i-Rasulullah. The book however, wass considered lost work, but extensive passages quoted by subsequent historians from the book provided modern historians the opportunity to reorganise it, and it is now available.

An important characteristic of Ibn Ishaq’s book was that the events were presented in a simple form without exaggeration. Since he was tolerant in his views, he praised and admired the role of those who opposed Islam, making the book a reliable source of information on early Islam.

With time, history writing evolved with different themes and cultural trends
Ibn Hisham (d.833AD), who revised Ibn Ishaq’s book, distorted it by deleting passages that he did n’t approve of. In the absence of Ibn Ishaq’s manuscript, the availability of Ibn Hisham’s book became the only source of material on the life of the Holy Prophet.

Another prominent historian, Umar Alwaqidi (d.82AD) wrote Kitab-al-maghazi, a well-known work on the military campaigns and wars fought in the early period of Islam. He concluded his history up to the period of Haroon al Rashid, the Abbasid caliph. Ibn Saad (d.845AD) further extended the scope of historiography by introducing the genre of tabaqaat. The first tabaqa focuses on the life of the Holy Prophet, the second on the lives of the companions of the Holy Prophet and the third one covered the lives of Tabaeen (the generation which followed the companions of the Holy Prophet. This division of historiography helped the readers to understand the process of history.

New material included the Prophet’s orders, letters, writings and documents about his habits, manners, and the signs of his prophethood. This pattern became standardised and was followed by the later historians.

The third important theme of historiography was with regard to the spread of Islam, as a result of wars and the conquests of Syria, Iraq, Iran and Sindh. Yahya al Baladhuri (d.892AD) recorded these conquests in his book Futuhul Buldan. His other book, Ansab al Ashraf, is a geneology of the nobles who fought for the glory of Islam.

The conquests of new territories and the conversion of non-Arabs to Islam brought about innovation to history writing. The newly-converted people retained their memories of the past and continued to have an emotional association. Therefore, these were included in Islamic historiography, creating a conflict between the Arabs and the Iranians, each wanting to assert the superiority of their culture and history over the other.

The Arabs included pre-Islamic history known as Ayam and Akhbar to Islamic historiography, claiming that for them, it was a significant factor throughout their history. On the other hand, the Irani nationalists countered the Arabs to prove their cultural superiority. The conflict enriched the history writing and historians collected new sources of material from both sides.

After the ninth century, history writing further changed as the Abbasid dynasty established an absolute form of kingship. In the new political system, the ulema were replaced by Iranian bureaucrats as influential classes and these bureaucrats took up the responsibility of writing history on the basis of state documents, which were at their disposal. The new form of historiography changed its character. It became secularised and was no more dominated by religious themes. As a result, two groups of historians emerged — court historians, who recorded happenings of the royal court and the ulema, whose writings were confined to religious themes. From then on, history writing began to follow two new formats, religious and secular.

Source: Past present: In quest of the truth
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, July 3rd, 2016

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The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion !

Past present: Writing on history

Throughout centuries, there has always been a strong regard for history, with memorisation being the most common, popular and honoured style of learning. Knowledgeable people who memorised narrative accounts would recite to others. Islamic historiography is characterised by a continuous narrative so that each event is set out in the words of contemporaries and eye-witnesses. Some narrators were experts in certain areas like Persian wars or Arab tribes and later geneology became an important aspect.

This scenario, however, left little or no space for critical analysis, unlike Western education. For complex issues, such as resolving certain points within the teachings of the Prophet (PBUH), schools were established where memorisation was complimented with minimal jottings but oral tradition remained the principal method of learning.

Three historians contributed significantly to Muslim historiography. Tabari’s (d.923AD) most influential and best known works are Tafsir al Tabari, a commentary on the Quran and Tarikh al Rusul wa al Muluk (History of the Prophets and Kings), which is a historical chronology that has become a great source of knowledge of history. Although he collected voluminous material, he did not critically analyse and assess its veracity. Another characteristic of his book is that he extensively quoted passages from other sources, such as Ibn Ishaq.

Al Yaqubi (d.897AD) also travelled widely and collected material from each country, mentioning the people, their habits, customs and rituals. Al Masudi (d.956AD)’s book Muruj al Dhahab is a collection of his travels and observations on the history, geography, and culture of those countries which he visited. These three historians take the credit for a radical change in historiography. For example, Yaqubi did not recognise most of the historical stories attributed to the Sassanid period as valid. Tabari collected historical accounts of different historians for a single event without his own comments, allowing readers to make their own decisions as to who was closer to the truth. Masudi not only discussed his travelling experiences but also gave importance to political and cultural history of the countries that he travelled to. One also finds glimpses of philosophical ideas in his writings. He pointed out the similarity between nature and human action. Further, in his writing, the process of life and death is reflected in the rise and falls of civilisation.

As time progressed, so did the various formats for documenting the past
Besides these three historians, there were others who observed history in a wider perspective. Al Dinawari (d.896AD) in his book Akhbar al Tiwal, dealt exhaustively with the history of Persia. He left the account of India and China for want of sufficient material.

Ibn Miskawayh (d.1030AD), Persian scholar, adopted the secular style of writing history, with the objective of presenting history in a way that people could learn from it. He was one of the first and foremost Muslim historians to write a chronicle of contemporary events as an eyewitness.

He gave a detailed account of Persian rulers and argued that as history was the outcome of human experiences and actions, human history should be emphasised. In this way, he became one of the first Muslim scholars to describe the idea of evolution, as reflected the title of his book Tajarib al-umam (Experiences of nations).

In his book, Hamzah al Isfahani (c.961 and 971) pointed out the various chronological styles and methods practiced by different nations. Ibn Qutaybah’s history fulfilled demands of the officials of the existing administration. After integrating Ayyam (the pre-Islamic tribal history) with world history, he introduced a new form of historiography.

Famous philosopher and historian Al Biruni (d.1048AD) added philosophy, science and linguistics to the historical narratives, thereby expanding its scope. His judgment followed an analysis of historical events.

The concept of universal history began from Adam to the emergence of Islam where events were mentioned in chronological order. It was not comprehensive world history, but only as it was known to the Muslim historians. Therefore, it included the history of the Jews, the Christians, and the Persians but there was no mention of the Greeks, the Indians and the Chinese.

Some later historians wrote the history of other nations where they emphasised cultural aspects but avoided politics. For example, Yaqubi overlooked the political history of the Greeks and only focused on their contribution in philosophy. Similarly, Indian and Chinese politics were ignored and intellectual contribution was highlighted.

The dilemma of the Muslim historians was how to deal with the achievements of pre-Islamic nations and how to reconcile their contribution to Islam in order not to undermine its role and at the same time care was taken not to distort historical events. Al Masudi made an attempt to solve this problem by explaining that the pre-Islamic philosophers, writers and intellectuals may not have been Muslims, yet they created knowledge that benefitted people and left behind them a rich cultural heritage and wisdom to guide communities and nations to the right path. He recognised their role in the development of civilisation and tactfully accommodated it with the Islamic historiography.

In the 9th and 10th centuries, the Mu’tazila movement emerged judging everything according to reason and rational thought and influencing history as well.

The importance of history declined when in the 10th and 11th centuries when the institution of madressah was established throughout the Muslim world. The curriculum of the madressah based on the Quran, Hadith, and Islamic jurisprudence, reduced the importance of history because it could not support religious education. Gradually, history disappeared from their curriculum.

Its scope was further curtailed when historians began to serve rulers and under their patronage wrote the history of ruling classes to appease and please them.

Source: Past present: Writing on history
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, July 17th, 2016

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The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion !

Pastpresent: How research interests of Muslim historians changed over time

After the decline of the Abbasids, new independent regional dynasties surfaced. The changing political climate also led to the emergence of different social classes. The tradition of penning universal history in the Islamic world came to an end because people were now more interested in local and current affairs rather than foreign issues or those of the past.

Historiography hence underwent radical changes, with the focus now being on topics that had not been explored so far. A variety of historical narratives were constructed. For instance, history of the localities or cities, history of ruling dynasties or of the social classes, biographies, autobiographies, history of administrative affairs, and of the rules and regulations that governed the state. Moreover, history was also written on literature, architecture, art and science. This new material enriched historiography and the role of historians became important in society.

The ruling regional dynasties that emerged were keen to preserve their memories for the upcoming generation. Consequently, they began to patronise historians in order to get their achievements written about and to be presented as ideal rulers.

Court historians fulfilled rulers’ ambitions, adopting a style of writing which described the personality, administration and justice system of the ruler in a complex, ornate and exaggerated manner. As most of the rulers either read it or listened to the account being read out, it was impossible for historians to criticise or write anything against them. It reduced history writing to mere sycophancy.

An impact of the downfall of the Abbasids was that the people’s loyalties lay with their local rulers and a sense of belonging increased to the cities where they lived most of their lives.

Historians began to write history of the cities, bringing to light the historical role and cultural contribution of the cities in a unique way. For instance, the histories of Baghdad, Mosul, Alexandria, Bukhara, Qom, Isphahan, Tabaristan, Wasit, Herat and Behaq were documented.

Another novelty was the introduction of writing biographies of famous individuals. Facts about the events of a person’s life were collected and narrated chronologically, emphasising his field of interest. Biographies of people belonging to different professions and social classes were written down including ministers, aristocrats, ulemas, jurists, saints, judges, poets, thinkers, philosophers, scientists, officials, traders, physicians, teachers, famous women and chess players.

The Iranian and Indian historians emulated this genre of literature which was introduced by the Arabs. This diverted the focus of writing history from the rulers to important individuals in society. The inclusion of these individuals and their role broadened the scope of historiography. This kind of history writing reflects the socio-cultural structure of society, formation of different socio-economic groups, economic activities and literary and artistic development in the society.

Persian language was patronised by the rulers of the independent ruling dynasties established in the Eastern part of the caliphate and eventually replaced Arabic in history writing, while some Arabic literature was translated into Persian. The successive dynasties of Central Asia such as the Samanids, Ghaznavids and Saljuqs revived the Persian language and historians were employed at their court to compose the history of their reign in Persian.

Firdausi’s (d.1020AD) Shahnama traced the myth and history of ancient Persia, inspiring the Persians with details of their past glory. Shahnama became the most popular book in the Persian-speaking world. Even today, the Shahnama is recited in Iran to revive the memories of the past.

In the 13th century, the Mongols invaded the Muslim world and the Abbasid caliphate finally came to an end in 1258, after the occupation of Baghdad and the assassination of the last caliph. The historiography further changed as the influence of Arabic language and Arabic culture came to end in the eastern part of the caliphate.

The Mongols retained the Persian language for administration as well as history writing. Two important historians recorded the Mongol history such as Ata Malik Juvaiyni (d.1283AD) whose book Tarikh-i-Jahankusha covered Halaku’s conquest of of Baghdad.

The other was Rashid al Din Hamadani (d.1318 AD) who wrote Jami al-Tawarikh, which was initially a history of the Mongols and their dynasty but gradually it expanded to cover history from Adam to the writer’s own time period. The scope of historiography characteristically changed to become secular.

When Timur (r.1370–1405) came into power, he took a keen interest in the documentation of history. It was his daily routine to carefully listen to the accounts written by the court historians. His successors continued this practice and during their rule, Herat became a centre of the prominent historians, such as Hafiz-i-Abru and Mir Khwand. As court historians for Humayun, the Mughal emporer, Mir Khwand and his grandson Khwand Mir took the tradition of history writing to India.

Source: How research interests of Muslim historians changed over time
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, July 31st, 2016

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The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion !

Past Present: Legends and myths

European historians trace the origin of their history writing from the Greco-Roman period. For a long time the history of ancient Greece remained in oblivion and not much was known about the ancient Greeks. The discovery and publication of Hesiod’s Theogony and Homer’s Iliad and the Odyssey open the secrets and unknown aspects of its ancient history.

Homer’s Iliad brought to light the 10-year Trojan war and its heroes. Later, the German archaeologist Schliemann (d.1890 AD) excavated the ancient city of Troy which showed that the war between Greek and Troy was not a fiction but a reality. It appears that there were other historians besides Hesoid and Homer but their writings were destroyed before the advent of the modern ages. When Constantinople was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453, some scholars fled the city taking with them the manuscript of Herodotus (d.425 BC) and Thucydides (d.395 BC) to Italy where these were edited and published.

Roman politician and scholar Cicero (d.44 BC) called Herodotus the father of history for his famous work Histories featuring the Greco-Persian wars. “Historie” is a Greek word which means inquiry. Herodotus shared his views on the foundation of Greek democracy, compared and contrasted democracy and monarchy, portraying the Athenian democratic form as the exemplary form of government. He glorified the 300 Spartans, who fought bravely but were killed by the Persian army at Thermopylae. He also narrated in his book the countries he visited, their customs, traditions and institutions. However, for his exaggeration or his concoction of a good story by adding a bit of fiction to it, Herodotus has also been called the “father of lies”. Despite all his weaknesses, his history is regarded as the foundation of European historiography.

Not always separating fact from fiction, the Greeks were the first to start writing the history of Europe
Thucydides, who witnessed and experienced the Peloponnesian Wars fought between Sparta and Athens, narrated in detail the important events which happened during the conflict. His philosophy of history was based on realism and that the strong should rule the weak, as they have the power to do so. Generally the Greeks believed in the cyclical concept of history in which the same events occurred again and again in similar conditions. These two historians provided historical methodology and style of writing to the future generations of European historians.

The founding of the Roman Empire and its conquests expanded the scope of historiography. As generals, consuls, nobles and administrators played important roles to conquer other countries, their contribution was included in history and they were eulogised as the founders of the empire.

Besides wars, other aspects of society especially the formation of law and the administrative structure of the state were significant areas of interest for Roman historians. They also critically examined the role of the Roman Senate, the assemblies and the judicial system of the state. We can also find plenty material regarding the activities of common people which were centred around the Forum of the city as well as how gladiators were their entertainment source. Historians also described the triumphant march of the generals who returned home after a conquest, bringing war booty with them which pleased the public. The knowledge of history became further enriched when Romans conquered lands, learnt their languages, customs and traditions and in this way brought to light their history.

When the Roman nobility became conscious of history, they wanted to safeguard the achievements of their families in order to retain their high social status and in this regard, they began to preserve the historical documents of their families which later provided original sources for history writing. However, the biographies which were written on the basis of these documents were not impartial and paid glowing tributes to the nobility, which were seldom deserved. Some generals wrote accounts of the wars that they fought, for instance Julius Caesar’s (d.44BC) commentaries on his conquests of Gaul and Britain were lauded for being rich sources of history.

Other historians of the Roman Empire were Livy (d.17AD) whose monumental work The History of Rome comprises 142 books, and Plutarch (d.120AD) whose work Parallel Lives a series of biographies of Greek and Roman nobility is fascinating and absorbing. Polybius (d.118BC) and Tacitus (d.117AD) wrote about the moral degeneration caused the downfall of the Roman Empire. Modern historians were deeply inspired by Roman history which became their preferred field of research. One such historian is Edward Gibbons (d.1794) whose masterpiece The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire published in six volumes remains one of the best sources of knowledge about the vicissitudes of Roman society.

Source: Past Present: Legends and myths
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, August 28th, 2016

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The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion !

Past Present: Seeing history through the prism of religion

The fall of the Roman Empire led to the development of Christian historiography. When Europe converted to Christianity, it deviated from the Greek and Roman style of history writing and historiography began to be used as an instrument to preach and propagate Christianity. In Greek and Roman times, history was secular and presented a critical analysis of the worldly affairs of society. There was no divine intervention in the process of history writing and heroes would be described as powerful history-makers owing to either their intellectual prowess or military strength. War was a favourite theme that affected every aspect of society and dramatised the entire historical narrative.

Contrary to the Greeks and Romans, Christian historians adopted extreme religious views to comprehend and interpret historical events. According to their point of view, everything happened as per divine intervention, so understanding the nature and causes of these events was beyond human comprehension. Christian historiography denied the cyclical view of history which was previously being used, replacing it with a linear view as they believed that the world began with Adam and Eve and would end with the ‘Second Coming of Christ.’

With this approach of history, the role of man became subordinate to divine law. Therefore, he became passive and submissive without using his intellectual capacity to play any role in shaping history. Historians of this period accepted the biblical account of history without any analysis and criticism and relied on the belief of the creation of the universe, division of races and early history of the Middle East.

The Christian world view had a fundamental impact on history writing
Among the early Christian historians were Eusebius (d.339/340 AD) the author of Demonstrations of the Gospel and Jerome (d.419 or 420 AD), whose translation of the Bible into Latin from Hebrew is known as Vulgate. A Gallo-Roman historian Gregory of Tours (d.594 AD) the author of the Ten Books of Histories used history for religious preaching and guidance of the society. Instead of political, social and economic conditions of the country he wrote about the lives of saints and their miracles. Historical works of the English historian Bede (d.735 AD) also referred to as St Bede represent the first consistent attempt to date events using the Incarnation of Christ as a focal point.

History writing progressed when the Holy Roman emperor Charlemagne (r.800-814) ordered monasteries to maintain an annual record of the events happening during his reign. As a result the monks systematically documented important events according to seasons and months. These documents provided a rich source of material to modern historians, which helped them to write down the history of monasteries as well as the social and political conditions of this time. Minimising the influence of religion, this approach politicised and secularised history.

An interesting characteristic of historiography of this period was that historians emphasised contemporary history, avoiding references from the past. Therefore the scope of history was marginalised. Although history was not taught as a subject in educational institutions, rulers and aristocrats started to take a deep interest in history, in order to maintain their status and privileges on the basis of their dynasties. They preserved the documents, papers and royal orders which granted them landed property and political rights. This material also became a great source of historiography for modern historians.

Historiography suffered during the mediaeval period because the printing press had not yet been invented and books were not available. Manuscripts and documents which were the only the sources of material were full of spelling mistakes and included the scribe’s own point of view in the text. Since there was no method to detect a forged document or to verify the genealogies of the aristocrats, historians would copy exactly what was available in the manuscript without editing or correction. As a result mistakes and forgeries became part of history books and were later removed by modern historians who studied philology and learnt the art of editing. Eventually, with the advent of the printing press, documents were published after being edited, bringing to light correct versions of history.

Historiography of the mediaeval period either remained dominated by religious views or was twisted by rulers and aristocrats to project their own image. Up until the modern ages, common people and their role in making history remained obscured.

Source: Seeing history through the prism of religion
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, September 11th, 2016

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The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion !