Mediaval Muslims

            The Mediaval Muslims produced remarkable literature on geography and travel that contained significant material of historical interest. The widest nature of the Islamic empire, the universal practice of pilgrimage to Mecca, trade and commerce and the necessities of administration and diplomacy were some prominent influences for the history of Muslim world. The postal system the Abbasid empire was a cpmtomiatopm pf the fpr,er [ersoam amd Byzantine system  and it really facilitated communication between countries and people. With the travel, the development of a considerable geographical and ethnotgraphical literature flourished in the form of travelogues. Among the travelers, Ibn Batuta was the prominent one. His travels covered all over theAsia. Hi wrote about Muhammad Tughlak. He had included his personal knowledge and experience to writer about Tughlak monarch in his Pihla.

            Ibn Khaldoun was the most celebrated thinker and historian of the Islamic world. He wrote a famous book- Kitab-al-Ibal ( Universal History) which dealt with civilization and its essential characteristics and its influence upon human beings. The book mentioned the story of the Arabs. He expounded his philosophy of the author rather his sociological view of history. He used his subtle genius which remained a masterpiece.

Ibn focused on the historian’s craft for the simple reason that the knowledge of the past might be untrue. He lay down the principles of  historical criticism like Vico. Ibn had not included the supernatural elements in his writing. So, he  dismissed a thousand stories as being incompatible. Ibn pointed the lack of  historical insight of annalists and historians to think and to check. He focused on the skeptical mind of historians. He explained the source of error that made objective history impossible. The first error of historians, he pointed was partiality and the second error was the ignorance. These two errors made any historians uncritical. He was in favour of the application of knowledge of the state of society to history could distinguish truth from falsehood.

In the Muqaddima, Ibn studied the genetal laws of historical development and cause of historical changed and he presented a cyclic view of history. For him, history was information about human social organization and history was the seience of culture. According to him, culture was generated by material cause, formal cause, deeicient cause and final cause. He propounded his idea that culture was the subject to the laws of birth, growth and decay. He explained the historical process in terms of the sociological phenomenos and he asserted the science of human society. The center of his world was man.

            As Herbert Butterfield writes that The first detailed studies on the subject of historiography itself and the first critiques on historical methods appeared in the works of the Arab Muslim historian and historiographer Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), who is regarded as the father of historiography, cultural history,  and thephilosophy of history, especially for his historiographical writings in theMuqaddimah (Latinized as Prolegomena) and Kitab al-Ibar (Book of Advice). His Muqaddimah also laid the groundwork for the observation of the role ofstate, communication, propaganda and systematic bias in history,  and he discussed the rise and fall of civilizations.

Ibn Khaldoun stood alone among Islamic writers in his attempt to connect history with political science and forms of sociological inquiry. On the other hand, he was a good economist. He analyzed the role of labor and he observed that when population increased, the amount of labor increased with surplus and this surplus was channeled to luxuries. He used discursive method in all his work that was useful only in the classroom than for a general reading public. Ibn’s scheme was fit for the circumstances of North Africa but it was not for universal application. He brought a religious and theocratic atmosphere- rational, scientific and secular views which were expressed later by Vico and Machiavelli. Writer Y. Lacoste “ If Thucydides is the inventor of history , Ibn introduces history as a science.”

            The method of source criticism in Islamic historiography is called Isnad-as a method tries to ascertain on event by tracing it to the person who actually participated in it. The Islamic historical tradition was a chain of authorities. The Muslim history was the recollection of the sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad.  

Muhammad

Muhammad

Muhammad Ben Ishaq was the earliest recorder of Mohammud’s movement. He wrote a history of the Umayad dynasty of Damachus. Waqidi’s Kitab-al-Maghazi was about the history of military and missionary expression of Islam. Al-Baladhuri was renowned historian whose work would fill five printed pages. His main focus was on the westward expansion of Islam. His History of the conquest covers the subjugation of Syria, Egypt, Cyprus, Spain and so on. Tabari was one of the greates Mulsim historians. He was the greatest  searcher for information. His history of the Prophets and Kings was the first universal history in the Arabic language.

            After the conquest of Khwarazm in Persia, Mahmmud of Ghezmi had carried Al-Biruni as a hostage. Al-Biruni was a school of encyclopedia. He followed the conqueror to India where he spent thirteen years studying Sanskrit. He translated several books from Sanskrit into Arabic. His famous book Kitab-ul-Hind was a deep sociological study with modern scientific attitude and sympathetic insight. He studies Indian culture in various aspects- philosophy, mathematics, astronomy. Al-Biruni gave more information about Hindus of that time. Edward Sachau writes: The work of Al- Biruni is unique in Muslim literature….

            Islamic Egypt did not give much proof of historic past until the Fatimite period in the ninth century. Then a separate school of historical studies arose. Al-Qurashi related the conquest of Egypt in his Futuh Misr. Under the Mametukes in the fifteenth century there were many distinguished historians. The greatest of them all was Ibn Taghri Birdi. His Annals contained a number of subjects. He made various mentions of  the price if commodities in the market. Another school of historians arose in conquered Spain. The most important series of biographical works starting in the tenth and continuing into thje thirteenth century had been preserved that compensated for the loss of historical works to Muslim Spain.

            The crusades helped the historical writing in the Muslim world. Al-Qalanisi very nicely mentioned the First and the Second Crusades in his Damascus Chronicle and it supplemented the latin and Bjyzantine narratives. The most valuable of the four biographies of Saladin was written by Baha-ad-Din of Mosul. Manu writers related the history of the earth-shaking invasions of the Mongols under Jingiz Khan in the thirteenth century. Ibn-al-Athir gave the detailed description of the Mongols’ appalling cruelty and havoc they created. By AD 1400, Timur’s empire stretched from the confines of China and northwestern India to Hungary played significant role for Medieval Muslim Historiography.

Medieval Muslim Historiography

Medieval Muslim Historiography

            In pre-Islamic Arabic, the feeling for the past had expressed itself in ballad and tribes of the Arabian peninsula- half legend and half history. The life of Prophet Muhammad that led the great divine line in Arab history. In Islam, historiography was acquired features as Arabic was only the vehicle of literary expression. The most of the thinking and literature was the Persian mind. Muslim were not historical minded people. Though they had contact with Greeks, they were not influenced by Greek historiography. But the conquest of vast empire played decisive role behind Muslim historiography. Like the ancient Romans, the Arabs built a big empire over Asia, Africa and Europe. With the Arabian Empire, the two  prominent forces played a significant role for the Muslim history. They were the Islamic religion and the Arabic language. The inspiration for history writing had come from Sassanid Persia where tradition of historiography had started with the help of exiled Greek scholars. Sassanid historical sources survived the Muslim conquest of Persia ( the Battle of Nehawand). Book of Kings was the captured copy of Ctesiphon was the most important historical book. Later on , Persian noble translated the book into Arabic in the middle of the eight century. This work developed the interest of Arabs for their past. Other factor that influenced Muslim historiography was chronology that began the migration of the prophet- from Mecca to Medina in AD 622. A common chronology and religious belief were important factors that paved to great influence to the writing history. Muslim historiography developed with the foundation of the Abbasid Khalifate. It established as an independent branch of knowledge in the Islamic world. The variety of Muslim historical literature in the Middle Ages was universal history of huge dimension, history of single country , Muslim domination and travel life.

Collingwood

The method of medieval historians had a defective method. They relied on the facts of tradition and they did not have analyzing power. They conceived historical ages initiated by an historical event. They speculated about future depending on the past events. The historians of this period blindly believed that all activities of man were under the control of God. The history neglected the primary duty of a man. They exaggerated the work of providence in history to a point which left nothing for man to do. So, medieval historiography was so weak in critical method as Collingwood points.

 The Medieval historiography had left the tremendous effect on European Historical Thought. The history of the world became a common place. A single chronological framework became all historical events. The providential idea became so dominant during this age. The forward and backward looking notion helped the Renaissance, the French Revolution and so on. Finally, the division of history into periods with its strange features had become a common practice.

Greek and Arabic culture in the eleventh ....

Other important events that occurred during medieval period were the crusades and the twelfth-century renaissance which played the remarkable role in the history of this age. With the attack of Viking produced a decline in historiography in Germany. But in the tenth century, Otto the Great secured stability again. In the eleventh century, the leaven of new thinking and a distinct emergence of historical consciousness could be detected. Norman conquests in England and Sicily, the religious reforms movements and the growth of papacy, all these events led medieval history to the climax. Among them, the first general historical event which excited the interest of al European nations was Crusades. These picturesque events were responsible to lead narrow space to open space.Greek and Arabic culture in the eleventh century had led to an intellectual and aesthetic awakening in the twelfth century. This awakening inEurope is considered as the twelfth century renaissance. The main features of the twelfth renaissance were- increasing study of Roman law, the growth of trade and town life, the development of Gothic Art and the emergence of vernacular literature. A wider visions of things was milestone of twelfth century renaissance.

Sigibert of Gemblous, William of Malmesbury , William of Newburg and Henry Huntingdon were some of the renowned historians of twelfth century renaissance.Sigibert carried the newer form of medieval historical writing to a height. He wrote a world history based on wide reading. His first attempt to understand the history of Byzantium, secular history was balance .William of Malmesbury and William of Newburg practiced a new Norman English historiography. The former stressed the right use of authorities and the latter focused on the justification of authority by reason. Henry Huntingdon had a clear idea of the nature of history. He wrote history in the prologue.

Christian historiography stressed on the historical life of Christ as Collingwood calls a history divided into two periods- a period of darkness and a period of light. This history was divided into epochs. Christian historiography overcame the one-sided humanism of Graeco-Roman historiography. The historians of this era believed that historical process as the development of God’s purpose and they focused on the no single community existed. Though medieval historiography had certain features, it had some drawbacks.