An overview of Islamic Historiography
History
is not a stagnant, dull, and repetitive subject as it is generally
assumed. On the contrary, it is a dynamic, vibrant, and interesting
discipline that encompasses nearly every aspect of society and gives an
insight to understand human mind and its psyche. History gets a new life
as a result of its interpretation and presenting the past with different
points of view. Islamic history in this context like other histories
also changes frequently and gives fresh perspectives about its past. The
Islamic historiography passed different stages which indicates its
changing structure. In its earliest form it was known as al-Ayyam, which
dealt with tribal history including tribal customs and traditions, and
inter-tribal wars. The narrators were known as Ravi or Akhbari. In the
second stage the scope of historiography expanded as a result of
conquests and conversion. To accommodate this change, the pattern of
Waqa’ or Annals was adopted in which the important events of one year
were recorded. The next stage was to write the history of 10 years
entitled in a genre known as Tabaqat.It followed the history of
dynasties such as the Umayyids, the Abbasids and later on the regional
dynasties such as the Tahirids, Samanids, and Ghaznavids. The
themes of the historiography also changed according to the expansion of
the Islamic state and society. The most important theme was the Sira or
the history of the life of the Holy Prophet. It was regarded as the
ideal period of the history and has been used as a model throughout the
history. It followed the accounts of the early conquests, lives of the
great people, and the history of those countries that were conquered by
the Arabs. The
periodisation and name of the Islamic history changed when the Christian
world made an attempt to understand the phenomenon of the rise of Islam
and its political impact. In this case they coined their own terms to
describe the history of Islam. For example, they called it the history
of the Saracens, which included not only Arabs but also the Turks and
other ethnic Muslims. In the “Dictionary of Islam” T.P.Hughes gives
different derivations of the word. Either it was derived from Sharq i.e.
rising sun, the east; or from Sahara, the desert; or from Sarah, the
wife of Abraham. The name of Moors is also given to the history of
Islam, especially for those who conquered Spain. The “Dictionary of
Islam” writes that the terms derived from Mauri now known as Morocco. There
was further development in the nomenclature when a new discipline of
orientalism was established in the Western universities. There were
different motives behind it. In the earliest form it was developed by
the missionaries who were eager to understand Islam and its history in
order to encounter it and to check its growth. It followed commercial
and political interests that intensified after the process of
colonization of the Muslim countries. Besides, missionary, commercial
and political interest, there were some genuine scholars who devoted
their whole lives to study Islam and its history. The accumulative
writings of all these researchers and scholars produced immense
literature covering various aspects of history of Islam. In the
beginning the historians adopted the term of Mohammedan. Later on the
term of Islamic history was adopted which subsequently was challenged by
the European educated Muslim intellectuals on the ground that with the
political development and adoption of the institution of monarchy, the
structure of the state and society no longer remained Islamic.
Therefore, the Islamic history ceased after the reign of the rightly
guided four caliphs. The history which followed it was the history of
the Muslims and not Islam because accepting the Byzantinian and Persian
institutions and traditions polluted the purity of Islam. After
the decolonisation, in the 1950s and 60s, when the Arab nationalism
emerged on the basis of Arabic language, it integrated the Muslims as
well as the Christians in its fold. During this period, the Islamic or
Muslim history was given a new name of the history of the Arabs. The
Christian Arabs especially made attempts to assert the importance of
language that made them a part of the Arab nation. Philip Hitti,Albert
Hourani and other Arab historians are prominent to populaise this new
name. Along
with Arab nationalism, the emergence of different Arab nations, states
also changed the concept of history. The Egyptians, the Syrians, and the
Iraqis gave more emphasis on their territorial nationalism and traced
their history from ancient times. For example, the Egyptians are proud
of their ancient history of the Pharaohs, the Iraqis of their Assyrian
and Sumerian civilizations. Islam becomes one of the important factors
in the continuity of their national history. In
the modern historiography, when the term ‘Islamic’ is used, it
indicates the history of the early Islam in which the Arabs played a
dominant role. The history of other Muslim countries is known either on
their ethnic identity, ruling dynasty, or geographical location as the
Ottomans, the Safavis, and the Mughals. Islam is also identified
culturally as the Indian or the Indonesian or the North African. During
the 19th and 20th centuries the scholars all over
the world took keen interest in Islam as a religion and its historical
development. The old manuscripts were edited and published which
provided primary sources to the historians and enabling them to
reconstruct the history and fill the gaps. Archaeology, anthropology,
and sociology further gave new tools and apparatus to understand past
societies. The emergence of new knowledge removed most of the prejudices
and oft repeated myths. The result is that the history is interpreted
and reinterpreted, thus given a new and fresh vision. During
colonization and after it, the Muslim societies suffered as a result of
economic underdevelopment and social backwardness. The domination of the
western civilization and challenges to their values urged the Muslim
intellectuals to respond and present their past glory to assert their
identity. In the process to reconstruct the past, attempts were made to
find out the “ golden periods” in history. Islamic societies were
projected as tolerant and just, where there was no discrimination
against the Christians and the Jews. The Muslims contributed to science,
technology, art, architecture, and subsequently produced a sophisticated
culture. The knowledge system created by the Muslims inspired the
Christian world and enabled them to develop their civilization. It is
vehemently argued that Islam played an important part in the development
of western culture. Now,
I would like to focus on some of the themes
which are interpreted anew as a result of new historical
evidence. One such theme is the conflict between Islam and Christianity,
which is deeply rooted in both the communities. The seeds of
confrontation were laid at the time when the Arabs conquered Christian
countries of Syria, Iraq and Maghrib or North African and later on
Andulus.The Christians lost the land of Bible to the Muslims. They never
forget it and longed to take back their lost territories. In
the 11th century, Europe was mobilisd in the name of religion
to launch a crusade against Islam in order to liberate the holy places
of Christianity. Nearly 2 centuries the crusaders dominated al Quds and
other cities of the Arab world. In 1187, however, finally they were
defeated and expelled from the occupied territories. When in the 13th
century the Mongols emerged as a power, the Islamic world crumbled as a
result of disastrous and crushing defeats. Taking advantage of this
weakness, the Christian powers negotiated and established diplomatic
relations with the Mongols. However both attempts to gain politically
failed owing to the weakness of the Muslim power. Keeping in view the
history of crusade, some historians point out that the establishment of
the state of Israel with the help of the western power is a continuation
of crusade to weaken Islam. It is also believed that like the
crusaders’ political domination, the Israelis control over Palestine
would come to an end after a time. In the present context bashing of
Islam by the west is also considered an age-old crusade, mentality and
deep-rooted historical hostility. The
next important theme, which had created controversy in the past is
conversion. For a long period it was believed that Islam was spread by
sword. Coersion and pressure were main tools which were used by the
Muslims to convert the conquered people. The modern research has
dispelled the oft-repeated argument. It is proved that Islam was spread
not because of force or pressure but because of social, economic and
political motives, which lured people to convert voluntarily. As Ira
Lapidus points out in his book “A Study of Islamic Societies”, that
up to 13th centuries the majority of the conquered countries
of the Middle east were not Muslim. It was the slow and gradual process
of conversion during which religious and social structure of the
non-Muslim societies was collapsed, the institution of church became
weak, landed aristocracy of Iraq and Persia was destroyed. Losing their
support base actually led the conversion of people. He
also points out two patterns of conversion. If the Arabs, the Turks, and
the Persian Muslim elite conquered any country, it maintained its
superiority and remained a minority keeping its separate identity and
resisted to adopting the local culture. In case, the local elite became
Muslim, they integrated their cultural traditions to Islam such as
happened in Indonesia and Africa. Historians
also point out the problem which conversion created in the Islamic
society. In the early period of Islam, after the conquest of Persia,
when large number of Iranians became Muslim, they faced problem of
integrating the Arab society. To distinguish them from the Arabs they
were given the status of Mawali or clients .In this capacity, they were
not given equal social status which created strong resentments among the
new converts. It led to a movement known as Shaubiyya or nationalism. To
get status and integrity, they took part in all those movements, which
were against the status quo. Ultimately, the Abbasid Revolution
fulfilled their ambitions. It was the period when the Arabs and
non-Arabs integrated and became an equal part of the society. The
conflict and clash between Arab and Iranian nationalism however,
continued. From 7th to 13th centuries, Middle and
North African countries were linguistically united. Arabic became their
language. But Iran resisted the process of Arabicisation and retained
its own language, though in the form of Arabic script. Firdusi’s
Shanama became the bible of the Iranian nationalism and Maulana
Roomi’s mathnavi acquired the status Quran dar Zaba-I-Pahlavi (Quran
in the Pahlavi language). The Indian Islam is more influenced by the
Iranian nationalism rather the Arabian one. By
the 14th century, the Islamic societies throughout the
Islamic world are identified by three important symbols: the court
(royal palace, fort), mosque, and Khanqah and Dargah (shrine). The court
became the center of political power where the monarch assumed absolute
authority and ruled with the help of bureaucrats. Mosque was the seat of
the ulama who projected themselves as the defender and the interpreter
of faith. Muslim rulers, throughout history successfully subordinated
this influential section of society under their control by patronizing
them and helping them financially. Khanqah and shrine were places where
Sufi saints provided spiritual solace to the people. Mostly, they
remained aloof from politics and established a parallel culture in
opposition to political system. The Muslim societies circled around
these three symbols. In
India, the Islamic historiography played a very important role in
creating a separate Muslim identity. Unlike other Muslim societies who
own the past of their countries, the Muslims of India kept themselves
aloof from the Indian past and turned to the classical Islamic
historical past. That is why there was a surge of such historical
literature. Abdul Halim Sharar, Shibli Nomani, and Abul Razzaq Kanpuri
published in Urdu and Amir Ali in English numerous books on the history
dealing with the heroes of Islam and depicting the Abbasids period and
the Muslim rule in Spain as the golden periods. This tendency
contributed to the two-nation theory and alienated the Muslims of India
from the ancient Indian past. History
determines identity. After the partition, we are still in dilemma which
identity should we accept first: Pakistani or Islamic. |