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Paper prepared by Prof. Omar Hasan Kasule Sr. MB ChB (MUK), MPH (Harvard) DrPH (Harvard) Chairman, Institutional Review Board - KFMC
DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION
• History studies the events of the past with critical explanations of the causes and impact of historical events.
• Historiography is the theory and history of history writing.
• History has been visualized as literature, as propaganda, and as an ethical judgment on the past.
• Philosophy of history analyses the historical process and the methodology used to study history.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
• Previous civilizations wrote records of their history. Rulers had records made about their achievements. Sometimes biography was mixed with history the former was centered on the individual whereas the latter was focused on events.
• History has been separated from religion only in recent centuries. Before that religious texts were the record of the past as seen from their vantage point.
• Historical writings have always reflected the biases and world views of the writer. In a way, people write their own history.
• Ibn Khaldun is remembered as the first to develop history theories in his muqaddimat.
PARADIGMS AND METHODS - 1
• The philosophy of history seeks to provide an explanation of historical events as well as a critical analysis of the methods used by historians.
• There are in order and some patterns in human history that can be weaved from analysis of historical events over time. The order and patterns are based on the fact that humans have purposes and that their actions are not arbitrary but follow certain underlying assumptions, rules, traditions, and thoughts.
• The order and patterns also reflect sunan al llaah fi al kawn. Thus, history cannot be considered to be arbitrary or discontinuous.
• Also, Allah’s will intervene in historical events such that they do not follow the course suggested by material factors.
PARADIGMS AND METHODS - 2
• During the enlightenment and after it, European thinkers tried to use the scientific method in explaining historical events. This consisted of formulating hypotheses and then testing them using historical facts. In this way, they tried to turn history into a true science.
• Application of the scientific method to history runs into a problem that historical events unlike natural phenomena are created by humans, therefore, humans have a better understanding of these events than would natural scientists understand natural phenomena that they observe.
• If we take history as a collective product of individual initiatives, it becomes difficult to interpret history at all because we can never know what motivated a specific individual in a past era. We may find records from that person or from others around him on what were the motivations but these could be misrepresentations of the inner hidden agenda.
• Historical events cannot be understood properly without referring to the thought, religious, social, and cultural conditions of the contemporary period.
PARADIGMS AND METHODS - 3
• Karl Marx made a materialistic and deterministic interpretation of history. History is determined by the way humans interact with the material world to survive. Thus, political and social structures, as well as human conflicts, were viewed as products of economic forces.
• Ibn Khaldun proposed the theory that history is alternating cycles of growth and decay. A rising civilization reaches its climax and st
• arts declining eventually being replaced by a rising civilization of a previously primitive people.
• The methods of historiography are historical research of documents and their interpretation in view of their epoch. Historians need training in supporting disciplines such as archeology and languages to be able to deal with written sources.
• Objective history is an ideal that is difficult to achieve. Historians hold a priori assumptions and beliefs before they start their research.
ISLAMIC EPISTEMOLOGICAL CRITIQUE
ISLAMIC DISCIPLINE INTRODUCTION