HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN EARLY MUSLIM HISTORIOGRAPHY

Historiography concerns with the writing of history by any particular groups or in any particular period. This field of discipline generally involve in dealing with the activities in describing the origin, growth or decline of the forms of literary expression, which were used for the preservation of historical material. In case of Muslim historiography, it concerns with the study of rise and development of Islamic history along with the development of historical consciousness and historiography itself. In studying or analyzing historiography, ‘historical consciousness’ is the fundamental aspect that needs to be put into consideration. It is because idea lies behind preserving historical material as matter of fact is coming from the sense of history-conscious. Thus this brief article will try to examine and to trace the historical consciousness that exist, and grow to be the foundation for the rise of early Muslim historiography. Again, when we speak about early Muslim historiography, it is mainly focus on the land of central Arabia, where Islam was sent and start to be propagated in around 7th century Makkah.

Pre-Islamic Arabia was rich and well known for their tradition; ‘ayyam al-‘arab (the assemble of the stories during the battle days of the tribes in Arabia), as well as its genealogical lore (the tradition of preserving the family tree or nasab of family or tribes through memorization skill). Both traditions basically have a concept of recording and preserving substances for certain purposes. Nevertheless, life during the pre-Islamic Arabian didn’t provide them with the systematic methodology in preservation of materials. The common practice that applied during that time was through the method of memorization since almost none of them know the art of writing. The feast such as ‘Ukaz fair was dominated by the poets and orator which have skills of memorization. By this talent, they presented their tribal voices and became the spokesman in championing their own tribes. But the question is could we say that this kind of tradition for example by orator or poets in ‘Ukaz feast was heavily backboned by the sense of history conscious? Franz Rosenthal in his book A History of Muslim Historiography did not consider that there is the existence of historical consciousness in ‘ayyam al-‘arab. According to him, it was served merely as the entertainment and the emotional enjoyment for the listeners. Besides, there was no sign for the development of history-making since it was lack the sense of continuity, the absence of historical elements of causes and effects and it was timeless in nature which given the result that it couldn’t be develop to the historical literature. While in matter of genealogy, Franz Rosenthal further observed that only with the advent of Islam, genealogy could activate its historical potential since Islam didn’t abolished this existing tradition.

With the coming of Islam, the traditional practices of Arab peoples were not totally prohibited. For instance in genealogical practice, that is the practice that developed due to the spirit of loyalty to one’s tribe and a way in promoting the tribal identification. Rather than abolishing this long established tradition, Islam put a new dimension in determining the identity of the peoples. With the genealogical practice preserved, but the sole identification and loyalty was replaced, and now it was sit under the banner of ummah. Saydina ‘Umar al-Khattab, the second pious caliph of Muslims, brilliantly utilized the old practice of genealogy. He established a systematic records and data collection. Military records for example were important in recording the information of peoples who participate in warfare. This kind of records also was made in order to collect the information of the city dwellers. Such exercised were executed under the genealogical system that already exists during the pre-Islamic Arabia. A.A. Duri in his statement regarding the practice of ‘Umar in two Islamic centers, namely Kufa and Basra which originally as the military bases for the eastern military campaign, “Due to the interest in tribal affairs and activities of ‘ayyam al-‘arab, with the tribal perspectives in studying history, the continuation of the past tradition happened but with the new form of ‘ayyam, that is the battles and conquest of Islam and not the tribes”. (The Rise of Historical Writing Among the Arabs)

History of the ancient period of Arabian land had witnessed the emergence of various civilizations which were known to the world. In the Northern part of Arabia, the civilization of the ‘land between the two rivers’ mentioning the Mesopotamian civilization and the Old Syrian settlement were prosperously established. On the southern part of Arabia, particularly on the area of Yemen today, there used to exist the great kingdom of Himyar which played a major role in trading activities in the land of Arabia. Archeological evidences like the inscriptions of the kings and descriptions on the tomb deliberately suggest us that their magnificent achievement could be build up due to the sense of historical consciousness. Then, in the case of Central Arabia, although it doesn’t belong to any great civilization (due to the geographical factors such as the absence of the fertile land and rivers as the source of living), this place still made contact with the northern and southern parts of Arabia through trading activities and central Arabia never live in isolation. The society of pre-Islamic Arabia as matter of fact was not only populated by the tent-dwellers. Some of them are merchant tribes, and they actively involved in trading activities and constantly made contact and relation with other peoples outside Arabia. Now it comes to question, does the central Arabian which has exposure to the other civilization is being influenced by the awareness and consciousness towards history as portrayed by their neighbors? And if answer is yes, we actually could assume that ‘ayyam al-‘arab possibly was based on the sense of history conscious? This suggestion could be open to others especially students of history to seek it further treatment.

In the nutshell, what could I conclude especially on the issue of early Muslim historiography is that the historical consciousness is exist and become the foundation of Muslim historiography. This historical-consciousness was inherited from the traditions of the pre-Islamic Arabia and the history-making during that time was formed with its own exclusive native spirits. The advents of Islam later throw the light and give the new dimension for the history-making without abolishing the long established tradition of central Arabia. The activities of history-making after the coming of Islam then were confined to sirah al-maghazi (history of battle which participated by Prophet Muhammad SAW), futuhat (history of Muslims’ campaigns in propagating Islam) and field of genealogy, with the leading early Muslim historian during that time such as al-Tabari.

SOURCE: Zulkifli Ishak for 'REVISION, Feb 2007'