The Founder of the Science of History

The founder of the science of history is unknown, but it is gathered from the inscriptions carved on Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities that the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians were the people most inclined to record their events in hieroglyphic and cuneiform writing upon rocks, stones, and brick. It is said that the desire to record accounts so that descendants and later generations might learn of them is what drove man to devise writing.

The World's First Historians

The first historian to write history in a scholarly manner was Herodotus, the celebrated Greek traveler nicknamed the Father of History. After him, in the fourth century BC, there appeared a historian named Ctesias, a Persian physician who wrote a book on the history of the ancient Persians. Herodotus, Ctesias, and Homer, the Greek poet who composed his narrative verse in the tenth century BC, are the mainstay of ancient history and the reference for verifying ancient events, apart from sacred history.

The First Historical Sacred Book

The first sacred book in which historical events and occurrences were recorded in an orderly fashion is the Torah, which was written in the fifteenth century BC.

The Historians

Historians are the class who devote themselves to verifying events, distinguishing the sound from the worthless among them, and inquiring into their causes, results, and consequences. With respect to the reliability of the account, they are divided into two categories: reporters and eyewitnesses. The reporters are those who transmit what they relate either by hearsay or by inference. The eyewitnesses are those who witness events themselves and record what they see; the eyewitness historian is called a "witness of the eye," and these are the most truthful of historians and the most worthy of reliance in their histories, especially when they are free of the taint of ulterior motives.

The Relation of Geography to History

Geography bears an integral relation to history, whose task is to record the events that took place, while the task of geography is to inform us about the places and countries in which those events occurred. There are sciences reckoned as auxiliary to history and as a lamp for the historian, namely: the science of knowing works and books (Bibliography), the knowledge of ancient books (Palaeography), the science of ancient coins (Numismatics), the science of inscriptions (Epigraphy), the science of seals (Sigillography), politics or the intrigues and communications of states (Diplomacy), the science of dating (Chronology), the science of ancient antiquities (Archaeology), the science of reading scripts (Calligraphy), and the science of languages (Linguistics).

The Most Famous Syriac Historians

The most famous of the Syriac historians is the great scholar Mar Gregorius Bar Hebraeus, Maphrian of the East, known as Abu al-Faraj al-Malati, who died in the year 1286 and left behind noble literary works that spread his name to every horizon and immortalized his memory through the ages. His valuable writings enjoyed a share of the attention of learned men in the East and the West; we single out among them his historical compositions, which won an ample measure of scholars' interest. These histories consist of a vast work he composed in Syriac and called the Book of the History of the Ages, dividing it into three volumes. The first contains the Book of the History of States, comprising the accounts of the world and the ten great kingdoms from the Creation to near the year of the author's death in 1284; this section was published in print by Father Bedjan in 1890. The second section has two branches: one branch comprises the accounts of the ancient prelates and the names of the patriarchs of Antioch, together with their biographies and accounts; and a branch that examines the Maphrians of the East, whose accounts he presented in detail down to his own time. This section too was published in print by the orientalists Abbeloos and Lamy in 1872–1873 in Louvain.

The author rendered the first section of his history into Arabic in response to a request from some Arab notables, and called it the Abridged History of States (Tarikh Mukhtasar al-Duwal). He included in it many matters not found in the longer Syriac version, especially concerning the states of Islam and the Mongols and the biographies of scholars and physicians. This history was printed for the first time in 1663 in the city of Oxford in Arabic and Latin under the review of the scholar Pococke [?]; it is a rare edition full of errors. It was then translated by Bauer into German in 1783, and reprinted in Arabic in 1890 in Beirut through the efforts of Father Salhani.

The author related all that he related in his histories from experience, and recorded the events, biographies, and lives in the light of the sun rather than the tracing of the pen. Had it not been for him, many events would have escaped us. He mentioned many of the notables of the East and its eminent writers, especially since he drew upon other historians whose works have been lost or become scarce; this is what made the Europeans vie to acquire his histories and publish them, coveting their great benefits.

Bar Hebraeus is followed by the Patriarch Michael the Great (d. 1199), author of precious works, among them his great Syriac history from the age of the Creation to the last of his days. Father Jean-Baptiste Chabot (J. B. Chabot) undertook its publication together with a translation into French (Paris 1898–1910). This history also has an Armenian translation, which V. Langlois rendered into French and published in 1868. The publisher relates in the book's introduction that the Vardapet David translated its first section, and the priest Isaac completed the translation of the second section in 1248, adding to it the most important events that occurred in his own day. Some chapters of this history were published by Dulaurier in the Journal Asiatique. The aforementioned history has a crude Arabic translation in Garshuni script, of which four copies exist: the first in the library of the Za'faran Monastery, the second in the library of our Monastery of Mar Marcus in Jerusalem, the third in the British Museum in London, and the fourth in the village of Sadad. The date of this last one goes back to the fifteenth century; it was copied by one of the monks of the Monastery of Mar Musa in al-Nabk named "Rayyan [?] Abdallah al-Halabi of the family of al-Shidyaq."

There is a class of historians who lived before the tenth generation, among them John, Bishop of Asia, of Amida, whose history was printed by Cureton in 1853; Mar Jacob of Edessa, author of the history repeatedly cited by Elijah, Metropolitan of Nisibis; and the Patriarch Dionysius of Tel Mahre, author of the famous history whose description the scholar Wright treated at length, and others whom time does not permit us to mention.

The Most Famous Church Historians

The most famous of the historians of the Church is Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, born around the year 270 AD, made bishop over Caesarea in Palestine in 315, and died around the year 338. He is the Father of Church History. His history is in ten volumes and became renowned as the most important church history composed in ancient times.

Famous Historians of Ancient Ages

In ancient ages a number of historians became renowned, of whom we single out for mention Sanchuniathon the Phoenician historian; Philo of Byblos; Manetho the Egyptian priest who lived in the third century before Christ; Confucius the Chinese lawgiver, a contemporary of Herodotus; Berossus the Assyrian priest who composed a history and presented it to Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, in the year 283 BC; Xenophon the Greek, whom Cicero described as having writings sweeter than honey, so that he was nicknamed the Bee, and who died in the year 355 BC; Dionysius of Halicarnassus the Greek, who composed a book on the antiquities of ancient Rome in twenty volumes, most of which is lost; and Josephus, the famous Hebrew historian, in Rome in the year 103 AD.

The Historians of the Arabs

As for the historians of the Arabs, they are many. The histories they composed have been surveyed and reached about one thousand five hundred. The most famous of them are al-Ya'qubi, Ibn al-Bitriq, Ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Ibn Khaldun, Ibn al-Athir, Ibn Khallikan, Bar Hebraeus, Abu al-Fida, Ibn al-Wardi, al-Razi, al-Bukhari, al-Maqrizi, al-Idrisi, al-Mas'udi, al-Isfahani, Ibn al-Jawzi, Ibn al-Mahasin, al-Nuwayri, Ibn Arabshah, Ibn Bashkuwal, and many others too numerous for us to mention.

The greatest of the Arab historians: The greatest of the Arab historians, without dispute, is the scholar Ibn Khaldun, for he set forth the agents of events and their results, and mentioned the relations that structure and environment and economy bear to their formation. His Muqaddima is known among Westerners by the name (Prolegomena) and has been translated into all the living languages.

Great Men Who Were Enamored of History

Alexander was greatly enamored of reading Homer's historical verse; Sultan Selim the Conqueror used to read the lives of the Caesars; King Charles the Fifth was absorbed in reading the life of King Louis the Eleventh; and the Emperor Charlemagne was so passionate about history that he would appoint people to read passages of it to him while he ate. It is related of Napoleon the First that he was infatuated with reading the life of Julius Caesar, the Roman hero, and of Hannibal the Carthaginian.

The Kinds of History

History has another meaning, namely: an era, or a long span of time at the beginning of which a great event occurred, such as the appearance of a prophet, the change of a state, or the founding of a city. This is what we mean when we say the Gregorian era (tarikh miladi) and the Hijri era (tarikh hijri). As for the events from which historians make the beginning of their reckoning, these differ according to nations and kingdoms. The Greeks begin their reckoning from the Olympic Games, which were held once every four years; the Romans from the building of the city of Rome; the Jews from the creation of Adam; the Christians from the birth of Christ; and the Muslims from the Prophet's emigration from Mecca to Medina, which took place on the 16th of July in the year 622 AD—they reckon by nights because they depend on the sighting of the crescent moon. The Copts reckon from the killing of the martyrs in the reign of the Emperor Diocletian, beginning from the day of that emperor's accession on the 29th of August in the year 284 AD. The Armenians consider the day of the assembly of (Dvin) [?], which condemned the rulings of the Council of Chalcedon, as the beginning of their reckoning; it was convened on the 9th of July in the year 522.

The Science of History Yesterday and Today

History, in its beginnings, was a narration of orderly occurrences and successive accounts devoid of scholarly benefit. Historians concerned themselves with recording the names of kings and sultans, fixing the times of their accession and death, and their famous wars and battles, together with an account of the number of soldiers they brought onto the battlefield and the tally of the slain and the captives, and other such matters carrying no benefit worth mentioning. They neglected any inquiry into the state of the nation from the social, economic, and industrial standpoint. Thus history remained of scarcely any account among the sciences and arts until the nineteenth century, when certain researchers arose and made it a science in its own right. It then passed from being a narration of occurrences to being political and social facts bound up with literature, economic influences, and geographical locations, and it became one of the sciences that students receive in schools. Reliable books were composed on its principles, drawn from the most truthful sources, written by a team of writers who turned the archives of their governments' official papers upside down and never wearied of searching among thousands of records buried beneath a veil of the dust of the generations that had passed over them, in pursuit of the historical truths contained within them.

What Has Been Said About History

Scholars have said much in defining history, describing it, and extolling its merit. Here is something of what has been said about it, which we make [?] the fitting seal of this study of ours:

Ibn Khaldun, the philosopher of the Arab historians, said:

"Know that the discipline of history is a discipline noble in method, abundant in benefits, and lofty in purpose, for it acquaints us with the conditions of the nations of the past in their morals, the prophets in their lives, and the kings in their states and their governance, so that the benefit of following their example may be complete for whoever seeks it in the affairs of religion and of the world."

And one of the ancient philosophers said:

"The greatest matter into which man inquires is man."

And Ibn al-Athir said:

"History is a spiritual resurrection that revives ages long past and brings forth their peoples after their traces have vanished and been effaced. Through it, one who was ignorant may profit from the minds of experience, and the nations who come after him, and so on. To him they are alive though the bowels of the graves have enclosed them, and hidden from him though the accounts have placed them among the present. Were it not for history, lineages would be unknown and pedigrees forgotten, and man would not know that his origin is from dust. Likewise, were it not for it, states would die with the death of their leaders, later generations would be blind to the conditions of their forebears, and one would have no knowledge of the events of the heavens that the earth has passed down."

And al-Jabarti said in his history, "The Marvels of Remains in Biographies and Accounts" (Aja'ib al-Athar fi al-Tarajim wa al-Akhbar), the following:

"Know that the discipline of history is among the most exalted of disciplines in rank and the most general among mankind in benefit, for by it are known the laws and ordinances and what befell the nations in past ages of the marvelous events by which minds are enlightened. There is no doubt that the study of historical books yields the casting off of blameworthy traits and vile qualities and the adorning of oneself with noble morals, the beauties of the virtues, and lofty lives, so that by them man may become acquainted, in a brief span of time, with the events of thousands of years, as though he had lived long and witnessed this present moment. It is a discipline toward which mounts are urged and to which the aspirations of kings and lords rise; its benefits are universal, shared by the elite and the common alike; and many sciences are subsumed within it, without which their foundations would not have been established nor their branches ramified."

And in the book "The Accounts of States and the Traces of the Ancients" (Akhbar al-Duwal wa Athar al-Uwal) by al-Qaramani, the following appears:

"The science of history is the reporting of past beings in the world and of occurrences, whether their state be recent or of old. It is the path to knowing the accounts of the nations who have passed away, and how wrath and anger befell the obstinate one so that his affair came to ruin and destruction; it lays bare the faults of the liars and distinguishes the state of the truthful. Were it not for history, the knowledge of states would die with the death of their kings, and there would be hidden from later generations the knowledge of the first ones and their conduct."

And Muwaffaq al-Din al-Baghdadi said

"Man ought to read histories and acquaint himself with the biographies and the experiences of nations, so that thereby, in his short lifetime, it is as though he had reached the vanished nations, been their contemporary, kept their company, and known their good and their evil."

And a certain king said, counseling his son:

"O my son, do not neglect the reading of books, and especially the ancient histories, for by them you will learn with all ease what others acquired with all hardship."

This is what occurred to us to write on this subject, and perhaps the readers among the children of our peoples will find in what we have written an incentive to study the history of their forefathers, so that when they come to know their accounts and grasp their conditions, they may follow in their footsteps and walk in their traces.