History is a science which accepts only proven facts and verified narration of events. A man of history, just like a man of science, rejects everything which is beyond logical perception and against intelligent deductions. Unless a historian is a secular minded, brutally realistic and unbiased person he can never be a true historian. I always give an analogy that a historian is like a surgeon or rather a student of biology who dissects an animal with his scalpel to find all the realities, as they exist. At the time of writing he has no religion, no ideology, no infatuation, no affection, no hate and no love. Anyone with preconceived fixed notions can write good poetry, drama, tragedy, eulogy, praise, humiliation, hymns and any other kind of fiction but not history. Study reveals that throughout history, Muslims with strong imagination could create literary masterpieces of Marsia, Noha, Manqabat, Ghazal, Hamd, Munajat, Naat, Qasida but they could not write factual history, during last fourteen centuries!    

Three main languages of Islamic writings are Arabic, Persian and Urdu. Most of the Islamic History, starting from the last quarter of the 6^th Century with the birth of Prophet Muhammad in 572 AD, was first written in Arabic, then Persian and lastly Urdu. Whatever known treatises and annals of history, written by Muslim scholars as available today, have been in one of these three languages.

MUSLIM HISTORIANS OF MEDIEVAL TIMES

Ibn Khaldun, who is considered as the father of historiography, was born in North Africa in the mid of 14^th Century. His achievement was Muqaddimah Ibn Khaldun (A critical introduction to History). Before Ibn Khaldun, the most famous historian who wrote his voluminous Tareeq-e-Tabiri (The History of Tabiri) was Muhammad Tabiri who completed his famous historical chronicle in the first decade of 10^th Century.

There have been some other famous histories, written in Arabic, like Futuhul Buldan (The conquests of countries) by Yahya Baladhuri, who died in the year 892 AD in Baghdad and Kitab-e-Tabqat-ul-Kubrah (The book of the Esteemed Classes) by Muhammad ibn Saad, a 9^th Century historian who spent his life in Iraq.    

The discussion about Muslim historians wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the names of Ibn Hisham and Ibn Kathir. Ibn Hisham was one of the earliest historians of Islam (died in 833 AD) who lived in Iraq and then in Egypt. His work was greatly influenced by the research of another historian of earlier days of Islam namely Ibn Ishaque (704 – 767 AD).  Ibn Ishaque was born in Medina, the first seat of Islamic State established by the prophet Muhammad. Since he lived just seven decades after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (632 AD) very much in the Prophet’s City (Medina-tun-Nabi) thus his written biography of the prophet of Islam was considered based mostly on most reliable narrations as many Tabaeens (those who had met the companions of the prophet) and Taba-Tabaeens (those who had met the Tabaeens) were still alive. Notably, no companions of the prophet (Sahaba-e-Rasool) could be living in the times of Ibn Ishaque.

The other one of the most famous names is that of Ibn Kathir who lived in fourteenth century and wrote fourteen volumes of Islamic history. He was a theologian besides being a historian and his writings were completely influenced by the teachings of Imam Ibn Taymiyyah (1263 – 1328 AD) who was himself a founder and promoter of a school of thought in Islam.

The most important aspect is that in the world of Islam history had primarily meant the life and the teachings of the prophet of Islam, Muhammad bin Abdullah, or in some cases his companions called Sahaba-e-Rasool. That’s why most of the early historians were also Mohaddessin: meaning scholars of the prophet’s sayings called Hadith. Most of those prophet days’ histories relied on Hadith, being the second source of the religion after the revelation or Wahi i.e. Quran. Muslims were so keen and enthusiastic to compile Hadith that they invented whole new subjects like Ilm-ul-Rijal (the knowledge of men) and Al-Maghazi (the knowledge of battles (Ghazwat) fought by the prophet). In order to track the characters (background checks) of the men who were in the chain of the narrators of every single Hadith, Ilm-ul-Rijal was the checking mechanism invented and employed by those scholars.   

Despite all the cautions and filtering mechanisms Muslim historians could never compile even a single agreed upon history of their prophet. Throughout the history, the Arabs – who were the primary custodians and promoters of the religion – were always divided into basic tribal, regional and sectarian factions like Mudarites and Yemenites, Hashemites and Umayyads and then most disastrous Shias and Sunnis. In some other detailed article shall discuss that how these polarizations affected the course of Muslim history and how these divisions were even brought to Europe during the rule of Moors in Spain.

For the time being, here we confine our discussion to the fact that how these factorization – most significantly Shiism and Sunnism – resulted into two different Muslim histories in due course of time. A clear example is that of a renowned historian and Mohaddis (scholar of the prophet’s tradition) of the initial days of Islam, named Al Waqidi  (747 -823 AD). Most of the controversial hadiths relating the youngest and most favorite wife of Prophet Mohammad, Ayesha bintay Abu Bakr, have been attributed to this single source, Al-Waqidi. The Sunni historians and scholars rejected not only the hadiths but the history of early Islam as biased, written by Al Waqidi. Pertinently, the Shia history of Islam revolves around one of their basic beliefs which is in fact the part of their primary faith i.e. Ali bin Abi Talib, the cousin brother of Prophet Muhammad as well as his son-in-law, was his rightful heir and successor, who was denied of his right by the other close companions of the prophet namely Abu Bakr Bin Abu Qahafa, Omar Bin Khattab and Uthman Bin Affan – who became caliphs of Islam after the demise of the prophet, in the same order. This single controversy gave birth to the biggest division among Muslims and two clear conflicting classes of Muslim historians originated.

HISTORIES OF MUSLIM INDIA

There have been some historical chronicles which were initially written in Persian during the reign of Great Mughals and later on translated into other languages. Tareeq-e-Farishta written by Muhammad Qasim Farishta (died in 1620 AD) was all about the history of India – particularly Muslim India. This book provided the events till 1606 AD i.e. one year after the death of great Mughal Emperor, Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar, in 1605 AD.

Another ornamented historical account of the personal lives and achievements of first thirteen Mughal emperors, from Babar to Muhammad Shah (1526 to 1732 AD) was recorded by the historian of the Mughal court, Khafi Khan, in his lengthy book Muntakhab-ul-Lubab (The Records of Selected Wise and the Intelligent). In fact, most of the content of the book is fictitious and nonfactual.

Besides, there have been many other less known books of history narrating the life stories of different Muslim Nawabs, Amirs, Nizams, Sardars of regions and territories stretched from Hyderabad Deccan to Sindh and from Northern India to Afghanistan but again none of these books portray the actual and true history. Most of these narrations of events were recorded by the courtesans at the direction and desire of the rulers and despots, themselves. 

LATER HISTORIANS

Among Urdu historians the most authentic and famous name is that of Allama Shibli Nomani (1857 – 1914 AD) and his pupil Syed Sulaiman Nadvi. Shibli wrote several books but most popular were Serat-un-Nabi (Life of the Prophet), Al-Farooq (Life history of caliph Omar Bin Khattab) and Serat-un-Nauman (Life history of Imam Abu Hanifa – the theologian and interpreter of Sharia whose Fiqah is widely followed by the Muslims). Serat-un-Nabi is said to be his lifetime achievement which is available in six volumes. This book is written with extreme affection and love by a person who was infatuated with the personality of the prophet of Islam. The readers of the book feel mesmerized when they go through the pages describing the birth of the prophet. The dramatic, fictitious and romantic narration of events can be anything but certainly not history!

In English language there hasn’t been many significant histories written by Muslims except a couple of books authored by an Indian Muslim scholar Syed Ameer Ali (1849 – 1928 AD). Professionally, he was a jurist and his famous books of history are Spirit of Islam and A Short History of Saracens about the initial days of Islam meaning Prophet of Islam, Four Righteous Caliphs and the following dynasties of Arab Caliphs with the seats of their respective caliphates at Damascus, Baghdad, Cordova and Cairo.

The fact is that there have been so many books in Urdu about the history of Islam, written by the Indian and Pakistani scholars and writers, that it would itself need a whole voluminous book to write a brief review of all those books. Frankly speaking, I had seen hundreds of those history books in the library of my late father and I don’t even remember the names of those books today. Most of the books on Muslim history, in English language, were authored by non-Muslim orientalists.

HISTORY WRITING IN PAKISTAN

The apathy is that most of the so-called historians in Pakistan – just like all other Muslim historians of the past – sufficed the life and the lifetime events of the prophet as worth calling history. Many wrote about the four Righteous Caliphs, the caliphs of Umayyad Dynasty, Abbasid Dynasty and Moorish Spain particularly the conquests during their reigns. A few wrote about the Shia Caliphate of Fatimids in Cairo while a couple of Muslim historian recorded the history of Ottoman Turks. In India the history began with the invasion of Arabs in 710 AD and remained confined to Northern India where Muslim ruled for more than thousand years.

Unlike hundreds of European and American orientalists I could rarely find any Muslim historian who researched and wrote even few chapters either on European History, American History or any history about the aborigines around the world! Although Muslims have been living in Indian Subcontinent for thousand years but still you can not find any original researched work done by any Muslim scholar on the history of Marathas, Rajputs, Gorkhas, Sikhs, Tamils, Malabaris or even on Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism! Discussing sectarian Islam and political frictions are their sole interests.

I personally have come across and experienced the effects of this historical Shia Sunni conflict in my life. How one general of Pakistan Army behaved when he asked me that whether I am a Shia or Sunni and how I kept on realizing that Shia Sunni divide is so deeply rooted and thus divisive in the civil service of Pakistan and how even my own married life was initially struck by doubts about each other’s sects are not the topics of this article. But this schism has affected all aspects and spheres of life in the Muslim World and certainly Pakistan is one of the best places to study this conflict being the home of both the sects.

During my teenage, I had several meeting with a famous Urdu orator and historian of Islamic history, Shah Baleeguddin, who not only happened to be one of my neighbors but a friend of my father. Shah Sahab had several books and booklets to his credit and one of those books in Urdu named Razm-e-Haq-o-Batil (War between the Truth and the False) was most famous. This book was all about the events which occurred during those battles of Islam which were fought during the lifetime of the Prophet. More than the factual history, the rhetorical and romantic way of telling the stories was fascinating for most of the readers. 

Shah Baleeguddin was an ardent critic of the histories written by Shias and he openly contradicted the historical versions presented by Shia scholars. His spiteful ways of pointing out the sectarian differences made him a favorite among Sunni listeners and eventually he even won the elections of the parliament and became a member of the national assembly from the city of Karachi.

In recent times, I see one less known figure of Dr. Mubarak Ali, who lives in the city of Lahore, Pakistan, and who has written books and articles about the history of India and Pakistan as the history should be written. Being a true historian, he has been a secular analyst of events despite facing all the hurdles of living in an intolerant and fundamentalist society like Pakistan.

The regions which comprised present Pakistan harbored great ancient cultures like Gandhara and Indus civilizations but their histories are least known to the world. The archeological excavations and research which were carried out by British researchers, like Sir John Marshal (1876 – 1958 AD), was the culmination of research on the original and regional history of Pakistan. What could be more tragic that Sindh Province, which verbally owns the prehistoric civilization of Indus, has completely undermined the protection, preservation and promotion of their ancient culture. Perhaps it’s the only ancient civilization left in the world whose language, written on excavated seals, has not been deciphered so far as no one seems interested in any archeological research. Right from the Swat Valley in the north to the desert of Tharparkar in the south the leftover artifacts, the statues, the remains, the stupas, the mandirs and the prehistoric etchings relating Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism are all in ruins, vandalized and disfigured– confirming the ultimate neglect by the governments and the people. Looking into the backgrounds, the naïve ideologues are scared that these signs of the past, spread all over the mountains and plains of the country, may endanger the Two Nation Theory!

Late archeologist Professor Ahmad Hassan Dani, historian Dr Mubarak Ali, traveler Salman Rashid and few more have worked to track the real identity and the history of this region, on scientific lines, confronting the state sponsored historians like Dr. Safdar Mehmood and Dr. Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi.

The level of authenticity attached to most of the Muslim historians have always been low and poor – basically due to their inability to keep their emotional strings detached vis-à-vis the hardcore facts of human history. Whenever I needed to look into factual history I preferred to go through the books written by neutral orientalists like Phillip K. Hitti (1886 – 1978 AD), Harold Lamb (1892 – 1962 AD), Syed Ameer Ali (1849 – 1928 AD) and Dr. Mubarak Ali (born 1941 AD). The reason behind relying on the researched works of a historian is nothing other than his/her secular outlook and objective way of looking at things.   

Even when Government of Pakistan needed to publish an official biography of the father of the nation, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, they had to prefer a genuine and real historian like Stanley Wolpert instead of relying on longtime local experts on Jinnah’s history like Safdar Mehmood, Dr. Sharif al Mujahid and Rizwan Ahmed.    

EPILOGUE

Conclusively, the Muslims in general never realized that the history of men is not the history of infallible gods. Decorating any human being on the high pedestal of unquestionable sanctity and granting him/her impunity from criticism may never be true historiography. In a society which considers the objective scrutiny of a man blasphemous and then grant exemptions to any particular individual or a class of individuals – on the pretext of being sacred and holy – may never set good trends for the common men to follow. In history writing neither anyone be immortal god nor he or she be all cursed devil. Man is a man with good and bad deeds, virtues and vices, strengths and weaknesses, precisions and blunders.

History is the memory of mankind which is essential to take right decisions and to make correct plans for a prosperous and safe future of the planet and its inhabitants. Wrong, concocted and made-up entries into the memory of a nation would mean inappropriate selection of paths – leading to complete fatality and absolute annihilation, in due course of time.