Memory from the Perspective of the Historian

This paper looks at the close relationship between historical writing and the process of memory as a medium in which historical narratives are produced. Since Ibn Khaldun's reviews of Arabic historical writing and the critical distinction established by ancient Muslim philosophers between rational and Jurisprudential  knowledge, little work has been conducted to establish new and serious epistemological criticism that questions the ideological content and the methodology of the major narratives produced by the Arab-Islamic region's historical memory.  Despite the non-trivial intellectual strides that Arab historical research has made over the past five decades by building on Western intellectual momentum, a comprehensive renewal still requires   research on a grand scale to deal with historical practice in the region as the product of a practice of remembrance, the characteristics of which have not been studied as might be hoped.

Download Article Download Issue Subscribe for a year

Abstract

Zoom

This paper looks at the close relationship between historical writing and the process of memory as a medium in which historical narratives are produced. Since Ibn Khaldun's reviews of Arabic historical writing and the critical distinction established by ancient Muslim philosophers between rational and Jurisprudential  knowledge, little work has been conducted to establish new and serious epistemological criticism that questions the ideological content and the methodology of the major narratives produced by the Arab-Islamic region's historical memory.  Despite the non-trivial intellectual strides that Arab historical research has made over the past five decades by building on Western intellectual momentum, a comprehensive renewal still requires   research on a grand scale to deal with historical practice in the region as the product of a practice of remembrance, the characteristics of which have not been studied as might be hoped.

References