MOUNT KENYA UNIVERSITY, NAKURU CAMPUS

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES
BHU 4115: HISTORIOGRAPHY 1
COURSE OUTLINE
REGULAR SESSION
LECTURER: DR. RUTH NYAMBURA
Course Objective
By the end of the course, the learner should evaluate historical evidence from pre-history times to the
modern period.
Week One-five
• Define history and historiography.
• Outline qualities of a good historiographer
• Sources of History
• Discuss historiography of prescientific Africa
• Analyze historiography in the following periods:
-Classical/Hellenic/Greco-Roman/Classical Antiquity period
Week six-twelve
Historiography in the following periods:
-Medieval/Middle/Dark Ages
-Renaissance
-Enlightenment
-Modern ages historiography

References
Chittick, N, Kilwa an Islamic Trading city on the East African Coast (1974).

Grenville, G.S The East African Coast- Selected Documents.

Jayapalan, N. Historiography, Atlantic Publishers, 2008.

Kaplan, Area Handbook for Ethiopia (Washington: Government Printing Office).

Rodger, S. Historiography: An Introduction, Manchester University Press, 2008.

Sherriff, AM ‘The East African Coast and its Role in Maritime Trade” in General History of Africa II, pp.
306-308.

Sutton, E, “The Pre history of East Africa in Kizerbo, J General History of Africa 1 Methodology and
African Prehistory, pp. 186-210.

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 CHAPTER ONE
What is historiography?
Historiography is the study of history and diverse disciplines of history. It is also the study of written
histories. It is the writing of history based on critical examination of the sources. It is a summary of
written histories.

What is the relationship between history and historiography?

Despite their similar names, history and historiography are two very different things. In academic terms,
history is the study of specific topics, while historiography examines the writing produced by historians.
History consists of the study of a defined topic. Historians investigate virtually every subject from the
past, ranging from particular wars to defined historical eras and the role of particular groups in a specific
timeframe or event.
Historiography, on the other hand, looks at the writing of history. Historians are influenced, consciously
or unconsciously, by their own background and agenda, alongside the context within which they write.
Historiographies aim to analyze these wider influences on the writing of history, showing how different
writers have a variety of viewpoints and how the dominant view of a historical event can change over
time. Historiography involves with techniques of historical investigations. It is the study used in writing
history.
Sources of History

A, Primary Sources
Primary sources provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation.
They are created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or conditions being documented.
Often these sources are created at the time when the events or conditions are occurring. Primary sources
originate in the time period that historians are studying. They include personal memoirs, government
documents such as births, deaths, marriages certificates, permits, licenses issued, census data,
Parliamentary Hansards, transcripts of legal proceedings (i.e ICC proceedings), oral histories and
traditions, archaeological evidence, and visual paintings and photographs. Archival sources includes:
They could include bulletins, case files, contracts, correspondence, diaries, Annual reports, district
reports, ledgers, memoirs, memorandums, minutes, video recordings, microfilms, maps, Letters. Others
includes first-hand newspaper and magazine accounts of events, opinion polls, interview transcripts,
original works of literature, art or music, cartoons, postcards, posters, photographs, registers, objects and
artifacts that reflect the time period in which they were created. Physical objects such as buildings,
furniture, tools, appliances, household items, clothing.
Secondary sources

These are materials that have been analyzed evaluated and interpreted from the primary sources or other
secondary sources. Books, biographies, textbooks, Encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks Articles,
commentaries, research articles and journals in all subject disciplines, Criticism of works of literature, art
and music, Magazines and newspapers.

• Sources of African History

• Identify key sources of African History, stating advantages and disadvantages.

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 CHAPTER TWO

The Pre-scientific Historiography of Africa

All human cultures tell stories about the past. Deeds of ancestors, heroes, gods, or animals sacred to
particular peoples were chanted and memorized long before there was any writing with which to record
them. Their truth was authenticated by the very fact of their continued repetition. History, which may be
defined as an account that purports to be true of events and ways of thinking and feeling in some part of
the human past, stems from this archetypal human narrative activity. The earliest chronologies date back
to Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, though no historical writers in these early civilizations were known
by name. Records of slave trade, coinage, cowrie shells were used. But we traditions that are credited for
the writing of ancient African history. They include:
a) The Chronicles of Western Sudan

The Western Sudan is a historic region in the northern part of West Africa. Traditionally, the Western
Sudan extends from the Atlantic Ocean across to the basin of Lake Chad (which is sometimes associated
with a region called "Central Sudan" or other times with the Western Sudan) and includes the savanna
and Sahel lands north of the West African tropical rainforest belt. It includes the rivers of the Senegal,
Gambia and Niger systems, as well as the highlands of Fouta Djallon from which these rivers flow.
Historians have considered the Western Sudan as a land of great empires, since at least the seventh
century, when the Empire of Ghana flourished, there have been a succession of empires: Ghana (seventh
to eleventh century), Mali (thirteenth to fifteenth century), Songhai(1464–1591) are the three best known,
but smaller large scale polities have also been important, the Empire of Great Foula (late sixteenth to
early eighteenth century), the Bamana Empire (late seventeenth to early nineteenth century), and the
nineteenth century empires of El Hajj Umar Tal and Samori Toure. In fact, since the fourteenth century at
least, local historians of the region have seen its history in terms of a succession of empires. This cycle is
discernible in the historical accounts of shaykh Uthman, whose history was told to the historian ibn
Khaldun while on the Muslim Pilgrimage in 1397. It can also be found in the great Sudanese chronicle,
Tarikh al-Fettash. Modern historians have followed suit, and the imperial tradition can be found in
textbooks today.

B, Ethiopian documents

Ethiopia or Aethiopia is the ancient name for the district of Northern Eastern Africa bordering Egypt and
the Red sea. It is the official name for the modern day is Abyssinia. The inhabitants Ethiopia attracted the
attention of many Greek researchers among them Herodotus. Ethiopia became independent towards the
1889 in reign of Mendial and had its capital Napata which in the middle of the 8th century conquered
Egypt. All Egyptian campaigns are recorded in the famous Stele of King Piankhi. Ethiopia appears to
have derived its religion and civilization from the Egyptians. The royal inscriptions are written in the
hieroglyphic characters and the Egyptian language. Even their alphabet of 23 signs read from right to left
was got from Egypt only that it was contrary to the Egyptian method in the directions in which the figures
face. Ethiopian literature also serves as a good source of African history. Geez or Ethiopic language
began before the introduction of Christianity. Its pagan period is represented by two example inscriptions:
Sacred city of the Ethiopians and an inscription at Matara by Rossini. Other documents existed in
Abyssinia mostly were Bible Portions and some 40 Ethiopic books which have now been reprinted in

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Europe. Other literature works are De recta Fide and the physiologus which is a fanciful work on Natural
History.

Others are Books of the Mystery of Heaven Earth, Judgment of Kings and Secundus the Silent, Kebra
Nagast (Biography on Glory of kings) King Solomon, one of ancient Israel's first kings, a man reputed for
his wisdom and wealth, who ruled around the year 1000BC. During his reign he was visited by the Queen
of Sheba, whose empire included south-western Arabia and the African coast on the other side of the Red
Sea. Quite how far south her coastal empire stretched is open to debate - some just it reached into
Mozambique -but a story, told in the Biblical Book of Kings, tells that in return for receiving his wisdom,
the Queen of Sheba provided Solomon with huge quantities of spices, gold and precious stones, luxury
goods found along the East African coast as far south as modem Mozambique, leading some to suggest
that this was how far south her empire reached.

C, Egyptian Documents

The oldest form of writing is found in Egypt in papyri and tablets. Numerous documents were written
around 1314-1085 BC. To express the thinking of their mind, the Egyptians invented art of writing.
Although from the very beginning they were not acquainted with the alphabets, still then they were able
to express their idea through different pictures. So, their writing was popularly known as ‘Hieroglyphy’ or
‘sacred writing’ because those were written by the priests. At first, the Egyptians used pictures and then
they used around 2000 pictographic signs. In due course of time their number was reduced and limited to
700 only. At last they invented 24 alphabets. They engraved those alphabets on stone. The ‘Rosetta
Stone’ preserved in the British Museum in London is its classic example. Later on the Egyptians used pen
and paper. On the banks of Nile, a plant named ‘Papyrus’ was plentily available. The leaves of Papyrus
tree were joined through gum and the long roll was prepared. By polish such rolls were glazed. In a
Papyrus roll of twenty to forty feet length and five to ten inches breadth the Egyptian wrote their idea.
The modem name ‘Paper’, perhaps, has been derived from the term ‘Papyrus’. They took juice of plants
and prepared ‘ink’ by mixing gum and water with it. In several cases they also prepared ink by missing
gum with black particles found from kitchen house or lamps. They sharpened the edge of the steam of a
plant and prepared ‘reed pen’. By dipping the pen inside the ‘ink pot’ they wrote on Papyrus. At last,
pieces of Papyrus were rolled and preserved inside the earthen pots. Writing was indeed a noble invention
of the Egyptians.

Literature

The ancient Egyptians had created immortal literature. They composed literature concerning astrology,
metallurgy, weaving and cooking. Besides, they also reflected legends, adventures, thrilling experiences,
religious thought etc. in their literature. Among their prose writings, ‘The tale of two brothers’, ‘The tale
of Sinuhi’, ‘The legend of the doomed prince’ and ‘The story of the ship-wrecked Sailor’ were very
famous. Their religious literature contained books like ‘The Pyramid Text’, ‘The Coffin Text’, ‘The Book
of the dead’, ‘A dialogue between the disgusted Man and his soul’, ‘The Maxims of Ptahotep’ and ‘Hymn
to Aton’ (written by Akhnaton).

Science: Calendar

The ancient Egyptians were very good astronomers of their time. Looking at the cloudless clear blue sky,
they could predict about the solar and lunar eclipse, flood in the river Nile, time of sowing seeds etc. They
could also know about the movement of Planets and Stars. They had prepared a ‘Calendar’. They divided
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a year into 360 days and 12 months, each month consisting of 30 days. Each day was divided into 24
hours or two parts and each part consisting of 12 hours. At the end of every year, they added 5 days more
only to be spent in feast and merrymaking. Julius Caesor had adopted this Calendar Pope Gregory XIII
adopted this calendar with a little modification. The Egyptian Calendar is the first recorded event of
human history.

Mathematics and Geometry

The ancient Egyptians exhibited their talent in the field of ‘Mathematics’ and ‘Geometry’. They were
very efficient in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. They had acquired knowledge in
triangle, quadrangle, square, rectangle etc. for measuring the land. They utilised their mathematical and
geometrical knowledge in building the Pyramids. The oldest treatise on Mathematics ‘Ahmes Papyrus’
has been found from Egypt which speaks the high mathematical and geometrical knowledge of the
ancient Egyptians.

Medical Science

The Egyptians acquired deep knowledge in medical science. From their old library two books concerning
medical science have been discovered. Edwin Smith has translated these books. From that translation it is
known that the Egyptians knew about different diseases and also knew how to cure them. They had idea
regarding surgery. They could also preserve dead bodies by applying chemicals. The physicians of Egypt
also knew the use of castor oil. It will not be wrong if the Egyptians are termed as the ‘Father of Medical
science’.

Art and architecture: Pyramid

The Egyptians have immortalised their name in the annals of history due to their art and architecture.
Pyramid is the classic example of it. The tomb of the Egyptian Pharaoh is known as Pyramid. The people
of Egypt believed that after death, the soul returns back to the body. So they preserved the dead body of
the Pharaoh by applying chemicals in it. This preserved body of the Pharaoh was known a ‘Mummy’. It
was covered with cloth and kept inside a coffin.
Philosophy
The ancient Egyptians had also attained celebrity in the field of Philosophy. Ptahotep was the greatest
philosopher of that time. He was the provincial ruler of Memphis. In his famous book entitled
‘Instructions to Ptahotep’ he had given many advices for regulating the life. Much before Confucious,
Socrates and Buddha Ptahotep had discussed the philosophy of life.
Postal Service
The people of ancient Egypt were aware about the postal system. The study of Papyrus leads historians to
believe that the people of that land were sending message. In an ancient Papyrus it has been written—
“Write me through the bearer of the letter”. This conclusively proves that the Egyptians were well aware
about the postal service. It will not be wrong if the ancient Egyptians are described as “The father of
modern postal service”.
Historiography
The Egyptians were the father of ‘Historiography’. The historians accompanied the Pharaoes to the battle
field and recorded their achievements. The ‘Rosetta stone’ is its classic example. By deciphering it the
French palaeographer Champollion had discerned many facts regarding the Egyptian civilisation. The
history of different royal dynasties is known due to this historiography. Thus, the ancient Egyptians were
trend setters of history writing.
D, Meroe

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The Meroic Scripts indigenized the Egyptian hieroglyphic wiring and invented an alphabet of 23 letters
containing details of correspondence between the central government and provinces, trade and
administrative matters.
E, The East Coast of Africa chronicles

The East African coast begins at the tip of the Horn of Africa, the peninsula jutting out at the end of the
Red Sea, a point known as Cape Guardafui. The coastline around and to the south of the Horn is a dry
area with few natural harbours where sand dunes extend far inland, but in the hinterland beyond is a land
that was, from ancient times, so rich in spices and aromatic gums that it was also known as the Cape of
Spices or the Cape of Cinnamon. It consists a number of Islands like: Lamu, Kilwa, Pate, Zanzibar,
Malindi and Mombasa. Equally towns like Mogadishu, Merca, Brava and Kismayu. Berbera was well
known in antiquity and as an important part. Its name was long used to denote Gulf of Aden by scholars
like Ptolemy and Cosmas. The period between 12th and 15th century stands out as that of the formation
of what may best be termed the Swahili culture/community. Ethnically it was a community of Bantu
speakers. Wealth was derived from trading and export of slaves. Ibn Batutta skirted the whole of East
Coast of Africa and Kilwa was the town depicted as most civilized in which the hospitality of the world
of trade was highly developed. The Sultan was a Shakyh who was at the apex of a firmly established
organization and ensured trade went on smoothly. Little is known of the development of the dynasty but
the courts were well defined. Swahili civilization consisted three main occupations: Farming, fishing,
gathering seafood and trading. Bananas, durra, yams, coleus and coconuts were the main crops. Domestic
animals were kept including cattle, sheep and goats. The common Waswahili lived in huts which were
grounded together to from villages and towns. The towns were trading centers where local wares were
assembled and shipped overseas. The towns were also centers of Islam on the coast. The trade carried on
was profitable. Monsoon winds made it possible to sail the Indian Ocean. Irons smelting was done in
Manda Island and it was the main source of revenue. Ivory was also article of export to Malindi in the
mid twelfth century Kilwa started to import Chinese sung Porcelain. Kilwa prevailed and all records were
found in Kilwa Chronicles. Its victory led to subsequent rapid development of Swahili trade and Swahili
civilization. Consequences of Swahili Civilization to Development of East Africa. Appearance of an
influential group in Swahili society competing for power with the old existing African societies. This also
led to new ideology of leadership (Sheikhs). Africans were converted to Muslims and with time, there
was rise in number of mosques, for example in Mogadishu, Gedi, Kilwa, Sanje and Magoma.

Some Documents of East African Coast

The most important source of the Indian Ocean information during the Maritime trade and the first direct
account of the East African coast known was a guide book, by far the most important written source
surviving from ancient times, dating from around the year lOO AD, called The Periplus of the Erythraean
Sea (Periplus Maris Erythraei). A Periplus is a kind of ancient guide book and the Erythraean Sea was
the name given by ancient Greeks and Romans to the Indian Ocean. The writer is an unknown Greek
Commercial agent based in Egypt. The Periplus is basically an eye-witness account. Later Claudius
Ptolemy wrote one of the greatest ancient works on geography, Ptolemy’s Geography which included
information about the East African coast, giving us a text with which to compare and supplement the
Periplus. Together, these two texts give us a fascinating, all-too-brief glimpse into life at the coast in the
first half of the second century. It is also useful for its information of Ethiopia and on ascending of the

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Persians in the Indian Ocean. This trade along the East African Coast consisted of six coins discovered at
Kimoni North of Tanga under a tree. Persian coins were also found and are kept in Zanzibar museum.
Both the Periplus and Ptolemy referred to the East African coast using the ancient Greek name for the
region, Azania. They named several settlements but these cannot be easily identified with any towns
today. We cannot even be sure if they were permanent settlements. Many of them may well have been
temporary trading bases.The trade exposed the East African coast to a long history of commercial contact.
There was also population movement from the Island across the oceans. Suitable marine technology and
harnessing of the winds and currents of the Indian Ocean developed. This technology led to organization
involving a more direct exchange between foreign vessels and monsoon dhows. The trade also led to
exploitation of African ivory and other resources and also the spread of Christianity. The centers became
administrative too; the capitals of the small states were ruled by the local Muslim dynasties. Kilwa is the
best know for its two versions of its Chronicles (Kilwa chronicles details Arab settlement in Mogadishu,
Mombasa and Kilwa). Also in the chronicle of the town of Pate and Lamu (gives a detail of Arab
settlement from Persia, Syria, Damascus and East African Coast). The power of African aristocrats’
changed and royal power was given to Muslim leader and bore the title Mfalme.

Decline of Swahili Civilization

Various circumstances are considered to have contributed to the decline of Swahili civilization. There
came a community of man eaters known as Zimba. Decrease in rainfall which led to water imbalance
hindering further development of the coastal centers. Portuguese led to the disruption of the trade for they
had ships and well equipped army. This led to destruction of coastal towns/centers. Kilwa was also
invaded by Omani Arabs who got control of it.

Revision questions
1. Examine the view that histories in ancient Egypt formed the foundation of history writing in old
world civilizations.
2. Examine the contribution of chronicles of West Africa, East Africa in writing of African History
3. Discuss the historiographical sources from pre-scientific Africa

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 CHAPTER THREE

HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY

• The term "Antiquity" refers to the distant past, meaning the period between about 4,500 BCE (the
beginnings of Western civilization) and about 450 CE (the beginning of the Middle Ages).The
classical era, classical period or classical age is a broad term for a long period of cultural history
centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilisations of ancient Greece
and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world. It is the period in which
Greek and Roman society flourished and wielded great influence throughout Europe, North
Africa and the Middle East. It is conventionally taken to begin with the earliest-recorded Greek
poetry of Homer (8th–7th century BC), and continues through the emergence of Christianity and
the decline of the Roman Empire (5th century AD). The more specific term "Classical Antiquity"
is more common, however. This refers to the shorter period of classical civilization (c.1000 BCE
- 450 CE), (other experts prefer the period 800 BCE - 450 CE), centered upon the cultures of
Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, as well as their prototypes (Aegean and Etruscan cultures)
and derivatives (eg. the effect of Greek culture on Turkey, Persia, Central Asia, India and Egypt,
a process known as Hellenism; Celtic culture, Early Christian culture). Classical Greek culture
was immensely influential on the Romans, who exported versions of it to all parts of their
empire.
• In classical antiquity the record of history was dominated by superstition, philosophy and myth
up until the fifth century BCE. Records were manufactured by royal scribes in adherence to
doctrine and regal command and used as propaganda to inspire or oppress the people, singing
songs of nationalistic pride and glory against ancient and vile enemies. Invoking the divine, the
scribes and their kingly patrons recorded history as would best serve their designs and failed to
meet the expectations of what we define as being history today: a dispassionate account of the
past with rigorous evidence to secure arguments and claims.

CLASSICAL WRITERS IN ANCIENT GREECE

• The writing of history in ancient Greece, an activity which occurred over a period of one
thousand years (500 BCE–500 CE), is a subject of great interest to modern scholars for a number
of reasons. First, the very term “history” derives from the Greek word historiê (“inquiry”) which
Herodotus uses to describe his work, and the subject of historical inquiry decided upon by
Herodotus and his successor Thucydides—description and explanation of political and military
events in the past—remained standard for many centuries. Though the fundamental differences
between the activity, methodology, and expectations of the ancient Greek historians and
ourselves has been increasingly highlighted in recent years, we are still in many ways the
inheritors of their achievement. Secondly, the writings of the Greek historians represent one of
the basic sources of our knowledge of what happened in the ancient world. As with any historical
document, then, it is important for scholars to examine the nature of this evidence and the
circumstances of its production. Finally, Greek historians aimed both to relate the past and to
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 produce works of literary merit. While some have been reluctant to admit this fact, it is no longer
a controversial claim, and scholars have largely moved past arguments over whether Greek
historians were writing history or fiction and begun to apply techniques of literary analysis to
their works. We can examine the texts of Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius, Plutarch and Tacitus.

HERODOTUS OF HALICARNASSUS (c.484-c.425)

• He was born four years after the battle of samis in Halicarnassus in Asia minor which is currently
Turkey. He was born in a Greece family. His father was known as Lyxes, his mother Dryo,
brother Theodore and uncle Panaysis. Nothing is known of his marriage or children.
• He only studied to the elementary level and started travelling and reading. He loved studying
religion, oral literature and culture. Herodotus was the first to systematically quest for the truth
by collecting evidence in weaving a coherent and indifferent narrative in order to create an
accurate depiction of the past state of affairs.

• Herodotus came to fundamentally change the nature of keeping records and for all intents and
purposes forged the discipline we know today as being history. Crucially, Herodotus introduced
the notions of a thesis and citation, laying the foundation for all further histories study to come.

• Herodotus was born into a world of strife and seemingly endless war, the Persian yoke having for
a century loomed over the heads of the Greeks. The Persians brought with them tyrannical
administration, corruption and “barbarian” customs which were an affront to the freedom loving
and proudly cultured Greeks. Herodotus wrote The Histories four decades after the last major
Persian invasion. The author having been exiled from Halicarnassus for having refused the
corruption of the Persian. He found a new home in Athens. The main ides in the Histories were
to preserve the memory of the past by putting on record the astonishing achievements both of the
Greek and the non-Greek peoples; and more particularly, to show how the two races came into
conflict. The primary area of inquiry for Herodotus was in attempting to understand why
devastating wars happen, how races come to be eternal enemies and to discover what chain of
events inspired the first hostilities.

• The Histories is divided into nine “books” (scrolls), each named after one of the classical muses.
Herodotus, unlike Homer and the other ancient sources, wrote in prose rather than meter and
ignored compromises of style in constructing his narrative; rather than manipulating his writings
to fit a stylistic rubric or particular sound Herodotus wrote naturally and in the common tongue,
speaking frankly and honestly, free of an imposed structure.

• Most importantly Herodotus rejected the notion that the gods determined the cause of events and
attributed war and the causes of suffering to human agents, utilizing an empirical research
method to refute the former claim. Herodotus, as is relayed to us by the author in the Histories,
traveled to the places he had determined to study and directly investigated the circumstances of
the past. Herodotus sought out survivors of past events or the sons of survivors and interviewed
them, basing his study on mutually corroborated evidence rather than his own supposing,
weighing accounts against one another to come to a reasoned conclusion. Where Herodotus
determined that accounts contradicted or did not corroborate his own investigations he made it
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 known to the reader. Herodotus demanded evidence and challenged false claims. Rather than
studying an ancient and unknowable past, Herodotus focused on the immediate knowable past,
namely the fifth and sixth centuries, and avoided creating a national foundation myth, detailing
the ambitions of men rather than intrigues. For Herodotus history writing was an end in itself and
not a tool for demagogues and sophists to hatch ambitious conquests. Herodotus argued that the
history discipline rather served as an indifferent record of what once was, in order to grasp the
true state of affairs. Through this method Herodotus created history, a science.

• Another important contribution of Herodotus to the study of history was the notion of placing
things within a geopolitical, topographical and ethnographic context. Rather than refer to distant
lands filled with mythical inhabitants and unreachable wilds on the fringe of the world Herodotus
visited regions of the eastern Mediterranean directly and set out to describe the customs,
economy, religion and culture of the peoples involved, without bias or judgment. In visiting
these locations Herodotus sought to create a more accurate account of history, concerned with
why cities formed where they had, taking into account available resources, the flow of rivers and
the migration of ideas and what he perceived to be races.

• It is worth noting that Herodotus did not completely discard the influence of gods, claiming that
while choice was ultimately within the domain of man, and that while man was the mover behind
change, the gods could intervene in matters of justice, although in unforeseen and subtle ways.
He has been named the “father of History.”

THUCYDIDES

Thucydides was an Athenian historian and general born between 460 and 455 BCE. He is one of
the greatest ancient Greek historians and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which
recounts the struggle between Athens and Sparta in the 5th century BC. His work was the first
recorded political and moral analysis of a nation’s war policies. He was an Athenian aristocrat
who, it is thought, was in his twenties or thirties when war broke out in 431 BCE. Many consider
Thucydides the first historian to use ‘modern’ methods, such as interviewing eyewitnesses and
conducting cross-examinations.

Thucydides has been dubbed the father of scientific history and is claimed to have applied strict
standards of impartiality and evidence-gathering and analysis of cause and effect. He also has
been called the father of the school of political realism, which views the political behavior of
individuals and the subsequent outcomes of relations between states as ultimately mediated by,
and constructed upon, fear and self-interest. His text is still studied at universities and military
colleges worldwide. Generally, Thucydides developed an understanding of human nature to
explain behavior in such crises as plagues, massacres, and civil war. See below his writings:

History of the Peloponnesian war

Thucydides believed that the Peloponnesian War represented an event of unmatched importance.
He declared his intention was to write an account which would serve as a possession for all time.
The History breaks off near the end of the twenty-first year of the war and continued to be
modified well beyond the end of the war in 404 BC to the conclusion of the war. After his death,
Thucydides' History was subdivided into eight books: its modern title is the History of the

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Peloponnesian War. Thucydides is generally regarded as one of the first true historians. He
places a high value on eyewitness testimony and writes about events in which he probably took
part. He was in Athens during the great plague of 430-429; he wrote descriptions of those he saw
suffering from it, and even contracted the disease himself. He also assiduously consulted written
documents and interviewed participants about the events that he recorded.

Thucydides exerted wide historiographical influence on subsequent Hellenistic and Roman

historians, although the exact description of his style in relation to many successive historians
remains unclear. Readers in antiquity often placed the continuation of the stylistic legacy of the
History in the writings of Thucydides' putative intellectual successor Xenophon. Such readings
often described Xenophon's treatises as attempts to finish Thucydides' History.

A noteworthy difference between Thucydides' method of writing history and that of modern
historians is Thucydides' inclusion of lengthy formal speeches that, as he states, were literary
reconstructions rather than quotations of what was said—or, perhaps, what he believed ought to
have been said.

Thucydides omits discussion of the arts, literature, or the social milieu in which the events in his
book take place and in which he grew up. He saw himself as recording an event, not a period,
and went to considerable lengths to exclude what he deemed frivolous or extraneous.

Comparison with Herodotus

Thucydides and his immediate predecessor, Herodotus, both exerted a significant influence on
Western historiography.

Herodotus records in his Histories not only the events of the Persian Wars, but also geographical
and ethnographical information, as well as the fables related to him during his extensive travels.
He passes no definitive judgment on what he has heard. He views history as a source of moral
lessons, with conflicts and wars as misfortunes flowing from initial acts of injustice perpetuated
through cycles of revenge. In contrast, Thucydides claims to confine himself to factual reports of
contemporary political and military events, based on unambiguous, first-hand, eyewitness
accounts. Herodotus, he does not reveal his sources. Thucydides views life exclusively as
political life, and history in terms of political history. Conventional moral considerations play no
role in his analysis of political events while geographic and ethnographic aspects are omitted or,
at best, of secondary importance. Subsequent Greek historians such as Ctesias, Diodorus, Strabo,
Polybius and Plutarch, held up Thucydides' writings as a model of truthful history. Lucian refers
to Thucydides as having given Greek historians their law, requiring them to say what had been
done. Greek historians of the fourth century BC accepted that history was political and that
contemporary history was the proper domain of a historian.

Summary

Thucydides is well known for attempting to write a history of events that he lived through and
experienced in a way that few others have tried. His book is divided into eight parts and where it
11
stops abruptly, others picked up and wrote their own histories. For this reason, it is sure that his
work was well known even shortly after its publication. His methodologies were thought-out and
executed slowly over time; he observed, asked questions, took notes, and added to and modified
his work regularly. Throughout the book, Thucydides also tells us about the culture of the
Athenians versus that of the Peloponnesians, particularly the Spartans. Overall, his history book
has provided a plethora of information about this war, the opponents, the techniques, and the
lives of various contemporary ancients. His work was also the first attempt to objectively view
and document events, which is especially helpful for our understanding of the ancient world
without the mythical and legendary accounts and explanations.

Thucydides Significant Accomplishments

Wrote the first history book without mythological and divine tales, using “modern” methods to
collect information and firsthand accounts from both sides of a conflict.

Wrote History of the Peloponnesian War which documents the war between Athens and Sparta
in the 5th century BCE as he personally lived through it.

· Was elected a strategos - military general - and given command of seven ships to defend
Amphipolis.

· Holds the title as “the greatest ancient historian” and the founder of modern historiography.

· Collected witness statements and conducted interviews of individuals from both sides of the
war - Sparta and Athens.

• Other scholars during this time includes Polybius and Plutarch and Tacitus

• Plutarchus, (born 46 CE, Chaeronea, Boeotia [Greece]—died after 119 CE), biographer
and author whose works strongly influenced the evolution of the essay, the biography,
and historical writing in Europe from the 16th to the 19th century. Among his
approximately 227 works, the most important are the Bioi parallēloi (Parallel Lives), in
which he recounts the noble deeds and characters of Greek and Roman soldiers, legislators,
orators, and statesmen, and the Moralia, or Ethica, a series of more than 60 essays
on ethical, religious, physical, political, and literary topics.

Plutarch

• Wrote several biographies of roman leaders

• Wrote on the customs of the romans and Greeks
• Wrote 78 essays on need for morality when writing history

Flavius Titus

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• Wrote on the history of the Jews

• Discuss the writings in the classical age/Hellenic age/classical antiquity

13
 CHAPTER FOUR

HISTORICAL THOUGHT IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE AND ASIA

• HISTORICAL THOUGHT IN MEDIEVAL /DARK AGE/MIDDLE AGES

The Middle ages or medieval in Europe was from the year 400 AD to about the year 1400. The Roman
Empire had controlled most of Europe and divided it to so many groups. This was also the time between
the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the modern world. Medieval life centered on the
church. The church held worship services and took care of the sick, poor, elderly, and orphans. Monks
and nuns gave their lives to the church.

The Middle Ages is a period in European history which, along with its adjective ‘Medieval’, was first
referred to by Italian scholars and academics of the late fifteenth century. They were basically stating that
the society in which they now lived was significantly more civilized and advanced in many ways, than
that which had existed during the previous thousand years. This may have been true within certain elite
sections of Italian society which had begun to emulate the art and philosophy of ancient Greece, but
generally in Italy and Europe overall no all-pervading change had occurred. Historians since that time
have, however, used the terms 'middle ages' and medieval as a convenient way to refer to that general
period in European history. It has been regarded as extending approximately from the end of the fifth
century AD, when the control of the Roman Empire had ended, until the end of the fifteenth century AD,
when the modern world was considered to have begun.

The new Christian religion had spread through the Roman Empire. After the fall of Rome, Christianity
remained the religion in most of Europe. Life in Europe declined in the middle ages and was in ruins.
Each kingdom had its own money. The first 400 years of the middle ages are referred to as the “Dark
Ages”. This is the period from 450 AD to about 850 AD. The church became sort of unofficial
government during the dark ages,. It took over the keeping of village records and often acted as a court.
The priests also performed marriages and provided charity for the poor. The Dark ages ended about 850
AD. The yeas between 850 AD and 1450 AD are the second part of the Middle ages. During these years,
Europe slowly worked its way towards new ideas and new ways of living. What did people write
history in the Middle Ages? Historiography in the middle ages were characterized by a pervasive lack
of appreciation for the achievements, intentions, and intellectual preoccupations of medieval authors
Humanist scholars, who held up classical historians like Livy and Tacitus as models, were dissatisfied by
what they saw as the characterist ic features of medieval historiography: stylistic crudity, lack of
organization and thematic clarity, and an uncritical approach to writing history. SEE THE WRITERS

CONTRIBUTION OF IBN KHALDUN

❖ Ibn Khaldun ( May 27, 1332 AD/732 AH – March 19, 1406 AD/808 AH) was an Arab Muslim
historiographer and historian, regarded to be among the founding fathers of modern historiographier,
He has left behind few works other than his history of the world, al-Kitābu l-ʻibar. Significantly, such
writings are not alluded to in his autobiography, suggesting perhaps that Ibn Khaldūn saw himself
first and foremost as a historian and wanted to be known above all as the author of al-Kitābu l-ʻibar.
From other sources we know of several other works, primarily composed during the time he spent in
North Africa and Al-Andalus. His first book, Lubābu l-Muhassal, a commentary on the Islamic
theology of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, was written at the age of 19 under the supervision of his teacher al-
Ābilī in Tunis. A work on Sufism, Sifā'u l-Sā'il, was composed around 1373 in Fes, Morocco. Whilst

14
 at the court of Muhammed V, Sultan of Granada, Ibn Khaldūn composed a work on logic, ʻallaqa li-l-
Sultān.

❖ The Kitābu l-ʻibār (full title: Kitābu l-ʻibar wa Diwānu l-Mubtada' wa l-Ħabar fī tarikhi l-ʻarab wa l-
Barbar wa man ʻĀsarahum min Đawī Ash-Sha'n l-Akbār "Book of lessons, Record of Beginnings and
Events in the history of the Arabs and Berbers and their Powerful Contemporaries"), Ibn Khaldūn's
main work, was originally conceived as a history of the Berbers. Later, the focus was widened so that
in its final form (including its own methodology and anthropology), to represent a so-called
"universal history". It is divided into seven books, the first of which, the Muqaddimah, can be
considered a separate work. Books two to five cover the history of mankind up to the time of Ibn
Khaldūn. Books six and seven cover the history of the Berber peoples and the Maghreb, which
remain invaluable to present-day historians, as they are based on Ibn Khaldūn's personal knowledge
of the Berbers.

❖ Businesses owned by responsible and organized merchants shall eventually surpass those owned by
wealthy rulers. Ibn Khaldun on economic growth and the ideals of Platonism.Concerning the
discipline of sociology, he conceived a theory of social conflict. He developed the dichotomy of
sedentary life versus nomadic life as well as the concept of a "generation", and the inevitable loss of
power that occurs when desert warriors conquer a city. Following a contemporary Arab scholar, Sati'
al-Husri, the Muqaddimah may be read as a sociological work: six books of general sociology. Topics
dealt with in this work include politics, urban life, economics, and knowledge. The work is based
around Ibn Khaldun's central concept of 'asabiyyah, which has been translated as "social cohesion",
"group solidarity", or "tribalism". This social cohesion arises spontaneously in tribes and other small
kinship groups; it can be intensified and enlarged by a religious ideology. Ibn Khaldun's analysis
looks at how this cohesion carries groups to power but contains within itself the seeds –
psychological, sociological, economic, political – of the group's downfall, to be replaced by a new
group, dynasty or empire bound by a stronger (or at least younger and more vigorous) cohesion. Ibn
Khaldun has been cited as a racist, but his theories on the rise and fall of empires have no racial
component, and this reading of his work has been claimed to be the result of mistranslations.

❖ One should then look at the world of creation. It started out from the minerals and progressed, in an
ingenious, gradual manner, to plants and animals. The last stage of minerals is connected with the
first stage of plants, such as herbs and seedless plants. The last stage of plants, such as palms and
vines, is connected with the first stage of animals, such as snails and shellfish which have only the
power of touch. The word "connection" with regard to these created things means that the last stage
of each group is fully prepared to become the first stage of the next group..

❖ Ibn Khaldun outlines an early (possibly even the earliest) example of political economy. He describes
the economy as being composed of value-adding processes; that is, labour and skill is added to
techniques and crafts and the product is sold at a higher value. He also made the distinction between
"profit" and "sustenance", in modern political economy terms, surplus and that required for the
reproduction of classes respectively. He also calls for the creation of a science to explain society and
goes on to outline these ideas in his major work the Muqaddimah.

SAINT AUGUSTINE

❖ St Augustine was an early Christian theologian whose writings are considered very influential in the
development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. He was bishop of Hippo Regius
(present-day Annaba, Algeria)

15
❖ In his early years, he was heavily influenced by Manichaeism and afterward by the Neo-Platonism of
Plotinus. After his conversion to Christianity and his baptism in 387, Augustine developed his own
approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and different
perspectives. He believed that the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom and he framed
the concepts of original sin and just war.

❖ When the Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate, Augustine developed the concept of the
Catholic Church as a spiritual City of God (in a book of the same name), distinct from the material
Earthly City. His thoughts profoundly influenced the medieval worldview. Augustine's City of God
was closely identified with the segment of the Church that adhered to the concept of the Trinity as
defined by the Council of Nicaea and the Council of Constantinople.

❖ In the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, he is a saint, a pre-eminent Doctor of the
Church, and the patron of the Augustinians. His memorial is celebrated on 28 August, the day of his
death. He is the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, the alleviation of sore eyes, and a
number of cities and dioceses. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider him to be one of the
theological fathers of the Protestant Reformation due to his teachings on salvation and divine grace.

❖ In the Eastern Orthodox Church, many of his teachings are not accepted. The most important
doctrinal controversy surrounding his name is the filioque. Other doctrines that are sometimes
unacceptable to the Eastern Orthodox Church are his view of original sin, the doctrine of grace, and
predestination. Nonetheless, though considered to be mistaken on some points, he is still considered a
saint, and his feast day is celebrated on 15 June. He carries the additional title of Blessed among the
Orthodox, either as "Blessed Augustine" or "St. Augustine the Blessed."

❖ Augustine created a theology of the self in The Confessions, and in The City of God he initiates a
theology of history. He uncovers a wide-ranging explanation of history that begins with creation
itself, moves through the turmoil and upheaval of man-made states (the City of the World), and
continues to the realization of the kingdom of God (the City of God). In effect, The City of God is a
completion of the project he began in The Confessions, where he traced the progress of the self
toward completion in God. Likewise, human society finds completion in the realm of God. Along
with a theology of history, Augustine seeks to put together a Christian philosophy of society. In other
words, he gives the various areas of philosophical inquiry, such as ethics and politics, a unity in the
universality of divine revelation. History completes itself in divine law. The philosophers of the past,
such as Plato, had all said that a person does not owe full and absolute loyalty to any earthly society,
and Augustine rigorously critiques this concept in the light of Christian doctrine. He states that the
Scriptures alone can instruct human beings about the highest good and the highest evil and that
without this guidance, human endeavor has no purpose.

❖ Augustine presents the four essential elements of his philosophy in The City of God: the church, the
state, the City of Heaven, and the City of the World. The church is divinely established and leads
humankind to eternal goodness, which is God. The state adheres to the virtues of politics and of the
mind, formulating a political community. Both of these societies are visible and seek to do good.
Mirroring these are two invisible societies: the City of Heaven, for those predestined for salvation,
and the City of the World, for those given eternal damnation. This grand design allows Augustine to
elaborate his theory of justice, which he says issues from the proper and just sharing of those things
necessary for life, just as God freely distributes air, water, and light. Humankind must therefore
pursue the City of Heaven to maintain a proper sense of order, which in turn leads to true peace.

16
Revision Questions

1. Discuss the Characteristics of Medieval European and Asian Historiography

2. Trace the historical thought in Medieval Asia using Illustrations from Chinese and Islamic
Historiographies
3. Examine the historical Writers in the middle ages
4. What were the writings of Arabic scholars in the middle ages
5. Give the role of St Thomas of Aquinas and St Augustine to middle age historiography

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 CHAPTER FIVE

HISTORICAL THOUGHT IN THE RENAISSANCE AGE

The term ‘Renaissance’ is a relatively modern idea. Our use of the word ‘Renaissance’ presupposes a
view of history not shared by former generations. To the modern reader, the word ‘Renaissance’ recalls
activities as diverse as architecture, painting, scientific and geographical discoveries, the political
activities of the Italian city states, even Leonardo da Vinci’s studies of anatomy and mechanics. The word
Renaissance, literally meaning "Rebirth" in French, first appears in English in the 1830s.

It was also the period of awakening of interest in the past civilizations was also known as “reborn”. The
Renaissance is a period in Europe, from the 14th to the 17th century, considered the bridge between the
Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a cultural movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period
and later spread to the rest of Europe, marking the beginning of the Early Modern Age.

The Renaissance's intellectual basis was its own invented version of humanism, derived from the
rediscovery of classical Greek philosophy, such as that of Protagoras, who said, that "Man is the measure
of all things." This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science and literature.
Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to
make concrete. Although the invention of metal movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the
later 15th century, the changes of the Renaissance were not uniformly experienced across Europe.

As a cultural movement, it encompassed innovative flowering of Latin and vernacular literatures,

beginning with the 14th century resurgence of learning based on classical sources, which contemporaries
credited to Petrarch; the development of linear perspective and other techniques of rendering a more
natural reality in painting; and gradual but widespread educational reform. In politics, the Renaissance
contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, and in science to an
increased reliance on observation and inductive reasoning. Although the Renaissance saw revolutions in
many intellectual pursuits, as well as social and political upheaval, it is perhaps best known for its artistic
developments and the contributions of such polymaths as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, who
inspired the term "Renaissance man".

There is a consensus that the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Various theories have
been proposed to account for its origins and characteristics, focusing on a variety of factors including the
social and civic peculiarities of Florence at the time; its political structure; the patronage of its dominant
family, the Medici and the migration of Greek scholars and texts to Italy following the Fall of
Constantinople at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states
such as Venice, Genoa, Bologna, Milan and finally Rome during the Renaissance Papacy.

The renaissance brought a special spirit to the Western civilization. This led to curiosity about people,
nature and the world. It brought ideas of civilization and the need to act more as we do in modern times. It
was the heart of modern western civilization. One of the Key Italian contributors to renaissance
historiography was Niccolo Machiavelli.

The key aspect of Machiavelli’s life was the fact that he always desired to occupy political office. In 1498
as a young man of 29, Machiavelli obtained a job as secretary to the Second Chancery in Florence, for
which he travelled on diplomatic missions to cities within Italy and courts outside of it. He served in this
job for 14 years, meeting politicians and statesmen across Europe (people such as Louis XII, the Emperor
18
Maximilian, Cesare Borgia) and gaining experience of the winding ways of power politics. He also gave
advice on military tactics, successfully organising infantry forces in specific Italian campaigns and
establishing a Florentine militia. However, Florence eventually came under Papal control and (with
Venetian help) the Medici were restored as a ruling family; Machiavelli had always supported the
Florentine Republic and hence in 1512 he lost his job. He was then arrested and tortured, but eventually
exonerated and released. He never returned to political office. e picked up a pen and began to write; it was
the closest thing to being in office that he could now experience, the abstract cogitation of a lost political
reality, conversing in his imagination with the great leaders of the past. And Machiavelli turned out to be
a brilliant writer . he result was some of most profound and insightful political thinking thus far in the
European tradition.

The Prince
Machiavelli recommended that ‘a prudent ruler cannot, and must not, honour his word when it places him
at a disadvantage … Because men are wretched creatures who would not keep their word to you, you
need not keep your word to them’ Machiavelli then recommended that ‘one must know how to colour
one’s actions and be a great liar and deceiver’. Further on, Machiavelli explained that a prince who
neglected what was actually done by people for what (by rights) should be done was doomed to self-
destruction. Someone who always acted virtuously would quickly come to a sticky end among the
multitude who were not at all virtuous. Hence the successful political statesman must learn how and when
to act in a dishonest and immoral way, and must be much better at acting dishonourably than those around
him.

Another element of The Prince thought was Machiavelli’s practical guide to the conquest of other states, a
‘how to’ manual of maintaining control of foreign lands. Machiavelli recommended administering them
either by devastating them totally, and living there in person, or by creating a local oligarchy loyal to your
own power base. However, Machiavelli warned that whoever was responsible for creating someone else’s
system of power had actually ruined themselves, as the demonstrated mechanism of power creation had
elevated the assistant into a potential challenger to the new ruler. Machiavelli also warned rulers of the
transient nature of political support, characterising men as ‘ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers’ who
shunned danger and were greedy for profit. Hence they would risk their lives for a ruler when the
perceived danger was remote, but when such dangers became much more real they would quickly defect.
The solution to this problem was for a ruler to make themselves feared (although not hated), so that there
was always a psychological dread of punishment. Execution, if properly justified, was sometimes a
necessity in this respect, although only when there was a genuine reason for it.

One further significant component of The Prince was Machiavelli’s categorisation of principalities into
hereditary, composite, constitutional and ecclesiastical principalities. Machiavelli defined principalities as
having family rulers, with republics being left out of the discussion, presumably because they were less
likely to be controlled by prince-like figures. Machiavelli explained how new principalities could be
obtained by various means – one’s own arms and military prowess, fortune and foreign support, crime,
and constitutional astuteness – yet appeared less concerned with the ethical or human consequences of the
various methods that were outlined. For example, if criminal behaviour was accompanied by audacity and
courage, then success might be the result.

He consequently distinguished between cruelty used well or badly. Cruelty was used well when it was
employed once and for all, to defend personal safety and the good of all citizens; it was used badly when
it continued to occur, growing in intensity as time went on, without any specifically focused goal.

19
Machiavelli declared that it rarely came to pass that men rose from a low position to a high rank without
employing either force or fraud, i.e. that superior talent or ability was never enough to succeed on its own.
Of these two methods, cunning and deceit would serve better than force, although a combination of the
two was often required.

REVISION QUESTIONS

1. What were Machiavelli's reasons for writing The Prince?

2. Are Machiavelli’s ideas still relevant to the modern age?

3. What were the historical thoughts in the Renaissance period?

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 CHAPTER SIX

FEATURES OF HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE ENLIGHTMENT PERIOD

This was the “long 18th century” (1685-1815), (1650–1800) as part of a movement referred to by its
participants as the Age of Reason, or simply the Enlightenment. There is no exact beginning date for the
Enlightenment because it was such a broad movement. It did not suddenly spring up out of nowhere, but
instead developed gradually. Most historians place the beginning of the Enlightenment between the mid-
17th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Enlightenment thinkers in Britain, in France and
throughout Europe questioned traditional authority and embraced the notion that humanity could be
improved through rational change. The Enlightenment produced numerous books, essays, inventions,
scientific discoveries, laws, wars and revolutions. The Enlightenment was a period of nearly unbounded
optimism and faith in the human race's ability to solve its own problems, including restructuring
government and society along more reasonable lines. There were two main factors leading into this search
for a rational approach to creating a better society. First of all, was the idea of a God detached from
human affairs, gave man the ability and responsibility to solve his own problems. Second, this was a
period of rapid social and economic changes, especially in England with its booming colonial empire and
economy.

The Enlightenment, or Age of Enlightenment, rearranged politics and government to thinking

and exploring the world. Generally, enlightened thinkers thought objectively and without prejudice.
Reasoning, rationalism, and empiricism were some of the schools of thought that composed the
Enlightenment. The People of Enlightenment believed the almightiness of human knowledge and defied
the tradition and the pre-established thoughts of the past. This is the period in which the humans became
overconfident in the human Reason and rationality. It was also a time of religious (and anti-religious)
innovation, as Christians sought to reposition their faith along rational lines and deists and materialists
argued that the universe seemed to determine its own course without God’s intervention. Secret societies
like the Freemasons, Skulls and Bones, the Bavarian Illuminati, the Rosicrucians—flourished, offering
European men (and a few women) new modes of fellowship, esoteric ritual and mutual assistance.
Coffeehouses, newspapers and literary salons. Salons typically held weekly meetings where upper-class
citizens gathered to discuss the political and social theories of the day. The American and French
Revolutions were directly inspired by Enlightenment ideals and respectively marked the peak of its
influence and the beginning of its decline.

The French Revolution of 1789 was the culmination of the High Enlightenment vision of throwing out the
old authorities to remake society along rational lines, but it devolved into bloody terror that showed the
limits of its own ideas and led, a decade later, to the rise of Napoleon. The Enlightenment was a sprawling
intellectual, philosophical, cultural, and social movement that spread through England, France, Germany,
and other parts of Europe during the 1700s. Enabled by the Scientific Revolution, which had begun as
early as 1500, the Enlightenment represented about as big of a departure as possible from the Middle
Ages. The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, however, opened a path for independent thought,
and the fields of mathematics, astronomy, physics, politics, economics, philosophy, and medicine were
drastically updated and expanded. The amount of new knowledge that emerged was staggering. Just as
important was the enthusiasm with which people approached the Enlightenment: intellectual salons
popped up in France, philosophical discussions were held, and the increasingly literate population read

21
books and passed them around feverishly. The Enlightenment and all of the new knowledge thus
permeated nearly every facet of civilized life.

As the Enlightenment also prompted the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and Agrarian Revolution
which provided rural dwellers with jobs, food and new cities in which to live. Whether considered from
an intellectual, political, or social standpoint, the advancements of the Enlightenment transformed the
Western world into an intelligent and self-aware civilization. Moreover, it directly inspired the creation of
the world’s first great democracy, the United States of America. During the age of the Enlightenment,
historians began to seek accuracy for historical sources. They emphasized on observation and reasoning
as a means for coming to general conclusions. A philosophy stressed the recognition of every person as a
valuable individual with inalienable, inborn rights.

While the Renaissance was closely related to a search for the accumulation of past knowledge, the
Enlightenment clearly involved a conscious effort to break with the past. A major cause for the
Enlightenment was the Scientific Revolution which, because of its many achievements in science, gave
rise to the expectation that similar breakthroughs might be achieved in the social and political arena if
only the same methods were applied.

SOME OF THE KEY WORKS IN THE ENLIGHTMENT AGE

Enlightenment ideas on politics were rooted in John Locke's Two Treatises on Government (1694). John
Locke, who expressed the Social contract theory of government. He said that there existed a contract
between the people and the government; that the people were ultimately sovereign and had created
government in order to meet certain political needs. So long as the government served those needs, it
deserved the support of the people. However, when and if the government ceased to fulfill its part of the
bargain, then the people were no longer obligated to support the government, indeed, the people should
then replace that government with a better one. Montesquieu, sometimes seen as the father of political
science, looked at various types of government and analyzed what made them work in his book, The
Spirit of the Laws. Among the ideas he supposedly derived from England was the separation of powers
in government, a vital part of our own constitution. Separation of powers was meant to prevent the abuse
of power. He was a strong advocate of religious freedom and freedom of expression.

Locke's basic idea was that government, rather than being at the whim of an absolute monarch with no
checks on his power, existed merely as a trust to carry out the will of the people and protect their "lives,
liberty, and property." If it failed in its duties or acted arbitrarily, the subjects had the right to form a new
government, by revolution if necessary. Locke's ideas largely summarized the achievements of the
English Revolution of the 1600's. They had a tremendous impact on political thinkers in France chafing
under the corrupt reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI. Three of these men, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and
Rousseau would profoundly influence French political thought and provide the theoretical justification for
the French Revolution. He advocated for a Constitutional Monarchy.

Voltaire, who first made his name by championing the cause of a Jew wrongly accused and executed for a
crime, was probably the most famous of the Enlightenment philosophers. Voltaire wrote on a wide range
of topics but should be remembered here for advocating more civil and political liberties, at least for
educated people who can understand the implications of their actions. Voltaire was less clear on what

22
rights the illiterate masses should have. Voltaire was very interested in the tensions and dialectics between
religion and barbarism, and believed Christianity was not a central key to history.

Finally, there was Rousseau who said that people could only legitimately follow laws they themselves
have made. Otherwise, they were the victims of someone else's tyranny. Therefore the ideal state is a
small-scale democracy in which everyone participates. Together, the ideas of Locke, Montesquieu,
Voltaire, and Rousseau provided the basic ideas we have today on personal rights and liberties and how a
government can best be structured to guarantee those rights and liberties.

Voltaire was also very interested in describing histories involving Great Men of history, separating them
into four stages in order to show the progression through history. The first stage was focused on the glory
of Alexander and Philip, and also mentioned Pericles, Plato and Aristotle, all of which are of Greek
origin, as he states ‘and this honour has been confined within the limits of Ancient Greece; the rest of the
world was then in a state of barbarism’. This was followed by a second stage of Roman connections,
speaking of Augustus and Caesar as well as other notable men such as Virgil and Ovid. The third stage
was based around what Voltaire described as ‘the age of Italy’s glory’ and described the fall of
Constantinople and the era of such artists as Titian and Michelangelo. The fourth and final stage Voltaire
describes is the age of the French king, Louis XIV. He describes this saying ‘Lastly, the fourth age is that
known by the name of the age of Louis XIV, and is perhaps that which approaches the nearest to
perfection of all the four; enriched by the discoveries of the three former ones, it has done greater things
in certain kinds than those three together’. He generally describes the good effect the monarchy had
within Europe and believed in a monarchy which was constitutional, however, as previously stated he did
not believe in the political dogma surrounding religion, particularly Christianity, and remained dubious of
this throughout his life. He speaks of the church ‘Lastly, we shall speak of the church, which has been so
long connected with the government, has sometimes disturbed its peace, and at others been its defence;
and which, though instituted for the inculcating of morality, too frequently gives itself up to politics and
the impulse of the human passions ’.

Condorcet separated his history into ten stages of progression through mankind, beginning with mans
origins from savagery, right through to a final tenth stage which is yet to come and what he hopes will be
the outcome of equality between all nations, finally aiding man to advance intellectually and
technologically to achieve an almost utopian world. He notes there are particular factors that were causing
the downfall of man, so far preventing the tenth stage, stating ‘These differences have three main causes;
inequality in wealth; inequality in status between the man whose means of subsistence are hereditary and
the man whose means are dependent on the length of his life, or, rather, on that part of his life in which he
is capable of work; and, finally, inequality in education’. We can see a similar focus of equality in Karl
Marx’s work several years later.

Condorcet tells us that in order for the tenth stage to arrive and be successful, we must seek the equalities
between all nations, stating ‘Our hopes for the future condition of the human race can be subsumed under
three important heads: the abolition of inequality between nations, the progress of equality within each
nation, and the true perfection of mankind’.

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In comparison, both focused on the progression of mankind through the ages. Voltaire focused on the
Great Men of history such as Alexander and Louis XIV, whereas Condorcet focused on everyman rather
than Great Men or monarchy, predicting ‘The time will therefore come when the sun will shine only on
free men who know no other master but their reason’. Both historians also spoke of the effect of science
and the arts amongst the stages they speak of, believing this to be an important factor in man’s
progression throughout history, and they use this as evidence to back up their claims of why a particular
age is so notable for progression. In conclusion, both Voltaire and Condorcet, along with other historians
of the Enlightenment, believed in the use of reasoning and intellect to describe what they thought was
progress through the ages, and from the past they used the progressive stages to predict what they believe
would come in the future.

The Enlightenment ultimately gave way to 19th-century Romanticism. A movement that surfaced near the
end of the Enlightenment that placed emphasis on innate emotions and instincts rather than reason, as
well as on the virtues of existing in a natural state.

• Discuss key aspects of the age of enlightenment.

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 CHAPTER SEVEN

RISE OF MODERN HISTORIOGRAPHY

What is modern historiography?

Modern history can be further broken down into the early modern period, beginning with the
Renaissance, and the late modern period after the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution.
Contemporary history is the span of historic events that are immediately relevant to the present time.
Modern historians aim to reconstruct a record of human activities and to achieve a more profound
understanding of them. This conception of their task is quite recent, dating from the development in the
late 18th and early 19th centuries of “scientific” history and the simultaneous rise of history as an
academic profession. It springs from an outlook that is very new in human experience: the assumption
that the study of history is a natural, inevitable human activity. Before the late 18th century,
historiography did not stand at the centre of any civilization. History was almost never an important part
of regular education, and it never claimed to provide an interpretation of human life as a whole. This
larger ambition was more appropriate to religion, philosophy, and perhaps poetry and other imaginative
literature. In the 20th century, however, historians shifted their focus from statesmen and generals to
ordinary workers and soldiers. Until relatively recent times, however, most men and virtually all women
were excluded from history because they were unable to write. Virtually all that was known about them
passed through the filter of the attitudes of literate elites. The challenge of seeing through that filter has
been met by historians in various ways. One way is to make use of nontraditional sources—for example,
personal documents, such as wills or marriage contracts. Another is to look at the records of localities
rather than of central governments. Nevertheless, 21st-century historians understand the pasts of more
people more completely and more accurately than their predecessors did.

RISE OF AFRICAN HISTORIOGRAPHY

The study of African history as an independent and autonomous focus of scholarship is a recent
development. The continent was surrounded by some myths: People often referred to "Africa" as a
country rather than a continent. Well, it is a continent and home to 54 independent, unique countries with
South Sudan being the latest addition in July 2011. It was said to be a dangerous place full of thieves and
rapists. Poverty was obviously something that would strike visitors to many African countries. It was a
continent said to be corrupt, without a history and technologically backward.

Since the later 19th century, the study of African history has undergone radical changes. From about 1885
to the end of the Second World War, most of Africa was under the yoke of colonialism; and hence
colonial historiography held sway. According to this imperial historiography, Africa had no history and
therefore the Africans were a people without history. They propagated the image of Africa as a 'dark
continent'. Any historical process or movement in the continent was explained as the work of outsiders,
whether these be the mythical Hamites or the Caucasoids. Consequently, African history was for the most
part seen as the history of Europeans in Africa. It was argued at the time that Africa had no history
because history begins with writing and thus with the arrival of the Europeans. Their presence in Africa
was therefore justified, among other things, by their ability to place Africa in the 'path of history'.
Colonialism was celebrated as a 'civilising mission' carried out by European traders, missionaries and
administrators.

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African historiography at that time was majorly fine tuned in line with the Eurocentric views of African
history for example Professor Huge Trevor-Roper , a Professor of modern history at Oxford University,
who attested to the motion that Africa has no history said these:

Undergraduates, seduced, as always, by the changing breath of journalistic fashion, demand that
they should be taught the history of black Africa. Perhaps, in the future, there will be some
African history to teach. But at present there is none, or very little: there is only the history of the
Europeans in Africa. The rest is largely darkness, like the history of pre-European, pre-
Columbian America.

Furthermore Lander observed that the ‘… European regional or local history is understood as universal
History. According to this perspective, Europe serves as the model or reference for every other history,
representing the apex of humanity’s progress from the “primitive” to the “modern”. Apparent from this
ethnocentric view, G.F Hegel With gross disregard, wrote off Africa in these despicable words:

Africa proper, as far as History goes back, has remained — for all purposes of connection with
the rest of the World — shut up… the land of childhood, which lying beyond the day of self-
conscious history, is enveloped in the dark mantle of Night.. ..Whether any internal movement
had taken place, or if so, of what character, we do not know.
Andrew H. Foote, after a visit to Africa, fed his experience to the American ears as:

that these people should have rested in this unalloyed barbarism for thousands of years, and that
there should have been no native-born advancement and no flowing in upon its darkness of any
glimmering of light from the progress and high illumination of the outside world.

But even during the dark days of colonialism there were other historians, for example the traditional
historians, African historians educated in the West and Western colonial critics such as Basil Davidson,
who were writing different African or colonial histories. These historians challenged the imperial
historiographical hegemony, resulting by the 1950s into a New African Historiography. In a sense that
New African Historiography was a development of, and a significant factor in, the intensification of
national liberation movements. In other words, it was part of the decolonization process.

The era of decolonization and the immediate post-independence years witnessed a growing rank of
Africanists vigorously reject this Eurocentric and anti-African historical epistemology that privileged
civilization and written sources as the only rational bases for historical scholarship and that denied the
possibility of civilization and history to small-scale and non-literate societies dominant in Africa. Using
an array of sources, these scholars were successful in showing that Africa not only had a history but that
its history and the writing of it date back to ancient Antiquity. Ancient and classical writers wrote about
Africa, even though their writings were unsystematic. African ancient kingdoms were resurrected,
cultural heroes were discovered and achievements in all walks of life were demonstrated. Cheikh Anta-
Diop wrested Egyptian Civilization from the Egyptologists and restored it to the mainstream of African
history.

They were followed by Islamic and Arabic writers, who left first- or secondhand accounts of African
states and societies that have continued to prove valuable for scholars of African history. (Ibn Khaldun,
Mohammed Bello, Leo Africanus, Al Jahiz, Ibn Battuta, Al Bakri).The next phase of African
historiography was dominated by European traders, travelers, as well as missionaries and other

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adventurers, whose accounts of Africa, while generally tendentious and Eurocentric, remain major
sources for the reconstruction of the African (Missionaries i.e John Rebmann, Samuel Johnson).

The first phase had essentially a 'demonstrative' character. It was necessary to demonstrate that African
history could be written, that it was an academic discipline in its own merit. Local documentary and oral
sources existed that could produce respectable history. A rediscovery of the pre-colonial history of Africa
was necessary in order to bring the old civilizations to light, to place new value on African culture and art.

Political independence created the necessary conditions for the flowering of the New African
Historiography. History departments and research institutes established at the new African universities
were handsomely endowed with research and publication funds. This is what crystallized into the
Nationalist history of the 1950s and 196Os. With decolonization and independence came the era of
nationalist and liberalist historiography which rejected the notion of a barbaric and static Africa “without
history.” It sought to restore autonomy and initiative to the Africans, as well as authenticity and
respectability to the historicity of the African past. Rejecting the privileging of written sources, it argued
for and adopted the disciplined, rigorous, and corroborative use of a variety of sources and
multidisciplinary methods from archaeology, ethnography, anthropology, linguistics, and art history to
oral traditions. The African historian celebrated the rise of the new states and praised the achievements of
the African nationalists. Preference was given to the themes of African history considered useful to the
development of new state structures. They gave the new states historical identity by writing national
histories (such as A History of Tanzania or A History of Zambia) stretching into the remote colonial past.
Thus the Africanist historiography provided the African nationalists and the new states with a legitimising
ideology.

Revision Questions
1. Illustrate ten myths about Africa by the Europeans in the colonial period
2. What is the Contribution of Africa to World History?
3. Discuss the contribution of 10 African historians to modern historiography
4. What are the challenges facing modern African historiography

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 BHU 4115 REVISION QUESTIONS

· Give the various definitions of history

· What is historiography

· Give various meanings of historiography

· What are the differences and similarities between history and historiography?

· Describe the sources of history in pre-colonial Africa

· Discuss the contribution of the following classical scholars to African historiography:

Herodotus, Thucydides, Plutarch, Tacitus Levy

· Discuss the historiography in the Middle Ages (Dark ages historiography)

· Describe the contribution of St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas to historiography

· Describe the writings in the Renaissance age

· Describe the nature of writing in the enlightenment age

· How did scientific revolution influence historiography?

· Discuss the role of Nicollo Machiavelli in writing of the Prince and how is the Prince relevant
today?

· Discuss the role of Thomas Mbiti in African historiography

· What are the challenges facing modern African writers and give the wayforward?

· Examine the view that histories in ancient Egypt formed the foundation of history writing in old
world civilizations

· Identify key sources of African history, stating advantages and disadvantages

· Examine the contribution of chronicles of West Africa and East Coast of Africa in writing of
African History

· Give the differences between primary and secondary sources of history

· Discuss briefly how the Ethiopian documents contributed in the writing of African history

· Discuss the European perceptions about Africa and African history before the 19th Century
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• What were the features of enlightenment age historiography?
• Give the contribution of the following scholars in African historiography: Tabitha Kanogo,
William Ochieng, Jomo Kenyatta, Ali Mazrui, Wangari Mathai, Henry Stanely Mwaniki, B.A
Ogot

• Examine the contribution of St Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas in Middle Ages
historiography

• Discuss the works of 3 scholars in the classical antiquity

• Examine the view that histories in ancient Egypt formed the foundation of history writing in old
world civilizations

• Name five traditions that are credited for the writing of African history

• Examine the contribution of chronicles of West Africa, East Africa in writing of African History

• Histories in the enlightenment age form the basis for modern writing. Discuss

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