Problem of Historical Distortion - Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab
THE PROBLEM OF HISTORICAL DISTORTION:
A Survey of Literature on Imām Muḥammad ibn `Abd al-Wahhāb as viewed through the Western slant of history
By Kazi Zulkader Siddiqui
The Problem of Historical Distortion
Of the past fourteen centuries of the Islamic civilization, its thought, its institutions and the personalities who have contributed to its development and glory, stagnation and disintegration, the historical perspective painted by the Judaeo-Christian West has been markedly distinctive from the picture presented by the Muslim scholars, varying from outright hostile and distorted versions to the recent sympathetic (and sometimes empathetic) accounts. History is one of those branches of knowledge that can be used most effectively for the glorification and upliftment of one 's own people at the expense of the traditions of others, leading eventually to a subversive imposition of one 's own norms, values and way of life as the standard for others. Most, if not all of the people emanating from the Judaeo-Christian tradition who have penned their understanding of the Islamic civilization, have been prey to such underlying motives. This is not unique though since the subjective bias and assumptions of the historian in question are an integral part of the writing of history. What becomes remarkable in this case is the effective use of the historical perspective of other people for the exploitation of the same. This becomes manifest then, for example, in the notorious 'Divide and Rule ' policy of the post-renaissance British Empire. The Old Testament Hebraic heritage has a lot to offer in comprehending this attitude and mentality of the Western writer. The Old Testament (in the Bible) was written primarily to identify the ancestry and heritage of the Jews and thereby declare their superiority over all other nations. The other nations mentioned in the Old Testament are merely for the sake of justification of the crimes of the Children of Israel. Likewise, the
A Survey of Literature on Imām Muḥammad ibn `Abd al-Wahhāb as viewed through the Western slant of history
By Kazi Zulkader Siddiqui
The Problem of Historical Distortion
Of the past fourteen centuries of the Islamic civilization, its thought, its institutions and the personalities who have contributed to its development and glory, stagnation and disintegration, the historical perspective painted by the Judaeo-Christian West has been markedly distinctive from the picture presented by the Muslim scholars, varying from outright hostile and distorted versions to the recent sympathetic (and sometimes empathetic) accounts. History is one of those branches of knowledge that can be used most effectively for the glorification and upliftment of one 's own people at the expense of the traditions of others, leading eventually to a subversive imposition of one 's own norms, values and way of life as the standard for others. Most, if not all of the people emanating from the Judaeo-Christian tradition who have penned their understanding of the Islamic civilization, have been prey to such underlying motives. This is not unique though since the subjective bias and assumptions of the historian in question are an integral part of the writing of history. What becomes remarkable in this case is the effective use of the historical perspective of other people for the exploitation of the same. This becomes manifest then, for example, in the notorious 'Divide and Rule ' policy of the post-renaissance British Empire. The Old Testament Hebraic heritage has a lot to offer in comprehending this attitude and mentality of the Western writer. The Old Testament (in the Bible) was written primarily to identify the ancestry and heritage of the Jews and thereby declare their superiority over all other nations. The other nations mentioned in the Old Testament are merely for the sake of justification of the crimes of the Children of Israel. Likewise, the
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