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Reflections on Periodisation in Aradic Historiography

King's College, Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1ST, UK

This article attempts to analyse what one might call the 'politics' of periodisation in Arabic historiography. It is divided into three sections. The first deals with issues relating to periodisation prior to the nineteenth century, the second with nineteenth and twentieth century views and the third sets forth some general reflections on this theme. It argues that in the early period, certain criteria were established for periodisation and were drawn from political and historical experiences as well as scriptural and other textual sources. Once formulated, however, these criteria could not be easily overturned. Perhaps the only exception to this was Ibn Khaldun. In the more modern period, European periodisation schemes begin to impinge upon Arabic historiography, concurrently with European hegemony over large areas of Asia and Africa. Here, questions of progress and decline became uppermost in historiographical speculation about periodisation. The rise of nationalism resulted in singling out certain eras as examples of progress or decline, in accordance with the nationalist agenda. In contemporary historiography, periodisation no longer occupies centre stage as a theoretical problem, emerging only in times of extreme political turmoil.

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