From "Political History" to the "Policy of History": A Critical Analysis of the Representation of Iran's Historical Developments During the Buyids Era in University History Textbooks

Nowadays there are various points of view on the models of teaching history in the educational system of different countries. One of these educational approaches is historical literacy. The main objective of teaching history in this approach is to reinforce the critical reasoning of the readers. Therefore, learning history is not merely to memorize a huge bulk of narrative reports that are usually about the history of the predecessor's political actions but it is taught to meet the expectations of the contemporary society. Therefore, in teaching history, textbooks need to empathize the cultural, civilizational, scientific, literary, artistic inclinations and the ordinary life styles of the predecessors, as well as the reconstruction of their cultural world. Since teaching history in Iranian universities follows state educational policies as well as policies of the institutions (such as SAMT Organization) that are in charge of producing university textbooks, application of these approaches for teaching history can promote the objectives of teaching history in universities. This article is an attempt to critically analyze how the developments of a historical era in Iran – in the 4th and 5th centuries A.H. (c. 11th century A.D.), regarded as "the golden era of Iran's culture" – have been represented in the educational program and relevant textbooks. This study showed that the lack of "policy of history" – characterized by the up-to-date and efficient academic standards in teaching history on par with the academic domains of this field in the contemporary world of the science of history – has lead to underrepresentation of civilizational and cultural aspects of the developments of this important era of the Islamic culture and civilization in the educational system and university textbooks, on the one hand, and a highlighting of the narration of political developments history, on the other.