A Methodological Proposal for Reexamining Historian's Interpretive Schema in the Early Islamic Centuries

Historical and religious perceptions held by Muslim societies of principles of Islamic thoughts and cultures are mainly shaped by texts written during the first Islamic centuries. The traditionalistic nature of Muslim culture has made such works be considered as criteria or points of reference for learning about Islamic tradition. Nonetheless, interpretive-critical approaches to such texts suggest that they are narrative structures embedded with discoursal meanings which were created within the context of the first centuries. The contextual circumstances of such centuries were replete with religious and political conflicts between nations and sects, and the authors were chiefly biased in their writings. Hence, realistically looking, such conflicts and attitudes are likely to be reproduced in other eras as well. Putting forth a historical approach, the present paper proposes a methodological idea for rereading the works of historiographers of this era so that the religious dispositions embedded in such discourses could be reexamined.