THE MYTHOLOGICAL TENDENCY AMONG ARAB HISTORIANS

Abstract

This research deals with the phenomenon of mythological tendency among Arab historians in the Middle Ages. The ancient Arabs contributed to writing history: the history of human events. They also contributed to writing other aspects of history, such as the history of cities, as Al-Khatib Al-Baghdadi did in his History of Baghdad, or as Ibn Al-Khatib did in his briefing on the news of Granada. He also dated the Arabs for kings, messengers, and scholars. Hence, history in its various aspects is a cognitive obsession and a scientific preoccupation that the Arabs have known and written extensively about. As for general history, many historians have worked on it, perhaps the most famous of whom are Ibn Jarir al-Tabari 310 AH - 923 AD, Al-Masudi 346 AH - 956 AD, Al-Maqrizi 845 AH - 1442 AD, and others. In this research, we will attempt to study the legendary mythological tendency in the historical writing of Al-Tabari and Al-Masudi, a tendency that permeated the history of these two historians. Al-Tabari was famous for his book The History of the Messengers and Kings or The History of Nations and Kings, as we find in other versions. In which, Al-Tabari tried to narrate the history of the world since the appearance of man on Earth, drawing his information from his culture and religious sources. Hence, his cosmic history is closer to religious history than to human history. He relies on religious texts such as the Qur’anic text and Hadith texts, and he does not hesitate to mention the myths of other nations. Which explains the history of the origin of the universe and the appearance of creation on Earth, and he formulates it in his beautiful foundry style so that it appears as if it were of his own making.