Using the past: three traditions
I Mabbett, P Bicknell and others
8 points * One 2-hour seminar per week * First semester * Clayton
This subject is available to students of both history and ancient history. It examines three great traditions of historical writing: the classics of the ancient Greeks; the works of the Islamic literati of the Muslim world; and the writings of European medieval and early Renaissance historians. The parallels and contrasts within and among these traditions illuminate such themes as these writers' views of causation and the purpose of the study of history, the narrative traditions they represent, the standing of history as an intellectual activity within these societies, the authors' search for meaning and pattern in time and the social order, the admonitory role of such texts, the relevance of these works to modern historians as sources for the societies which produced them and the critical methodologies available for their use. All students will read selected extracts from major works and will further pursue particular traditions or issues which bridge these traditions in a long essay.
Assessment
One essay (5000 words): 50% * Examination (3 hours): 50%
Recommended texts
Beveridge (tr.) The Akbar nàma of Abu-l-Fazl 3 vols, Rare Books, 1973
Guicciardini F History of Italy and history of Florence tr. C Grayson, ed. J R Hale, Washington Square
Herodotus The histories tr. A de Selincourt, Penguin, 1959
Ibn Khaldun The Muqaddimah: An introduction to history tr. F Rosenthal, 3 vols, Pantheon, 1958
Machiavelli N Discourses on the first ten books of Livy
Machiavelli N History of Florence
Otto of Freising The two cities tr. C C Mierow, Columbia UP
Polybius The rise of the Roman Empire tr. I Scott-Kilvert, Penguin, 1979
Ricklefs M C (ed. and tr.) Modern Javanese historical tradition: A study of an original Kartasura chronicle and related materials School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1978
Thucydides The Peloponnesian War tr. R Warner, Penguin, 1959