خلاصه ماشینی:
For the different available texts of this work see Alfred Guillaume, ''A Note on the Sirah of lbn Ishaq" in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, XVIII, pt.
While trying to emphasise the national outlook of medieval Arabic historiography, Richter has completely ignored the works of al-Baladhuri (d, 279/892) al-Dinawari (d, 282/895), al-Ya'qubi (d, 284/897) al-Mas'udi (d, 346/ 95 7) and other historians who present the Persian national view-point, This makes the very basis of his argument weak.
I. Miskawaih, a 4th/ roth century historian of Persian origin, considers history as a practical discipline with a purely utilitarian purpose as discussed in the preface of his Tajarib al-Umam, It is an important and interesting Arabic theory of history that is available, but no statement can be made as regards its sources with any degree of certainty, as no historical work of ancient Persia discussing such a view of history is extant.
3, There is at least one exception to this statement which Richter failed to notice, It is the theory of history as expounded by a 4th/ t oth century Arabic historian Miskawaih, which is neither religious nor national in outlook and certainly it is different from the general historical picture of the Islamic Middle Ages, According to him ·history is a purely practical discipline and is not concerned with God or knowledge, This secu• lar and practical view of history was not developed by any historian coming after him with the result that he remained without a follower and his conception of hisrory did not receive the attention it deserved.