Islam Rediscovered
12. Islamic Fundamentalism
~ 200 ~
In this way, on all occasions, the Prophet
endeavoured to achieve his objectives by peaceful
rather than by war-like means. It is, therefore,
unconscionable that in later biographical writing, all
the events of his life have been arranged under the
heading of ‘battles’ (
ghazawat
). How he managed to
avert the cataclysms of war has not been dealt with
in any of the works which purportedly depict his
life.
Ibn Khaldun, the celebrated 14th century historian,
was the first to lay down definite rules for the study
and writing of history and sociology. He followed
the revolutionary course of attempting to present
history as a chronicle of events centering on the
common man rather than on kings, their generals
and the battles they fought. But since war heroes
were already entrenched as the idols of society, the
caravan of writers and historians continued to
follow the same well-worn path as had been
trodden prior to Ibn Khaldun. When people have
come to regard war heroes as the greatest of men, it
is but natural that it is the events of the battlefield
which will be given the greatest prominence in
