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Toward fresh directions in historical research: an experiment in methodology using the putative “absolutism” of Hârûn al-Rashîd as a test case

Toward fresh directions in historical research: an experiment in methodology using the putative... Toward fresh directions in historical research: an experiment in methodology using the putative "absolutism55 of Harun al-Rashid as a test case John Abdallah Nawas (Nijmegen) This study is an experiment with some rather unorthodox features: it is interdisciplinary in character; it espouses a social science orientation; and its methodology is unfamiliar to many historians and Islamicists. Unfamiliar, too, is the doubt being cast in this investigation on a view, quite deeply entrenched, that the fifth Abbasid caliph, Harun al-Rashid (r. 170 A.H. = 786 A.D. till 193/809), was an absolutist ruler. This image, perhaps the product of impressionism and stereotyping and a naive carry-over of the notion of the "oriental despot", is perpetuated in part by the want of a uniform and unambiguous definition of what absolutism actually is. Al-Rashid is being used in this experiment as a "case" on whom the methodology is being "tested out". To be described first in what follows is the new methodology -- to be called the anecdote-focused method -- and the rationale for its use in historical research. Next to be discussed is a model of "absolutism" with six criteria which serve to define it operationally. The article concludes by presenting http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Der Islam de Gruyter

Toward fresh directions in historical research: an experiment in methodology using the putative “absolutism” of Hârûn al-Rashîd as a test case

Abdallah Nawas, John
Der Islam , Volume 70 (1) – Jan 1, 1993
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Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Walter de Gruyter
ISSN
0021-1818
eISSN
1613-0928
DOI
10.1515/islm.1993.70.1.1
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Toward fresh directions in historical research: an experiment in methodology using the putative "absolutism55 of Harun al-Rashid as a test case John Abdallah Nawas (Nijmegen) This study is an experiment with some rather unorthodox features: it is interdisciplinary in character; it espouses a social science orientation; and its methodology is unfamiliar to many historians and Islamicists. Unfamiliar, too, is the doubt being cast in this investigation on a view, quite deeply entrenched, that the fifth Abbasid caliph, Harun al-Rashid (r. 170 A.H. = 786 A.D. till 193/809), was an absolutist ruler. This image, perhaps the product of impressionism and stereotyping and a naive carry-over of the notion of the "oriental despot", is perpetuated in part by the want of a uniform and unambiguous definition of what absolutism actually is. Al-Rashid is being used in this experiment as a "case" on whom the methodology is being "tested out". To be described first in what follows is the new methodology -- to be called the anecdote-focused method -- and the rationale for its use in historical research. Next to be discussed is a model of "absolutism" with six criteria which serve to define it operationally. The article concludes by presenting

Journal

Der Islam – de Gruyter

Published: Jan 1, 1993

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