Reflections on the Sources of Ancient History A Historical Critical Study

Abstract

The writing of ancient history is not an easy process, and the documentation of its sources is even more difficult. There are also many confusions, faults, inadequacies, exaggerations and biases, which entail the importance of scrutiny while quoting and citing from sources to ensure obtaining accurate information. The present research therefore aims to highlight the deficiencies in the sources of ancient history, and the ways to discover and overcome them with special reference to carefully selected examples and the use of the inductive approach. It has been divided into an introduction and two sections. The first section studies the original sources including the ancient writings and antiquities. The second section touches on the divine, classical, and Islamic sources. We conclude that despite the deficiencies in such practices, and irrespective of the contradictions, biases or impartialities imposed by the process of reporting contemporary and non-contemporary historical events and confusing facts with myths and so on, they reflect the enormous activity in establishing human knowledge, in which scrutiny and decision-making play a crucial role.