What is History ?Meaning of History ?Nature of History

What is  History ?Meaning of History ?Nature of History ?

            The word history is derived from Greek/Latin word “ Historian ” which means information ,inquiry and Research. It is an art as well as social science. History is also called mother of social sciences as it helps to  understand political science ,economics and sociology .History depends on truth so man constantly looks out to truth by analysing . It has no brake one event brings another. Thus history is continuous. Therefore we have to say, it is no static . The earlier concept of history is , it is the story of king and rulers. But the modern concept of history is, it is story of common Man’s welfare .

Definitions of History:

1: History is the study of past events.

2: A study of present in the light of past events. 

3:History is the study of man and his progress.

4:History is the study of Time . It covers all aspects of humans society like political ,econmics , scientific,medical,culture and religious.

5: A branch of knowledge that records and explain past events

6: A written reports of past events

Scope , Utility and Importance of History:

 1: History enables us to understand the past events 

2: History enables us to understand society, family system , custom, traditions , art, culture slavery , freedom , occupation , man ,laws of man , struggle of man , relation of man relationship of two or more countries , development of ages , and  government system .

Concept of History:

The key points of History are :

1: Sources 

2: Evidence

3: Continuity and change 

4: Causes and Effects 

5: Significance

6: Perspectives

7: Empathy and contest ability

Sources:

Definition :

 “Provide information about a topic is called sources “. There are two types of sources.

1: Primary Source 2: Secondary Source

1: Primary source :

Definition:

” A source which made during the time of event “. Published Documents about event is first.Primary source like books , magazines,Maps and posters. Unpublished documents about event is second primary source like Diaries, Play cards and posters. Thirdly, Visual sources about event like photographs , films , cartoons , and painting . Lastly, artefact about civilisation like furniture , clothing and building.

2: Secondary Source :

Definition:

A source which made after the period of event like articles from Journals , articles from magazines biographies websites and academic articles .

Evidence :

Original documents ,artefacts or other  pieces of information that were created at the time of event like dairies and books 

Continuity :

Continuance of events over time or similarities  over time . Like struggle for freedom of the Muslims of Subcontinent 1857 to 1947 .

Change:

The changing of civilisation / events over the course of time. Like Arabs were changed into civilised nation after Islam. causes:

Things that directly lead to another event are called cause. It maybe social,cultural are religious.Some causes are occurred immediate before event began,while other existed for several years before event.There are two types of causes .Short-term causes and long-term causes.1.Short-term causes are occurred hours,days and weeks before event.2.long-term causes are occurred year,decades or centimes before event.

Effects/Consequences:

Things that occurred after an event are called effects or influence of event or an effect happens after the cause and tell us what happened.There are two types of effects in history short-term effects and long-term effects.1.Short-term effects are occurred hours,days and weeks after event.2.Long-term effects are occurred years,decades and centuries after event.

   5.Significance:

A verdict/decision that veteran people make about what is important from our past.Like W.W.1 and independence war 1857.         

Perspective: 

It helps us to understand the world and our place in it . It helps us to understand the social, culture and emotional setting that shaped by people

Empathy and contest ability: Empathy is an ability to understand any historical figure and to change it in text form To draw different conclusions about any historical figure by separate sources is contest ability.

Memory: Memory is an active system that receives information from our body senses . This system convert information into usable form and then it store and retrieves the information from storage when needed . 

Process of Memory 

1: Encoding

2: Storage 

3: Retrieval 

1: Encoding  

     Putting information into mind and convert the information into usable form

2: Storage :

   Holding information in mind some period of time

3: Retrieval : 

   Retrieve the information from storage when needed

Types of Memory 

1: Sensory Memory

2: Working Memories/Short term memories

3: Long term memories

1:   Sensory Memories:

            Sensory memories are stored for a few seconds at most . They come from the five senses Hearing,Sight , Touch , Smell and taste . They are stored only for a long as the sense is being stimulated capacity of sensory memories is 3-7 units and duration is 0.5 to 0.3 seconds . There are two types of sensory memories

1: Iconic Memories ( visual)

2: Echoic (Audio)

2: Working Memories are the small amount of information that can held in mind and used in the execution of task . Capacity of working memories is 07-09 chunks and duration is 05 to 15 seconds 

3: Long term memories store information for long periods even for life . capacity of long term memories is Infinite and duration in life time .

Flash able Memories: 

Flashbulb memories are also the part of long term memories these memories are associated with personally and emotional events.

Sources of History:

There are two types of Sources of History

1: Archaeology Source

2: Literary Source

1: Archaeology Source :

Archaeology means the study of the past. There are three main types of Archaeology Source

1:Epigraphy

2: Coins 

3: Historical Buildings 

1: Epigraphy:

  The study of inscription is called Epigraphy. Writings which are normally engraved either on Stone, Surface metal and bricks are called Inscription. These are found mainly on rocks , Pillars , stone Tablets and Historical places . Like Ashoka rock, Qutb Minaat and Taj Mahal Inscription is a vital source of History. It gives us information about chronology of rulers , personalities and interest of rulers, extent of kingdom and social, religious and cultural aspects of society.

Coins

The study of coins is called Numismatics. Coins throw light on culture , religious, political lineage extent of kingdom economic conditions and trade and commerce of the society.

Historical Buildings:

Old buildings which are important historically are called Monuments . Like :Katakana fort Jejunum ,Noor Mahal Bhawlpur, Badshahi Mosque Lahore ,Multan fort, Derawar fort ,Harapa ,Hiran Minar and Rohtas Fort Jhelum

2: Literary Sources 

The information gathered in written forms that explains the ancient culture . There are three types of literary Sources 

1: Religious Literature

2: Non-Religious Literature

3: Foreign Literature

1: Religious Literature basically refers to the collection of literary work based on religion, religious believes and traditions are a main theme or Main concept in religious literature . In the east the term religious literature refers to book based on Islamic Principle . And in the west the term religious literature refers to book based on Christian principle. 

Islamic literature: Death comes for the Archbipop, Freedom in the mountain wind, Love comes softly and the lady and the mountain man.

2: Non-Religious Literature: Non-Religious Literature is known as secular literature. It includes biographies of important historical characters, dramas and poems , folk tales and books.

3: Foreign Literature:

The books, Magazine, Newspaper and Article of foreigner Author called Foreign Literature.

The construction and reconstruction of the past and compulsory parts of history.In fact, history is social science and an art.

History as a science,art or literature and social science meaning of history .The word history is drived from Greek word "Historian" which means information, inquiry and research.In Arabic history means point out the time.It is art as well as a social science. History is also called mother of social sciences.It helps to understand political science, economics and sociology.  History depends on truth so man constantly research truth by analysing.It has no brak one event brings another event. Thus history is continuous , therefore we have to say ,it is not static. The earlier concept of history is the story of king and rulers,

But modern concept of history is the story of common man's journey for his welfare.Before 9th century,the meanings of word history were taken as "search of truth". Remember that history is not study of events.It covers all aspects of human society like political, economic, scientific,medical, cultural and religious.History is an ocean it is difficult to explain it in single word.

Definition of history:

Herodotus(father of history): "History is searching of truth".

Carlyle:"History is a theme of different biographies".

Method Arnold:"History is deep river of lie".

Tine-B:"History is the name of rise and fall of world's culture and civilization".

Classification of History:

There are three stages of history.

Ancient history

Medieval history

Modern history

Ancient history:

Ancient history is contain from beginning to 1206 AD:1.Ancient Greece 2.Roman Empire 3.life of Muhammad (571-632 AD) 4.khilafat-e-Rashida (632-661 AD) 5.Umayyad Dynasty (661-750 AD) 6.Rise of Islam in subcontinent (712 AD) 7.Sultan Mahmood Ghaznavi 8.Sultan Mahmood Ghori.

Medieval History:

Duration of medieval history is 1206 AD to 1857 AD like,1.Slave dynasty (1206 to 1290 AD) 2.Khiliji dynasty (1290 to 1321 AD) 3.Tughlaq dynasty (1321 to 1412 AD) 4.Syed dynasty (1412 to 1451 AD) 5.lodhi dynasty (1451 to 1526 AD) 6.Mughal dynasty (1526 to 1857 AD).

Modern history:

Duration of modern history is 1857 ad to till today freedom movement (1857 to 1947) history of pahistan 1941 to till today  1.Types of history cultural history"

 a branch of history that deals with cultural analysis and custom of the past"

Diplomatic history

It focuse on the study of word-wide relations amoung nation 

This branch of history deal with the political matter of the states 

Social history

Social history is the study of society

Economic history 

It focuses on the economic and monetary phenomena of past 

Intellectual history

It is about personal dealing and how they developed

History is a science,art or literature and social science.

Social science natural science

The branch of knowledge that deals with the study of physical world,eg physics, chemistry, geology and biology social science

The scientific study of human society and social relationship,eg sociology, economic, political science and history history is a unique subject possessing the poletialites of both a science and an art .it does the enquiry after truth,thus history is a science on scientific basis . It is also based on the narrative account of the past ,thus it is an art or a piece of literature natural science are impersonal, impartial and capable of experimentation . Where as absolute impartialy is not possible in history because the history is a narrator and he looks at the past from a certain point of view history can not remain at the level of knowing.