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Friday, July 23, 2010

Malaikat Kecil Pada Hari Jumaat

Pada setiap Jumaat, selepas selesai menunaikan solat Jumaat, seorang Imam dan anaknya yang berumur 7 tahun akan berjalan menyusuri jalan di kota itu dan menyebarkan risalah bertajuk “Jalan-jalan Syurga” dan beberapa karya Islamik yang lain.

Pada satu Jumaat yang indah, pada ketika Imam dan anaknya itu hendak keluar seperti biasa meghulurkan risalah-risalah Islam itu, hari itu menjadi amat dingin dan hujan mulai turun.

Anak kecil itu mula membetulkan jubahnya yang masih kering dan panas dan seraya berkata “Ayah! Saya dah bersedia”

Ayahnya terkejut dan berkata “Bersedia untuk apa?”. “Ayah bukankah ini masanya kita akan keluar menyampaikan risalah Allah”

“Anakku! Bukankah sejuk keadaan di luar tu dan hujan juga agak lebat”

“Ayah bukankah masih ada manusia yang akan masuk neraka walaupun ketika hujan turun”

Ayahnya menambah “Ayah tidak bersedia hendak keluar dalam keadaan cuaca sebegini”

Dengan merintih anaknya merayu “Benarkan saya pergi ayah?”

Ayahnya berasa agak ragu-ragu namun menyerahkan risalah-risalah itu kepada anaknya “Pergilah nak dan berhati-hatilah. Allah bersama-sama kamu!”

“Terima kasih Ayah” Dengan wajah bersinar-sinar anaknya itu pergi meredah hujan dan susuk tubuh kecil itu hilang dalam kelebatan hujan itu.

Anak kecil itu pun menyerahkan risalah-risalah tersebut kepada sesiapa pun yang dijumpainya. Begitu juga dia akan mengetuk setiap rumah dan memberikan risalah itu kepada penghuninya.

Setelah dua jam, hanya tinggal satu saja risalah “Jalan-jalan Syurga” ada pada tangannya. DIa berasakan tanggungjawabnya tidak akan selesai jika masih ada risalah di tangannya. Dia berpusing-pusing ke sana dan ke mari mencari siapa yang akan diserahkan risalah terakhirnya itu namun gagal.

Akhirnya dia ternampak satu rumah yang agak terperosok di jalan itu dan mula mengatur langkah menghampiri rumah itu. Apabila sampai sahaja anak itu di rumah itu, lantas ditekannya loceng rumah itu sekali.

Ditunggunya sebentar dan ditekan sekali lagi namun tiada jawapan. Diketuk pula pintu itu namun sekali lagi tiada jawapan. Ada sesuatu yang memegangnya daripada pergi, mungkin rumah inilah harapannya agar risalah ini diserahkan.

Dia mengambil keputusan menekan loceng sekali lagi. Akhirnya pintu rumah itu dibuka.

Berdiri di depan pintu adalah seorang perempuan dalam lingkungan 50an. Mukanya suram dan sedih. “Nak, apa yang makcik boleh bantu?”

Wajahnya bersinar-sinar seolah-olah malaikat yang turun dari langit. “Makcik, maaf saya mengganggu, saya hanya ingin menyatakan yang ALLAH amat sayangkan makcik dan sentiasa memelihara makcik. Saya datang ini hanya hendak menyerahkan risalah akhir ini dan makcik adalah orang yang paling bertuah”.

Dia senyum dan tunduk hormat sebelum melangkah pergi.

“Terima kasih nak dan Tuhan akan melindungi kamu” dalam nada yang lembut.

Minggu berikutnya sebelum waktu solat Jumaat bermula, seperti biasa Imam memberikan ceramahnya.

Sebelum selesai dia bertanya “Ada sesiapa nak menyatakan sesuatu”

Tiba-tiba sekujur tubuh bangun dengan perlahan dan berdiri. Dia adalah perempuan separuh umur itu.

“Saya rasa tiada sesiapa dalam perhimpunan ini yang kenal saya. Saya tak pernah hadir ke majlis ini walaupun sekali. Untuk pengetahuan anda, sebelum Jumaat minggu lepas saya bukan seorang Muslim. Suami saya meninggal beberapa tahun lepas dan meninggalkan saya keseorangan dalam dunia ini”

Air mata mulai bergenang di kelopak matanya.

“Pada Jumaat minggu lepas saya mengambil keputusan untuk membunuh diri. Jadi saya ambil kerusi dan tali. Saya letakkan kerusi di atas tangga menghadap anak tangga menuruni. Saya ikat hujung tali di galang atas dan hujung satu lagi diketatkan di leher. Apabila tiba saat saya untuk terjun, tiba-tiba loceng rumah saya berbunyi.

Saya tunggu sebentar, pada anggapan saya, siapa pun yang menekan itu akan pergi jika tidak dijawab. Kemudian ia berbunyi lagi. Kemudian saya mendengar ketukan dan loceng ditekan sekali lagi”.

“Saya bertanya sekali lagi. Belum pernah pun ada orang yang tekan loceng ini setelah sekian lama. Lantas saya melonggarkan tali di leher dan terus pergi ke pintu”

“Seumur hidup saya belum pernah saya melihat anak yang comel itu. Senyumannya benar-benar ikhlas dan suaranya seperti malaikat”. “Makcik, maaf saya mengganggu, saya hanya ingin menyatakan yang ALLAH amat sayangkan makcik dan sentiasa memelihara makcik” itulah kata-kata yang
paling indah yang saya dengar”.

“Saya melihatnya pergi kembali menyusuri hujan. Saya kemudian menutup pintu dan terus baca risalah itu setiap muka surat. Akhirnya kerusi dan tali yang hampir-hampir menyentap nyawa saya diletakkan semula ditempat asal mereka. Aku tak perlukan itu lagi”.

“Lihatlah, sekarang saya sudah menjadi seorang yang bahagia, yang menjadi hamba kepada Tuhan yang satu ALLAH. Di belakang risalah terdapat alamat ini dan itulah sebabnya saya di sini hari ini. Jika tidak disebabkan malaikat kecil yang datang pada hari itu tentunya roh saya ini akan berada selama-lamanya di dalam neraka”

Tiada satu pun anak mata di masjid itu yang masih kering. Ramai pula yang berteriak dan bertakbir ALLAHUAKBAR!

Imam lantas turun dengan pantas dari mimbar lantas terus memeluk anaknya yang berada di kaki mimbar dan menangis sesungguh-sungguh hatinya.

Jumaat ini dikira Jumaat yang paling indah dalam hidupnya. Tiada anugerah yang amat besar dari apa yang dia ada pada hari ini. Iaitu anugerah yang sekarang berada di dalam pelukannya. Seorang anak yang seumpama malaikat.

Biarkanlah air mata itu menitis. Air mata itu anugerah ALLAH kepada makhlukNya yang penyayang

WONG FEI HUNG ORANG ISLAM

Selama ini kita hanya mengenal Wong Fei Hung sebagai jagoan Kung fu dalam film Once Upon A Time in China . Dalam filem itu, karakter Wong Fei Hung dimainkan oleh aktor terkenal Hong Kong , Jet Li. Namun siapakah sebenarnya Wong Fei Hung?

Wong Fei Hung adalah seorang Ulama, Ahli Perubatan, dan Ahli Beladiri legendaris yang namanya ditetapkan sebagai Pahlawan Nasional China oleh pemerintah China.

Wong Fei-Hung dilahirkan pada tahun 1847 di Kwantung (Guandong) dari keluarga muslim yang taat. Nama Fei pada Wong Fei Hung merupakan dialek Canton untuk menyebut nama Arab, Fais. Sementara Nama Hung juga merupakan dialek Kanton untuk menyebut nama Arab, Hussein. Jadi, bila di-bahasa-arab- kan, namanya ialah Faisal Hussein Wong.

Ayahnya, Wong Kay-Ying adalah seorang Ulama, dan tabib ahli ilmu penrubatan tradisional, serta ahli beladiri tradisional Tiongkok (wushu/kungfu). Ayahnya memiliki sebuah klinik perubatan bernama Po Chi Lam di Canton (ibukota Guandong). Wong Kay-Ying merupakan seorang ulama yang menguasai ilmu wushu tingkat tinggi. Ketinggian ilmu beladiri Wong Kay-Ying membuatnya dikenal sebagai salah satu dari Sepuluh Macan Kwantung. Posisi Macan Kwantung ini di kemudian hari diwariskannya kepada Wong Fei Hung.

Kombinasi antara pengetahuan ilmu perubatan tradisional dan teknik beladiri serta ditunjang oleh keluhuran budi pekerti sebagai Muslim membuat keluarga Wong sering turun tangan membantu orang-orang lemah dan tertindas pada masa itu. Karena itulah masyarakat Kwantung sangat menghormati dan mengidolakan Keluarga Wong.

Pesakit klinik keluarga Wong yang meminta bantuan perubatan umumnya berasal dari kalangan miskin yang tidak mampu membayar kos perubatan. Walau begitu, Keluarga Wong tetap membantu setiap pesakit yang datang dengan sungguh-sungguh. Keluarga Wong tidak pernah memilih bulu dalam membantu, tanpa memedulikan suku, ras, agama, semua dibantu tanpa pilih kasih. Secara rahsia, keluarga Wong terlibat aktif dalam gerakan bawah tanah melawan pemerintahan Dinasti Ch'in yang rasuah dan penindas. Dinasti Ch'in ialah Dinasti yang merubuhkan kekuasaan Dinasti Yuan yang memerintah sebelumnya. Dinasti Yuan ini dikenal sebagai satu-satunya Dinasti Kaisar Cina yang anggota keluarganya banyak yang memeluk agama Islam.

Wong Fei-Hung mula mengasah bakat beladirinya sejak berguru kepada Luk Ah-Choi yang juga pernah menjadi guru ayahnya. Luk Ah-Choi inilah yang kemudian mengajarnya dasar-dasar jurus Hung Gar yang membuat Fei Hung berjaya melahirkan Jurus Tendangan Tanpa Bayangan yang menjadi lagenda. Dasar-dasar jurus Hung Gar ditemukan, dikembangkan dan merupakan andalan dari Hung Hei-Kwun, abang seperguruan Luk Ah-Choi. Hung Hei-Kwun adalah seorang pendekar Shaolin yang terlepas dari peristiwa pembakaran dan pembantaian oleh pemerintahan Dinasti Ch'in pada 1734.

Hung Hei-Kwun ini adalah pemimpin pemberontakan bersejarah yang hampir mengalahkan dinasti penjajah Ch'in yang datang dari Manchuria (sekarang kita mengenalnya sebagai Korea ). Jika saja pemerintah Ch'in tidak meminta bantuan pasukan-pasukan bersenjata bangsa asing (Rusia, Inggris, Jepun), pemberontakan pimpinan Hung Hei-Kwun itu nescaya akan berjaya mengusir pendudukan Dinasti Ch'in.

Setelah berguru kepada Luk Ah-Choi, Wong Fei-Hung kemudian berguru pada ayahnya sendiri hingga pada awal usia 20-an tahun, ia telah menjadi ahli perubatan dan beladiri terkemuka. Bahkan ia berjaya mengembangkannya menjadi lebih maju. Kemampuan beladirinya semakin sulit ditandingi ketika ia berhasil membuat jurus baru yang sangat taktis namun efisien yang dinamakan Jurus Cakar Macan dan Jurus Sembilan Pukulan Khusus. Selain dengan tangan kosong, Wong Fei-Hung juga mahir menggunakan bermacam-macam senjata. Masyarakat Canton pernah menyaksikan langsung dengan mata kepala mereka sendiri bagaimana ia seorang diri dengan hanya memegang tongkat berjaya menewaskan lebih dari 30 orang jagoan pelabuhan berbadan kekar dan kejam di Canton yang mengeroyoknya karana ia membela rakyat miskin yang akan mereka peras.

Dalam kehidupan keluarga, Allah banyak mengujinya dengan berbagai cobaan. Seorang anaknya terbunuh dalam suatu insiden perkelahian dengan mafia Canton . Wong Fei-Hung tiga kali menikah karena isteri-isterinya meninggal dalam usia pendek. Setelah isteri ketiganya meninggal, Wong Fei-Hung memutuskan untuk hidup sendiri sampai kemudian ia bertemu dengan Mok Gwai Lan, seorang perempuan muda yang kebetulan juga ahli beladiri. Mok Gwai Lan ini kemudian menjadi pasangan hidupnya hingga akhir hayat. Mok Gwai Lan turut mengajar beladiri pada kelas khusus perempuan di perguruan suaminya.

Pada 1924 Wong Fei-Hung meninggal dalam usia 77 tahun. Masyarakat Cina, khususnya di Kwantung dan Canton mengenangnya sebagai pahlawan pembela kaum mustad'afin (tertindas) yang tidak pernah gentar membela kehormatan mereka. Siapapun dan berapapun jumlah orang yang menindas orang miskin, akan dilawannya dengan segenap kekuatan dan keberanian yang dimilikinya.Wong Fei-Hung meninggal dengan meninggalkan nama harum yang membuatnya dikenal sebagai manusia yang hidup mulia, salah satu pilihan hidup yang diberikan Allah kepada seorang muslim selain mati Syahid. Semoga segala amal ibadahnya diterima di sisi Allah Swt dan semoga segala kebaikannya menjadi teladan bagi kita, generasi muslim yang hidup setelahnya. Amiin.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

How To End An Office Romance

A bright-eyed college grad had just landed an entry-level position in international economic development in New York and soon after began an exciting romance with an older man. She fell hard, and she fell fast. But they weren't ordinary circumstances. He was a co-worker.

The pair surreptitiously dated for more than a year without telling anyone at the office. Then, one day, seemingly out of the blue, he took her to dinner and ended it. They didn't discuss how the breakup might affect their work or how they'd handle hallway run-ins. It was just over.

While she'd managed to hide the romance relatively well, it was hard to cover up the breakup. Over the next few weeks co-workers winced at her sudden crying fits--at her desk, in meetings, at the water cooler. One minute she'd be talking about spreadsheets, and the next minute she'd be weeping into her coffee cup. When she did run into her former lover, emotions flooded back and she didn't know what to say or how to maintain her composure.

Several sick days, tissues and awkward encounters later, she was finally able to get on with her life. But looking back now, she says the breakup clearly affected her performance on the job, and that she'd do it all differently if given the chance.

According to a 2009 survey by CareerBuilder.com, four out of 10 workers have dated a colleague. Meanwhile, most executives believe that office romances end in disaster and wreak havoc in the workplace, reports the Society for Human Resource Management.

In other words, more co-worker flames mean more workplace flame-outs. Career coach and chief of Cornerstone Executive Development Group Stephen Xavier says there has been a dramatic increase in office romances, partly due to the amount of time we spend on the job and the increase of women in the workplace, and that well over half end in breakups. "Statistically speaking, if you start an office relationship it's likely going to fail," says Xavier. And how you handle the breakup and its aftermath could make or break your job.

Controlling when and where the breakup happens will reduce potential drama. "Handle the breakup outside of the office, preferably after hours or on a weekend," advises Xavier. Then you both will be able to cool off and collect your thoughts. If you do a Dear John in the elevator or office cafeteria, you will get a scene.

Most people do not handle co-worker breakups well. "It's always awkward and it's always messy," Xavier says. He recalls a relationship between two co-workers at an East Coast pharmaceutical company. One was a medical doctor and the other a Ph.D. All logic went out the window when she discovered that he was seeing someone else. She exploded in the hallway and dragged him into her office, screaming and cursing within earshot of her colleagues. She immediately lost credibility.

It's best to handle the breakup conversation gently and directly, says Stacy Kaiser, psychotherapist and author of How To Be A Grown Up. "What differentiates an office breakup from a typical breakup is that you still have a relationship later," she says. "You want to be respectful."

Kaiser relates what not to do: She once worked with two auditors who met and began dating because they shared a car when they did field work. When the woman decided things were over, she wasn't sure how to break it off. One day on a field assignment, she pulled over at the market and asked her paramour to get her a bottle of water. When he came back out, she was gone.

Kaiser suggests privately saying something clear and concise, like, "We're just not a good match." Then it's time to set the breakup ground rules. Co-workers don't have the luxury of hiding their exes on Facebook and calling it day. They will run into each other--and hiding behind the copier is not advisable.

The basic breakup plan often entails who to tell and what the official story will be. Kaiser says more elaborate plans may include which entrances each will use, setting up a lunch schedule so that they won't run into each other and even dividing up workplace friends.

Then it's a matter of maintaining composure and civility on the job. Jill Spiegel, relationship expert and author of How To Talk To Anyone About Anything, says that venting to co-workers or allowing your emotions to take over will hurt your professional reputation. She advises keeping your distance for about six months, being polite but not engaging in conversation and taking care not to bash or sabotage the ex.

Not everyone is so good at keeping their cool. Kaiser remembers one ugly breakup between two lawyers at the same law firm. He broke up with her, and she became enraged, hatching schemes to provoke him to quit. Before going to court, the male lawyer had a habit of packing his briefcase with important documents and then leaving it on an office chair while he grabbed a drink. His ex snuck in, removed the documents and replaced them with a trashy romance novel. He didn't discover the switch until he opened up the briefcase in front of the judge.

Pointed workplace revenge should be reported to a supervisor immediately, but sometimes the anger is mutual--and everybody knows it. Xavier has witnessed breakup fallout in the entertainment industry, and the drama wasn't limited to the screen. Two male writers on a hit TV show had been seeing each other for about six months before the relationship turned sour.

They would storm in and out of meetings, sit at opposite ends of the table and glare, bang notebooks and thump pens. Once on set, they would put as much distance between them as possible and use crew members as intermediaries to deliver one another messages. "It was very uncomfortable for everyone," says Xavier.

While the end of an office romance can never be good, some are more successful than others. Two managers at a U.K.-based tech company dated for more than a year, and then had a heart-to-heart about why it wasn't working. When they went in on Monday, together they told the executive team they had decided to end the relationship but promised to keep it out of the office and asked for the team's support. The pair kept their distance but remained cordial. Within a few months they were back to being office pals.


Monday, June 21, 2010

oceans things ;)



















Air sembahyang - Mulakan dari sekarang

" AIR SEMBAHYANG "



1. Ketika berkumur , berniatlah kamu dengan, "Ya

Allah,ampunilah dosa mulut dan lidahku ini".

Penjelasan nombor 1 : Kita hari-hari bercakap

benda-benda yang tak berfaedah.



2. Ketika membasuh muka, berniatlah kamu

dengan, "Ya Allah, putihkanlah muka ku di akhirat

kelak, Janganlah Kau hitamkan muka ku ini".

Penjelasan nombor 2 : Ahli syurga mukanya putih

berseri-seri.


3. Ketika membasuh tangan kanan , berniatlah

kamu dengan, "Ya Allah, berikanlah hisab-hisab

ku ditangan kanan ku ini".

Penjelasan nombor 3 : Ahli syurga diberikanhisab-

hisabnya di tangan kanan .


4. Ketika membasuh tangan kiri , berniatlah kamu

dengan, "Ya Allah, janganlah Kau berikan hisab-

hisab ku di tangan kiri ku ini".

Penjelasan nombor 4 : Ahli neraka diberikan hisab-

hisabnya di tangan kiri .


5. Ketika membasuh kepala , berniatlah kamu

dengan,"Ya Allah, lindunganlah daku dari terik

matahari di padang Masyar dengan Arasy Mu".

Penjelasan nombor 5 : Panas di Padang Masyar

macam matahari sejengkal di atas kepala.


6. Ketika membasuh telinga , berniatlah kamu

dengan,"Ya Allah, ampunilah dosa telinga ku ini"

Penjelasan nombor 6 : Hari-hari mendengar orang

mengumpat, memfitnah dll.


7. Ketika membasuh kaki kanan , berniatlah kamu

dengan."Ya Allah, permudahkanlah aku melintasi

titian Siratul Mustaqqim".

Penjelasan nombor 7 : Ahli syurga melintasi titian

dengan pantas sekali..


8. Ketika membasuh kaki kiri , berniatlah kamu

dengan,"Ya, Allah, bawakanlah daku pergi ke

masjid-masjid, surau-surau dan bukan tempat-

tempat maksiat"

Penjelasan nombor 8 : Qada' dan Qadar kita di

tangan Allah.


Ramai di antara kita yang tidak sedar akan hakikat

bahawa setiap yang dituntut dalam Islam

mempunyai hikmah nya yang tersendiri .


Pernah kita terfikir mengapa kita mengambil

wuduk sedemikian rupa?

Pernah kita terfikir segala hikmah yang kita

perolehi dalam menghayati Islam?


Pernah kita terfikir mengapa Allah lahirkan kita

sebagai umat Islam?


Bersyukurlah dan bertaubat selalu.. Ikhlas kerana

Allah..

DID YOU EVER THINK LIKE THIS!!!

Do you know?

a human body can bear only up to 45 Del (unit) of pain.

But at the time of giving birth, a woman feels up to 57 Del of Pain.

This is similar to 20 bones getting fractured at a time!!!!

LOVE UR MOM...














THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PERSON ON THIS EARTH…

OUR BEST CRITIC …

YET OUR STRONGEST SUPPORTER…

"MOTHER"

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Have u ever seen the " Tiean San" Snow Lotus?

Wonderful Nature



Ever seen TianSan "Snow Lotus" before?





These are pictures of the TianSan "snow lotus"

that we have only read about in story books when we were young ....

















Favourite 3 Mee Goreng in Penang

lot of the Penangnites love spicy food, and are always looking for tasty Mee Goreng or fried noodles. For us, we have explored a few and will present to you our top 3 favourite Mee Goreng in Penang .

Take note that all of them are quite spicy and do remind the seller if you prefer it to be less spicy. Or you can also ask them to add "cabai" (chili paste) for hotter and spicier mee goreng.

1. Mee Sotong Goreng @ Padang Kota Lama



Hameed 'Pata' Special Mee Sotong Goreng has been famous since long ago. This halal Mee Goreng is special for it's generous amount of sweet sotong. Usually it is served at an average amount of wet and dry.


Mee Sotong Goreng RM3.50

To chill out the spiciness, you can also get a coconut drink from the next few stalls at this food court.



Chilling coconut water RM2.00


2. Rasheed Mee Goreng Stall near Jelutong Post Office



Very famous for it's wet mee goreng, this mee goreng can usually be bought during afternoon to evening. The hygiene of this stall is questionable, but the mee goreng definitely tasted good.



Rasheed Mee Goreng RM3.00

3. Ali Mee Goreng Stall






Ali Mee Goreng RM2.70

Looking rather bland in color, this mee goreng actually taste good. Suitable for those that prefer wet fried and less spicy mee goreng. Portion rather small but if you want more, just order the larger portion.

Correct times to drink water

Correct timing to take water, will maximize its effectiveness to Human body.

One (01) glass of water - 30 minutes before meal - Helps digestion

Two (02) glasses of water - After waking up - Helps activate internal organs

One (01) glass of water - Before sleep - To avoid stroke or heart attack

One (01) glass of water - Before taking a bath - Helps lower blood pressure

Friday, June 18, 2010

A RIVER over A RIVER in GERMANY

LOOK CAREFULLY AT THE PHOTO BELOW ....................








Have you ever seen a Water Bridge over a river?
Pretty Cool !





Even after you see it, it is still hard to believe!
Water Bridge in Germany . What a feat!
Six years, 500 million euros, 918 meters long........now this is engineering!
This is a channel-bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and
West Germany, as part of the unification project. It is located in the city of
Middleburg, near Berlin. The photo was taken on the day of inauguration.
To those who appreciate engineering projects, here's a puzzle for you armchair
engineers and physicists.
Did that bridge have to be designed to withstand the additional weight of ship
and barge traffic, or just the weight of the water?


Answer:
It only needs to be designed to withstand the weight of the water!
Why? A ship always displaces an amount of water that weighs the same as the ship,
regardless of how heavily a ship may be loaded.

hold a true friend......

Friends..... ...
They love you,
but they are not your lover
They care for you,
but they are not from your family
They are ready to share your pain,
but they are not in your blood relation.
They are........FRIENDS! !!!!
True friend...... ..
Scolds like a DAD..
Cares like a MOM..
Teases like a SISTER..
Irritates like a BROTHER..
And finally loves U more than a LOVER.

List of Muslim historians

The following is a list of Muslim historians writing in the Islamic historiographical tradition, which developed from hadith literature in the time of the first caliphs. This list is focused on pre-modern historians who wrote before the heavy European influence that occurred from the 19th century onward.

"Chase F. Robinson" in "Islamic Historiography" has mentioned the chronological list of Islamic historians.

The historians of the formative period

First era: 700-750 (Ibn Zubayr and al-Zuhri's histories no longer exist, but they are referenced in later works).

* Urwah ibn Zubayr (d. 712)
* Al-Zuhri (d. 742)

Second era: 750-800

* Ibn Ishaq (d. 761) - Sirah Rasul Allah (The Life of the Apostle of God)
* Abi Mikhnaf (d. 774) - Maqtal al-Husayn
* Sayf ibn Umar (d. 796)

Third era: 800-860

* Hisham ibn al-Kalbi (d. 819)
* Al-Waqidi (d. 823) - Kitab al-Tarikh wa'l-Maghazi (Book of History and Battles).
* Al-Madaini (d. 830-850)
* Ibn Hisham (d. 835)
* Ibn Sa'd (d. 845)
* Khalifa ibn Khayyat (d. 854)

Fourth era: 860-900

* Ibn Abd al-Hakam (d. 871) - Futuh Misr wa'l-Maghrib wa akhbaruha
* Umar ibn Shabba (d. 878)
* Al-Haysam ibn Adi (d. 882)
* Ibn Qutaybah (d. 889) - Uyun al-akhbar, Al-Imama wa al-Siyasa[1]
* Al-Dinawari (d. 891) - Akbar al-tiwal
* Baladhuri (d. 892)

Fifth era: 900-950

* Ya'qubi (d. 900) - Tarikh al-Yaqubi
* Ibn Fadlan (d. after 922)
* Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (838CE - 923CE) - History of the Prophets and Kings
* Ibn A'tham (d. 314/926-27) - al-Futuh
* Abū Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdānī (d. 945)

The historians of the classical period

Iraq and Iran

* Abu Bakr bin Yahya al-Suli (d. 946)
* Ali al-Masudi (d. 955) - The Meadows of Gold
* Sinan ibn Thabit (d. 976)
* al-Saghani (d. 990), one of the earliest historians of science
* Ibn Miskawayh (d. 1030)
* al-Utbi (d. 1036)
* Hilal ibn al-Muhassin al-Sabi' (d. 1056)
* al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (d. 1071) - Tarikh Baghdad (a biographical dictionary of major Baghdadi figures)
* Abolfazl Beyhaqi (995-1077) - Tarikh-e Mas'oudi (also known as "Tarikh-e Beyhaqi").[1]
* Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi (d. 1083)
* Ibn al-Imrani (d. 1184)
* Zahir al-Din Nishapuri (d. 1187)
* Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1201)
* Ibn al-Athir (1160–1231) - al-Kamil fi'l-Tarikh
* Zahiriddin Nasr Muhammad Aufi (d. 1242)
* Sibt ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1256)
* Ibn al-Sa'i (d. 1276)
* Hamdollah Mostowfi (d. 1281)
* Ibn Bibi (d. after 1281)
* Ata al-Mulk Juvayni (1283)
* Ibn al-Tiqtaqa (d. after 1302)
* Ibn al-Fuwati (d. 1323)
* Wassaf (d. 1323)
* Rashid-al-Din Hamadani (d. 1398) - Jami al-Tawarikh
* Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi (d. 1454)
* Mirkhond (d. 1498) - Rauzât-us-safâ

Egypt, Palestine and Syria

* Al-Muqaddasi (d.1000)
* Al-Musabbihi (d. 1030)
* Ibn al-Sayrafi (d. 1147)
* Ibn al-Qalanisi (d. 1160)
* Ibn Asakir (d. 1176)
* Usamah ibn Munqidh (d. 1188)
* Imad al-Din al-Isfahani (d. 1201)
* Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi (d. 1231)
* Baha al-Din ibn Shaddad (d. 1235) - al-Nawādir al-Sultaniyya wa'l-Maḥāsin al-Yūsufiyya (The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin)
* al-Kalabi (d.1237)
* Sibt ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1256) - Mir'at al-zaman (Mirror of the Time)
* Ibn al-Adim (d. 1262)
* Abu Shama (d. 1267)[2]
* Ibn Khallikan (d. 1282)
* Ibn Abd al-Zahir (d. 1292)
* Baybars al-Mansuri (d. 1325)
* Abu'l-Fida (d. 1331)
* al-Nuwayri (d. 1332)
* Ibn al-Dawadari (d. after 1335)
* al-Mizzi (d. 1341)
* al-Dhahabi (d. 1348) - Tarikh al-Islam al-kabir
* al-Safadi (d. 1363)
* Ibn Kathir (d. 1373) - al-Bidaya wa'l-Nihaya (The Beginning and the End)
* Ibn al-Furat (d. 1405)
* al-Maqrizi (d. 1442) - al-Suluk li-ma'firat duwwal al-muluk (Mamluk history of Egypt)
* Ibn Hajr al-Asqalani (d. 1449)
* al-Ayni (d. 1451)
* Ibn Taghribirdi (d. 1470) - Nujum al-zahira fi muluk Misr wa'l-Qahira (History of Egypt)
* al-Sakhawi (d. 1497)
* al-Suyuti (d. 1505) - History of the Caliphs
* Mujir al-Din al-'Ulaymi (d.1522)

al-Andalus and the Maghreb

* Qadi al-Nu'man (d. 974)
* Ibn al-Qūṭiyya (d. 977) - Ta'rikh iftitah al-Andalus
* Ibn Faradi (d. 1012)
* Ibn Hazm (d. 1063)
* Yusuf ibn abd al-Barr (d. 1071)
* Ibn Hayyan (d. 1075)
* al-Udri (d. 1085)
* Abū 'Ubayd 'Abd Allāh al-Bakrī (d. 1094)
* Qadi Iyad (d. 1149)
* Mohammed al-Baydhaq (d. 1164)
* Ibn Idhari (d. 1312)
* Ibn Battuta (d. 1369))
* Ibn al-Khatib (d. 1374)
* Ibn Abi Zar (d. ca. 1320) - Rawd al-Qirtas
* Ismail ibn al-Ahmar (d. 1406)
* Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) - al-Muqaddimah and al-I'bar

India
Further information: Muslim chronicles for Indian history

* al-Bīrūnī (d. 1048) - Kitab fi Tahqiq ma li'l-Hind (Researches on India), The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries
* Minhaj-i-Siraj (d. after 1259)
* Amir Khusro (d. 1325)
* Isami (d. after 1350) - Futuh al-Salatin
* Ziauddin Barani (d. 1357)


The early modern historians
Turkish: Ottoman Empire

* Aşıkpaşazade (d. 1481)
* Mehmed Neşrî (d. before 1520)
* İdris-i Bitlisi (d. 1520)
* Kemal Paşa-zade (Ibn-i Kemâl) (d. 1534)
* Matrakçı Nasuh (d. 1564)
* Hoca Sadeddin Efendi (d. 1599)
* Mustafa Ali (d. 1600)
* Mustafa Selaniki (d. 1600)
* Katip Çelebi (d. 1647)
* İbrahim Peçevi (d. 1650)
* Mustafa Naima (1655–1716) - Ta'rīkh-i Na'īmā
* Silahdar Findiklili Mehmed Aga (d. 1723)
* Mehmed Raşid (d. 1735)
* Ahmed Resmî Efendi (d. 1783)
* Ahmet Cevdet Pasha (d. 1895)

Arabic: Ottoman Empire and Morocco

* Ibn Iyas (d. after November 1522)
* Shams al-Din ibn Tulun (d. 1546)
* Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari (d. 1632)
* Mohammed al-Ifrani (d. 1747)
* Mohammed al-Qadiri (d. 1773)
* Ahmad al-Damurdashi (d. after 1775)
* Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti (d. 1825) - Aja'ib al-athar fi'l-tarajim wa'l-akhbar
* Ahmad ibn Khalid al-Nasiri (d. 1897)

Persian: Safavid Empire and Mughal India

* Muhammad Khwandamir (d. 1534)
* Hasan Beg Rumlu (d. after 1550)
* Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak (d. 1602) - Akbarnama
* Abd al-Qadir Bada'uni (d. 1615)
* Firishta (d. 1620)
* Iskandar Beg Munshi (d. 1632)
* Nizamuddin Ahmad (d. 1621)
* Inayat Allah Kamboh (d. 1671)
* Muhammad Saleh Kamboh (d. ca. 1675)
* Abul Fazl Mamuri (c. 1700)
* Khafi Khan (d. after 1733) - Muntakhib-ul-lubab
* Mirza Mehdi Khan Astarabadi (d. c. 1760)
* Ghulam Husain Tabatabai (d. after 1781)

Ibn Khaldun's Achievements

At the age of 20, he began his political career at the Chancellery of the Tunisian ruler Ibn Tafrakin with the position of Kātib al-'Alāmah, which consisted of writing in fine calligraphy the typical introductory notes of official documents. In 1352, Abū Ziad, the Sultan of Constantine, marched on Tunis and defeated it. Ibn Khaldūn, in any case unhappy with his respected but politically meaningless position, followed his teacher Abili to Fez. Here the Marinid sultan Abū Inan Fares I appointed him as a writer of royal proclamations, which didn't prevent Ibn Khaldūn from scheming against his employer. In 1357 this brought the 25-year-old a 22-month prison sentence. Upon the death of Abū Inan in 1358, the vizier al-Hasān ibn-Umar granted him freedom and reinstated him in his rank and offices. Ibn Khaldūn then schemed against Abū Inan's successor, Abū Salem Ibrahim III, with Abū Salem's exiled uncle, Abū Salem. When Abū Salem came to power, he gave Ibn Khaldūn a ministerial position, the first position which corresponded with Ibn Khaldūn's ambitions.

The treatment Ibn Khaldun received after the fall of Abū Salem through Ibn-Amar ʕAbdullah, a friend of Ibn Khaldūn's, was not to his liking, he received no significant official position. At the same time, Amar successfully prevented Ibn Khaldūn - whose political skills he was well aware of - from allying with the Abd al-Wadids in Tlemcen. Ibn Khaldūn therefore decided to move to Granada. He could be sure of a positive welcome there, since at Fez he had helped the Sultan of Granada, the Nasrid Muhammad V, regain power from his temporary exile. In 1364 Muhammad entrusted him with a diplomatic mission to the King of Castile, Pedro the Cruel, to endorse a peace treaty. Ibn Khaldūn successfully carried out this mission, and politely declined Pedro's offer to remain at his court and have his family's Spanish possessions returned to him.

In Granada, Ibn Khaldūn quickly came into competition with Muhammad's vizier, Ibn al-Khatib, who saw the close relationship between Muhammad and Ibn Khaldūn with increasing mistrust. Ibn Khaldūn tried to shape the young Muhammad into his ideal of a wise ruler, an enterprise which Ibn al-Khatib thought foolish and a danger to peace in the country - and history proved him right. At al-Khatib's instigation, Ibn Khaldūn was eventually sent back to North Africa. Al-Khatib himself was later accused by Muhammad of having unorthodox philosophical views, and murdered, despite an attempt by Ibn Khaldūn to intercede on behalf of his old rival.

In his autobiography, Ibn Khaldūn tells us little about his conflict with Ibn al-Khatib and the reasons for his departure. The orientalist Muhsin Mahdi interprets this as showing that Ibn Khaldūn later realised that he had completely misjudged Muhammad V.

Back in Africa, the Hafsid sultan of Bougie, Abū ʕAbdallāh, (who had been his companion in prison) received him with great enthusiasm, and made Ibn Khaldūn his prime minister. During this period, Ibn Khaldūn carried out a daring mission to collect taxes among the local Berber tribes. After the death of Abū ʕAbdallāh in 1366, Ibn Khaldūn changed sides once again and allied himself with the ruler of Tlemcen, Abū l-Abbas. A few years later he was taken prisoner by ʕAbdu l-Azīz, who had defeated the sultan of Tlemcen and seized the throne. He then entered a monastic establishment, and occupied himself with scholastic duties, until in 1370 he was sent for to Tlemcen by the new sultan. After the death of ʕAbdu l-Azīz, he resided at Fez, enjoying the patronage and confidence of the regent.

Ibn Khaldūn's political skills, above all his good relationship with the wild Berber tribes, were in high demand among the North African rulers, whereas he himself began to tire of politics and constant switching of allegiances. In 1375, sent by Abū Hammu, the ʕAbdu l Wadid Sultan of Tlemcen, on a mission to the Dawadida Arabs tribes of Biskra. Thereafter Ibn Khaldūn returns to the West sought refuge with one of the Berber tribes, in the west of Algeria, in the town of Qalat Ibn Salama. He lived there for over three years under their protection, taking advantage of his seclusion to write the Muqaddimah "Prolegomena", the introduction to his planned history of the world. In Ibn Salama, however, he lacked the necessary texts to complete the work. As a result, in 1378, he returned to his native Tunis, which in the mean time had been conquered by Abū l-Abbas, who took Ibn Khaldūn back into his service. There he devoted himself almost exclusively to his studies and completed his history of the world. His relationship with Abū l-Abbas remained strained, as the latter questioned his loyalty. This was brought into sharp contrast after Ibn Khaldūn presented him with a copy of the completed history omitting the usual panegyric to the ruler. Under pretence of going on the Hajj to Makkah - something a Muslim ruler could not simply refuse permission for - Ibn Khaldūn was able to leave Tunis and sail to Alexandria.

Last years in Egypt

Ibn Khaldun has said of Egypt, "He who has not seen it does not know the power of Islam." While other Islamic regions had to cope with border wars and inner strife, under the Mamluks Egypt experienced a period of economic prosperity and high culture. However, even in Egypt, where Ibn Khaldūn lived out his days, he could not stay out of politics completely. In 1384 the Egyptian Sultan, al-Malik udh-Dhahir Barquq, made him Professor of the Qamhiyyah Madrasah, and grand Qadi of the Maliki school of fiqh (one of four schools, the Maliki school was widespread primarily in West Africa). His efforts at reform encountered resistance, however, and within a year he had to resign his judgeship. A contributory factor to his decision to resign may have been the heavy personal blow that struck him in 1384, when a ship carrying his wife and children sank off the coast of Alexandria. Ibn Khaldun now decided to complete the pilgrimage to Makkah after all.

After his return in May 1388, Ibn Khaldūn concentrated more strongly on a purely educational function at various Cairo madrasas. At court he fell out of favor for a time, as during revolts against Barquq he had - apparently under duress - together with other Cairo jurists issued a Fatwa against Barquq. Later relations with Barquq returned to normal, and he was once again named the Maliki qadi. Altogether he was called six times to this high office, which for various reasons he never held long.

In 1401, under Barquq's successor, his son Faraj, Ibn Khaldūn took part in a military campaign against the Mongol conqueror Timur, who besieged Damascus. Ibn Khaldūn cast doubt upon the viability of the venture and didn't really want to leave Egypt. His doubts were vindicated, as the young and inexperienced Faraj, concerned about a revolt in Egypt, left his army to its own devices in Syria and hurried home. Ibn Khaldūn remained at the besieged city for seven weeks, being lowered over the city wall by ropes in order to negotiate with Timur, in a historic series of meetings which he reports extensively in his autobiography. Timur questioned him in detail about conditions in the lands of the Maghreb; at his request, Ibn Khaldūn even wrote a long report about it. As he recognized the intentions behind this, he did not hesitate, on his return to Egypt, to compose an equally extensive report on the history of the Tartars, together with a character study of Timur, sending these to the Merinid rulers in Fez.

Ibn Khaldūn spent the following five years in Cairo completing his autobiography and his history of the world and acting as teacher and judge. During this time he also formed an all male club named Rijal Hawa Rijal. Their activities attracted the attention of local religious authorities and he was placed under arrest. He died on 19 March 1406, one month after his sixth selection for the office of the Maliki qadi.

Ibnu Khaldun

Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun (full name, Arabic: أبو زيد عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن خلدون الحضرمي ‎, Abū Zayd ‘Abdu r-Raḥman bin Muḥammad bin Khaldūn Al-Hadrami, Berber name: Ben Xeldun; May 27, 1332 AD/732 AH - March 19, 1406 AD/808 AH) was a North African polymath — an astronomer, economist, historian, Islamic jurist, Islamic lawyer, Islamic scholar, Islamic theologian, hafiz, mathematician, military strategist, nutritionist, philosopher, social scientist and statesman—born in North Africa in present-day Tunisia. He is considered a forerunner of several social scientific disciplines: demography, cultural history, historiography, the philosophy of history, and sociology. He is also considered one of the forerunners of modern economics, alongside the earlier Indian scholar Chanakya. Ibn Khaldun is considered by many to be the father of a number of these disciplines, and of social sciences in general, for anticipating many elements of these disciplines centuries before they were founded in the West. He is best known for his Muqaddimah (known as Prolegomenon in English), the first volume of his book on universal history, Kitab al-Ibar.



Statue of Ibn Khaldun in Tunisia

Biography

Ibn Khaldun's life is relatively well-documented, as he wrote an autobiography (التعريف بابن خلدون ورحلته غربا وشرقا; Al-Taʕrīf bi Ibn-Khaldūn wa Riħlatuhu Gharbān wa Sharqān[21]) in which numerous documents regarding his life are quoted word-for-word. However, the autobiography has little to say about his private life, so little is known about his family background. Generally known as "Ibn Khaldūn" after a remote ancestor, he was born in Tunis in AD 1332 (732 A.H.) into an upper-class Andalusian family, the Banū Khaldūn. His family, which held many high offices in Andalusia, had emigrated to Tunisia after the fall of Seville to Reconquista forces around the middle of the 13th century. Under the Tunisian Hafsid dynasty some of his family held political office; Ibn Khaldūn's father and grandfather however withdrew from political life and joined a mystical order . His brother, Yahya Ibn Khaldun, was also a historian who wrote a book on the Abdalwadid dynasty, and who was assassinated by a rival for being the official historiographer of the court.

In his autobiography, Ibn Khaldun traces his descent back to the time of Muhammad through an Arab tribe from Yemen, specifically Hadhramaut, which came to Spain in the eighth century at the beginning of the Islamic conquest. In his own words: "And our ancestry is from Hadhramaut, from the Arabs of Yemen, via Wa'il ibn Hajar, from the best of the Arabs, well-known and respected." (p. 2429, Al-Waraq's edition). However, the biographer Mohammad Enan questions his claim, suggesting that his family may have been Berbers who pretended to be of Arab origin in order to gain social status. According to Muhammad Hozien, "The false [Berber] identity would be valid however at the time that Ibn Khaldun’s ancestors left Andalusia and moved to Tunisia they did not change their claim to Arab ancestry. Even in the times when Berbers were ruling, the reigns of Al-Marabats and al-Mowahids, et al. the Ibn Khalduns did not reclaim their Berber heritage." This lends credence to Ibn Khaldun's being of Arab origin.

Education

His family's high rank enabled Ibn Khaldun to study with the best North African teachers of the time. He received a classical Islamic education, studying the Qur'an which he memorized by heart, Arabic linguistics, the basis for an understanding of the Qur'an, hadith, sharia (law) and fiqh (jurisprudence). He received certification (ijazah) for all these subjects. The mystic, mathematician and philosopher, Al-Abili, introduced him to mathematics, logic and philosophy, where he above all studied the works of Averroes, Avicenna, Razi and Tusi. At the age of 17, Ibn Khaldūn lost both his parents to the Black Death, an intercontinental epidemic of the plague that hit Tunis in 1348-1349.

Following family tradition, Ibn Khaldūn strove for a political career. In the face of a tumultuous political situation in North Africa, this required a high degree of skill developing and dropping alliances prudently, to avoid falling with the short-lived regimes of the time. Ibn Khaldūn's autobiography is the story of an adventure, in which he spends time in prison, reaches the highest offices and falls again into exile.

Historical methods

The historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write history.

Herodotus of Halicarnassus (484 BC – ca.425 BC)[25] has generally been acclaimed as the "father of history". However, his contemporary Thucydides (ca. 460 BC – ca. 400 BC) is credited with having first approached history with a well-developed historical method in his work the History of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides, unlike Herodotus and other religious historians, regarded history as being the product of the choices and actions of human beings, and looked at cause and effect, rather than as the result of divine intervention.In his historical method, Thucydides emphasized chronology, a neutral point of view, and that the human world was the result of the actions of human beings. Greek historians also viewed history as cyclical, with events regularly recurring.

There were historical traditions and sophisticated use of historical method in ancient and medieval China. The groundwork for professional historiography in East Asia was established by the Han Dynasty court historian known as Sima Qian (145–90 BC), author of the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian). For the quality of his timeless written work, Sima Qian is posthumously known as the Father of Chinese Historiography. Chinese historians of subsequent dynastic periods in China used his Shiji as the official format for historical texts, as well as for biographical literature.

Saint Augustine was influential in Christian and Western thought at the beginning of the medieval period. Through the Medieval and Renaissance periods, history was often studied through a sacred or religious perspective. Around 1800, German philosopher and historian Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel brought philosophy and a more secular approach in historical study.

In the preface to his book, the Muqaddimah (1377), the Arab historian and early sociologist, Ibn Khaldun, warned of seven mistakes that he thought that historians regularly committed. In this criticism, he approached the past as strange and in need of interpretation. The originality of Ibn Khaldun was to claim that the cultural difference of another age must govern the evaluation of relevant historical material, to distinguish the principles according to which it might be possible to attempt the evaluation, and lastly, to feel the need for experience, in addition to rational principles, in order to assess a culture of the past. Ibn Khaldun often criticized "idle superstition and uncritical acceptance of historical data." As a result, he introduced a scientific method to the study of history, and he often referred to it as his "new science". His historical method also laid the groundwork for the observation of the role of state, communication, propaganda and systematic bias in history,and he is thus considered to be the "father of historiography" or the "father of the philosophy of history".
In the West historians developed modern methods of historiography in the 17th and 18th centuries, especially in France and Germany. The 19th century historian with greatest influence on methods was Leopold von Ranke in Germany.

In the 20th century, academic historians focused less on epic nationalistic narratives, which often tended to glorify the nation or individuals, to more objective and complex analyses of social and intellectual forces. A major trend of historical methodology in the 20th century was a tendency to treat history more as a social science rather than as an art, which traditionally had been the case. Some of the leading advocates of history as a social science were a diverse collection of scholars which included Fernand Braudel, E. H. Carr, Fritz Fischer, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Bruce Trigger, Marc Bloch, Karl Dietrich Bracher, Peter Gay, Robert Fogel, Lucien Febvre and Lawrence Stone. Many of the advocates of history as a social science were or are noted for their multi-disciplinary approach. Braudel combined history with geography, Bracher history with political science, Fogel history with economics, Gay history with psychology, Trigger history with archeology while Wehler, Bloch, Fischer, Stone, Febvre and Le Roy Ladurie have in varying and differing ways amalgamated history with sociology, geography, anthropology, and economics. More recently, the field of digital history has begun to address ways of using computer technology to pose new questions to historical data and generate digital scholarship.

In opposition to the claims of history as a social science, historians such as Hugh Trevor-Roper, John Lukacs, Donald Creighton, Gertrude Himmelfarb and Gerhard Ritter argued that the key to the historians' work was the power of the imagination, and hence contended that history should be understood as an art. French historians associated with the Annales School introduced quantitative history, using raw data to track the lives of typical individuals, and were prominent in the establishment of cultural history (cf. histoire des mentalités). Intellectual historians such as Herbert Butterfield, Ernst Nolte and George Mosse have argued for the significance of ideas in history. American historians, motivated by the civil rights era, focused on formerly overlooked ethnic, racial, and socio-economic groups. Another genre of social history to emerge in the post-WWII era was Alltagsgeschichte (History of Everyday Life). Scholars such as Martin Broszat, Ian Kershaw and Detlev Peukert sought to examine what everyday life was like for ordinary people in 20th century Germany, especially in the Nazi period.

Marxist historians such as Eric Hobsbawm, E. P. Thompson, Rodney Hilton, Georges Lefebvre, Eugene D. Genovese, Isaac Deutscher, C. L. R. James, Timothy Mason, Herbert Aptheker, Arno J. Mayer and Christopher Hill have sought to validate Karl Marx's theories by analyzing history from a Marxist perspective. In response to the Marxist interpretation of history, historians such as François Furet, Richard Pipes, J. C. D. Clark, Roland Mousnier, Henry Ashby Turner and Robert Conquest have offered anti-Marxist interpretations of history. Feminist historians such as Joan Wallach Scott, Claudia Koonz, Natalie Zemon Davis, Sheila Rowbotham, Gisela Bock, Gerda Lerner, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, and Lynn Hunt have argued for the importance of studying the experience of women in the past. In recent years, postmodernists have challenged the validity and need for the study of history on the basis that all history is based on the personal interpretation of sources. In his 1997 book In Defence of History, Richard J. Evans, a professor of modern history at Cambridge University, defended the worth of history. Another defence of history from post-modernist criticism was the Australian historian Keith Windschuttle's 1994 book, The Killing of History.

History and prehistory

The history of the world is the memory of the past experience of Homo sapiens sapiens around the world, as that experience has been preserved, largely in written records. By "prehistory", historians mean the recovery of knowledge of the past in an area where no written records exist, or where the writing of a culture is not understood. Human history is marked both by a gradual accretion of discoveries and inventions, as well as by quantum leaps — paradigm shifts, revolutions — that comprise epochs in the material and spiritual evolution of humankind. By studying painting, drawings, carvings, and other artifacts, some information can be recovered even in the absence of a written record. Since the 20th century, the study of prehistory is considered essential to avoid history's implicit exclusion of certain civilizations, such as those of Sub-Saharan Africa and pre-Columbian America. Historians in the West have been criticized for focusing disproportionately on the Western world.In 1961, British historian E. H. Carr wrote:

The line of demarcation between prehistoric and historical times is crossed when people cease to live only in the present, and become consciously interested both in their past and in their future. History begins with the handing down of tradition; and tradition means the carrying of the habits and lessons of the past into the future. Records of the past begin to be kept for the benefit of future generations.

This definition includes within the scope of history the strong interests of peoples, such as Australian Aboriginals and New Zealand Māori in the past, and the oral records maintained and transmitted to succeeding generations, even before their contact with European civilization.

History?

History is the study of the human past. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it sometimes attempts to investigate objectively the patterns of cause and effect that determine events.Historians debate the nature of history and its usefulness. This includes discussing the study of the discipline as an end in itself and as a way of providing "perspective" on the problems of the present. The stories common to a particular culture, but not supported by external sources (such as the legends surrounding King Arthur) are usually classified as cultural heritage rather than the "disinterested investigation" needed by the discipline of history. Events of the past prior to written record are considered prehistory.



The word history comes from the root *weid- "know" or "see" — from which also come Greek ἰδέᾱ (idéā) "appearance" or "kind", Latin ēvidēns and vīsiō, Italian vista, English wit, I wot, wise, and wisdom, Sanskrit veda,[10] and Slavic videti. (See asterisk.)

Ancient Greek ἱστορία means "inquiry" or "knowledge from inquiry", from ἵστωρ (hístōr) "judge" (from the Proto-Indo-European agent noun *wid-tor: "one who knows"). It was in that sense that Aristotle used the word in his Ηistoríai "Inquiries about Animals"). The ancestor word ἵστωρ is attested early on in Homeric Hymns, Heraclitus, the Athenian ephebes' oath, and in Boiotic inscriptions (in a legal sense, either "judge" or "witness", or similar).

Although the related verb οἷδα oîda "I know" (zero-grade aorist stem id- "see") has d, ἵστωρ has s, according to the Greek phonological rule that a dental stop (t, d, or th) before another dental stop becomes s.

It was still in the Greek sense that Francis Bacon used the term in the late 16th century, when he wrote about "Natural History". For him, historia was "the knowledge of objects determined by space and time", that sort of knowledge provided by memory (while science was provided by reason, and poetry was provided by fantasy).

The word entered the English language in 1390 with the meaning of "relation of incidents, story". In Middle English, the meaning was "story" in general. The restriction to the meaning "record of past events" arises in the late 15th century. In German, French, and most Germanic and Romance languages, the same word is still used to mean both "history" and "story". The adjective historical is attested from 1661, and historic from 1669.

Historian in the sense of a "researcher of history" is attested from 1531. In all European languages, the substantive "history" is still used to mean both "what happened with men", and "the scholarly study of the happened", the latter sense sometimes distinguished with a capital letter, "History", or the word historiography.

Assalamualakum

Assalamualaikum..:)

Windows 7

Windows 7 is a version of Microsoft Windows, a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, netbooks, tablet PCs, and media center PCs.Windows 7 was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and reached general retail availability on October 22, 2009,less than three years after the release of its predecessor, Windows Vista. Windows 7's server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 R2, was released at the same time. Windows 7 will be succeeded by Windows 8, which has no release date as of yet.




Unlike its predecessor, which introduced a large number of new features, Windows 7 was intended to be a more focused, incremental upgrade to the Windows line, with the goal of being compatible with applications and hardware with which Windows Vista is already compatible.Presentations given by Microsoft in 2008 focused on multi-touch support, a redesigned Windows Shell with a new taskbar, referred to as the Superbar, a home networking system called HomeGroup,and performance improvements. Some standard applications that have been included with prior releases of Microsoft Windows, including Windows Calendar, Windows Mail, Windows Movie Maker, and Windows Photo Gallery, are not included in Windows 7;most are instead offered separately at no charge as part of the Windows Live Essentials suite.


New and changed features

Windows 7 includes a number of new features, such as advances in touch and handwriting recognition, support for virtual hard disks, improved performance on multi-core processors,improved boot performance, DirectAccess, and kernel improvements. Windows 7 adds support for systems using multiple heterogeneous graphics cards from different vendors (Heterogeneous Multi-adapter), a new version of Windows Media Center, a Gadget for Windows Media Center, improved media features, the XPS Essentials Pack and Windows PowerShell being included, and a redesigned Calculator with multiline capabilities including Programmer and Statistics modes along with unit conversion. Many new items have been added to the Control Panel, including ClearType Text Tuner, Display Color Calibration Wizard, Gadgets, Recovery, Troubleshooting, Workspaces Center, Location and Other Sensors, Credential Manager, Biometric Devices, System Icons, and Display.



Windows Security Center has been renamed to Windows Action Center (Windows Health Center and Windows Solution Center in earlier builds), which encompasses both security and maintenance of the computer. The default setting for User Account Control in Windows 7 has been criticized for allowing untrusted software to be launched with elevated privileges without a prompt by exploiting a trusted application.Microsoft's Windows kernel engineer Mark Russinovich acknowledged the problem, but noted that malware can also compromise a system when users agree to a prompt. Windows 7 also supports Mac-like RAW image viewing through the addition of WIC-enabled image decoders, which enables raw image thumbnails, previewing and metadata display in Windows Explorer, plus full-size viewing and slideshows in Windows Photo Viewer and Window Media Center.



The taskbar has seen the biggest visual changes, where the Quick Launch toolbar has been replaced with pinning applications to the taskbar. Buttons for pinned applications are integrated with the task buttons. These buttons also enable the Jump Lists feature to allow easy access to common tasks. The revamped taskbar also allows the reordering of taskbar buttons. To the far right of the system clock is a small rectangular button that serves as the Show desktop icon. This button is part of the new feature in Windows 7 called Aero Peek. Hovering over this button makes all visible windows transparent for a quick look at the desktop. In touch-enabled displays such as touch screens, tablet PCs, etc., this button is slightly wider to accommodate being pressed with a finger. Clicking this button minimizes all windows, and clicking it a second time restores them.



Additionally, there is a feature named Aero Snap, that automatically maximizes a window when it is dragged to the top of the screen.Dragging windows to the left/right edges of the screen allows users to snap documents or files on either side of the screen for comparison between windows. When a user moves windows that were maximized using Aero Snap, the system restores their previous state automatically. This functionality is also accomplished with keyboard shortcuts. Unlike in Windows Vista, window borders and the taskbar do not turn opaque when a window is maximized with Windows Aero applied. Instead, they remain translucent.

For developers, Windows 7 includes a new networking API with support for building SOAP-based web services in native code (as opposed to .NET-based WCF web services), new features to shorten application install times, reduced UAC prompts, simplified development of installation packages, and improved globalization support through a new Extended Linguistic Services API. At WinHEC 2008 Microsoft announced that color depths of 30-bit and 48-bit would be supported in Windows 7 along with the wide color gamut scRGB (which for HDMI 1.3 can be converted and output as xvYCC). The video modes supported in Windows 7 are 16-bit sRGB, 24-bit sRGB, 30-bit sRGB, 30-bit with extended color gamut sRGB, and 48-bit scRGB. Microsoft has also implemented better support for solid-state drives, including the new TRIM command, and Windows 7 is able to identify a solid-state drive uniquely. Microsoft is planning to support USB 3.0 in a subsequent patch, support not being included in the initial release due to delays in the finalization of the standard.