Appel à com : Colloque “Interdisciplinarity in History: An Old Method in a New World Context”, Qatar University, 5-6/03/2014

This conference has been inspired by Ibn Khaldun’s (d. 1406) hypothesis that “the writing of history requires numerous sources and greatly varied knowledge. It also requires a good speculative mind and thoroughness. Possession of these two qualities leads the  historian to the truth and keeps him from slips and errors. If he trusts historical information in its  plain transmitted form and has no clear knowledge of the principles resulting from custom, the  fundamental facts of politics, the nature of civilization, or the conditions governing human social  organization, and if, furthermore, he does not evaluate remote or ancient material through comparison  with near or contemporary material, he often cannot avoid stumbling and slipping and deviating from the  highroad of truth”. This passage suggests that history and other disciplines have a mutually supportive relationship, and that the application of interdisciplinary methods will enable historians to reconstruct the past in a more objective, multifaceted, and wholesome fashion, which in turn will extenuate history’s  importance. David Crabtree highlights this significance in his own words, saying that: “History is  important because it helps us to understand the present. If we will listen to what history has to say,  we can come to a sound understanding of the past that will tell us much about the problems we now face.  If we refuse to listen to history, we will find ourselves fabricating a past that reinforces our  understanding of current problems.”

Source : http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-Mideast-Medieval&month=1307&week=c&msg=AxaTFSLV5VZjw5bEJTeh9A