Sources for Writing History

There are a great number of different kinds of sources for the writing of history. They differ in type and quality from one era to the other. Among such types of sources are:

1. Antiquities: These include citadels, forts, walls, temples, necropolises, pyramids, dwellings, palaces, caravanserais (wakalas and khans), fountains (sabeels), mosques (masjids), churches, and such artifacts as statues and other stone carvings, woodworking, pottery, textiles, and metal pots as well as works of art made of gold, silver and precious gemstones. This list should also include inscriptions, drawings, marks, and religious or worldly writing inscribed on these antiquities



2. Papyri: The ancient Egyptians invented the art of making writing materials from papyrus, and papyri remained in use from Pharaonic times until the end of the Mamluk era. An extraordinary number of papyri still exists - such was the quality of the material and the art of the craftsmen. Papyri documents differ in form and content; some are in the form of scrolls, some are books and others are individual pieces of paper (and sometimes even scraps of paper). As for the content, some contain religious writings, such as the famous Book of the Dead from the Pharaonic period, while others are letters, official state correspondence marriage contracts, divorce settlements, commercial bills of account, bills of sale, purchase and Waqf (inalienable endowments) among the many daily acts of life that have been recorded on this material. An important cache of papyrus documents are located at the Egyptian museum. Others are scattered in leading museums in Europe and North America.



3. Documents: This term (see our definition elsewhere) refers to the great variety of writings issued by diwans and institutions of the state. These are thus deemed official records that have been archived at a number of different institutions for varying periods of time until moved to the NAE under an established system regulating the preserving and archiving of documents. Although the process of keeping documents and official papers is an old one, documentation centers that house documents and that have established preservation systems were only introduced in Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In Egypt, the system was introduced in 1828 when the Egyptian House of Documentation (Daftarkhana) was established; accordingly, the farther we move back from the date of establishment of the House of Documentation, the fewer the number of documents held. In other words, nineteenth-century documents are more numerous than those dating to the eighteenth century, and eighteenth-century documents are more numerous than those to the seventeenth century.



4. Books: This term refers to the books written during a certain era with the purpose of documenting the history of that era, be they written by historians, travelers, explorers or orientalists. Books often describe and delineate historical events their authors have witnessed and seen.



5. Private papers and autobiographical accounts: The autobiographical writings of leaders and politicians may be found among their daily journals and private papers or the autobiographical books they have published. Both private papers and autobiographical books can reveal the role they played in history by clarifying their positions, or justifying their mistakes. Private papers and autobiographical accounts feature a panoply of historical data from which a historian can make great use but must carefully select from so that he or she maintains a neutral position vis-a-vis the points of view of the author.



6. Newspapers and magazines: Include all periodicals issued during a specific period of time. They provide a wide range of historical data.