Article researched and compiled by Shaherose Shiwani
According E H Carr, (born 28 June 1892, London, died, 3 November 1982, London) Historian, British Political Scientist specialising in modern Russian History, “ History is a continuous dialogue between the past the present and a continual interaction between the historian and the facts, for a correct interpretation and accurate recording of facts.
Francois – Marie Arouet, nome de plume, Voltaire (born 21 November 1694, Paris, France, died, 30 May 1778, Paris) “History is dynamic and not “dead” and has a philosophical dimension to it” (Voltaire), a French Philosopher, Enlightenment writer, Historian, famous for his wit, his criticism of Christianity, especially the Roman Catholic Church, as well as his advocacy of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of the Church and State, “History is a study of the past in light of the present and not in isolation, and is based on a mutual relationship between the past and the historian’s thought. History, science and morality are all inter-related.
Thus the historian has a CORPUS OF FACTS , which are NOT PURE , and these are basically the raw materials from which he cooks, serves and presents, the whole process which will invariably depend on his opinion, what he believes to be right, wrong, the cultural background he comes from, his personal beliefs and a myriad of other factors.
Thus it is important to study the historian and his background first.
Not all historians can be fair and unbiased; some of them can be crooked and distort facts, because there is no “counter-check” procedure (body/institution) to put a stop to maliciousness of an historian.
The Ismaili History has been victimized because of malicious and distorted farce.
THE BLACK LEGEND and ASSASIN LEGEND.
BLACK LEGEND
Because of hostility of the Sunni majority towards Caliphate of the Alid Imams and the foundation of the Fatimid State in 909 A.D. which challenged the established order of Abbassides, the Abbasside Caliphs and the Sunni Ulama launched a derogatory official anti-Ismaili propaganda to discredit the entire Ismaili movement as heresy and deviators from the true path.
Widespread defamations, forged documents by anti-Ismaili authors like Al-Bagdadi supporting and providing information to Sunni heresiographers, and probably a Jewish magician disguised as a Muslim, aiming to destroy Islam from within were used. By 11th Century this Black Legend had been accepted as accurate and reliable. Only until recently, Professor Ivanow, the IIS and Dr. Farhad Daftary produced books with facts to counter this belief based on heresy descriptions of Ismaili motives, beliefs and practices
ASSASINSLEGEND.
Marco Polo was another culprit who labelled falsely the Ismailis, Assasins. This definition continues in dictionaries as Larousse and Portugal T.V., in a program called “Good Portuguese”.”O Bom Português”, on the occasion of Mawlana Hazar Imam being conferred the “Honoris Causa”, by the University of Évora in Portugal in 2006 and coinciding almost with the polemic of the Holy Prophet’s caricatures in International Press. I brought this to the attention of social communications sector but no action was taken.
SUBJUGATION
The first rule of subjugation is to remove all sources of knowledge, architecture, culture and the history of the civilization.
The great libraries of the ancient world served as archives for empires,sanctuaries for sacred writings and the depositories of literature and chronicles.
Intentional destruction of libraries is more than often related to cultural cleansing.
Libraries have been intentionally burnt throughout history and many have succumbed to natural disasters.
There are thousands of libraries in the world, antique and new.
I have selected a few and cited them here:
1) Alexandria– destroyed by Julius Caeser, a single greatest accumulation of human knowledge in history, likely established by Ptolemy II Philadelphus in 3rd Century BCE. Most of the written information was on Papyren. There were other attacks on Alexandria Library. The final blow was given in 640 CE, under sunni muslim ruler Caliph Omar.
2) Nalanda library in India.
3) Taxilla library in Pakistan, destroyed by Nomadic Huns. The old name of the library was Taxshasilla, who was son of Bharat, younger brother of Ram.
Taxilla together with Harrapa and Mohenjo-daro are/ were part of the Indus Valley Civilization.
4) Library of Al Haqam Cordoba
5) Library at Alamut destroyed by Hulagu Khan and Vizier Juwainy, because the Shia Ismaili sect of Muslims openly defied the Mongols and apparently had attempted on the life of Mongke Khan.
6) Library of Baghdad destroyed by Mongke Khan the Mongol who was the sibling of Hulagu Khan and Kublai Khan.
7) Krasinsky Library in Poland, where Polish incunabula and manuscripts were burnt.
8) Anna Amalia Library in Weimar Germany, which was accidentally destroyed.
9) Imperial Library of Constantinople
10) House of Wisdom library, Baghdad
11) Library of Ashurbanipal, (Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal) in modern day Iraq at Nineveh in which were the 4000 years old Epic of Gilgamesh.
12) Library of Pergamun( constructed by members of Attalid Dynasty and now in Turkey.
13) Villa of Papyri ( buried under Mount Vesuvias volcanic material
14) The library of Tragans Forum
15) The Library of Celsius.
If readers want to know more they can Google libraries destruction and find out more.