Oral Narrative and the Archive: Their Significance in Historical Writings

The qualitative development of curricula must stem from the emerging transformations within society across various fields, particularly those closely connected to the very nature of such curricula, while also taking into account anticipated future changes within communities without neglecting the characteristics, levels, and educational stages of pupils. It must further arise from new perspectives on the different domains of curricular studies. Among the qualitative developments in history curricula is what some refer to as "Future History." Suppose that history, as the historian Shams al-Dīn al-Sakhāwī notes, is an art that investigates events of time in terms of specification and chronology, with humanity and temporality as its subject matter. In that case, as ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Sayyid argues, history is not merely a record of past facts but also a way of thinking about human affairs. Civilisations since antiquity have paid attention to the archive, thereby recognising its importance in documenting trajectories at every level as both witnesses their achievements and a means of anticipating their future. The archive thus becomes a marker of their continuity. The greater the availability of documents, the more firmly historical truth is established, and doubts are dispelled. What was once merely a narrative becomes an indisputable historical fact once it has been subjected to scrutiny and verification.