Later Mughals v1.c4.s5: As a Historian
Later Mughals v1.c4.s5
- Language
- English
As a Historian
v1.c4.s5.1
As a historian, Mr. Irvine's most striking characteristics were a thoroughness and an accuracy unsurpassed even by the Germans. His ideal was the highest imaginable: "A historian ought to know everything, and, though that is an impossibility, he should never despise any branch of learning to which he has access." (Letter to me, 2nd October, 1910).
v1.c4.s5.2
He brought light to bear on his subject from every possible angle; Persian, English, Dutch and Portuguese records, the correspondence of the Jesuit missionaries in India, books of travel, and parallel literatures, were all ransacked by him. The bibliography at the end of the *Storia* or the *Army of the Indian Moghuls* is itself a source of instruction. A conscientious workman, he gave exact reference for every statement, and only those who carry on research know how very laborious and time-absorbing this seemingly small matter is. For these reasons I wish that our Indian writers in particular should study and imitate *The Later Mughals* as a model of historical method and a means of intellectual discipline.
v1.c4.s5.3
Some are inclined to deny Mr. Irvine the title of the Gibbon of India, on the ground that he wrote a mere narrative of events, without giving those reflections and generalizations that raise the *Decline and Fall* to the rank of a philosophical treatise and a classic in literature. But they forget that Indian historical studies are at present at a much more primitive stage than Roman history was when Gibbon began to write. We have yet to collect and edit our materials, and to construct the necessary foundation,—the bed-rock of ascertained and unassailable facts,—on which alone the superstructure of a philosophy of history can be raised by our happier successors. Premature philosophizing, based on unsifted facts and untrustworthy chronicles, will only yield a crop of wild theories and fanciful reconstructions of the past like those which J. T. Wheeler garnered in his now forgotten *History of India*, as the futile result of years of toil.
v1.c4.s5.4
As Mr. Kennedy writes in the *Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society*, 1912, (pp. 299-304):—"Irvine's conception of history was much like that which is at present in vogue at the Ecole des Chartes. History was to be mainly occupied with the search for, and investigation of, original authorities,* and to be an exact chronicle of the doings of the time. Although Irvine did not neglect such picturesque touches as he might find in his authorities, he did not profess to be an artist, nor would he consider historical narrative a fine art. Still less was he a philosophical historian : he was doubtful of generalities, and he seldom attempted generalizations. His strength lay in detail, and to be faultlessly accurate was his pride. Two things especially attracted him : he had a Scottish love of genealogies and an equal love of precise dates.
v1.c4.s5.5
"Copious extracts from the MSS. he studied formed the basis of Irvine's work ; round these he built up his remarks and explanations. Besides the purely historical details, Irvine devoted much attention to collateral subjects, such as the constitution of the Moghul nobility, the administrative system, the system of land revenue, and the organization of the army. Ballads, diaries, letters, charters, rules of official practice and imperial rescripts, coins and seals,—he made himself conversant with them all.
v1.c4.s5.6
"As a commentator Irvine excelled ; he searched Europe, Asia, and America to explain an obscure allusion or to settle a date...... Both nature and training made Irvine an excellent judge of evidence, and his style was clear, logical, and to the point, an instrument well fitted for his purpose. What he had to say was always worth the hearing. In knowledge of his particular period of history he was unrivalled."