RELIGION, RULERS AND MEDIEVAL SOCIETY: A STUDY OF WRITINGS OF MOHAMMAD HABIB

ABSTRACT

According to E.H. Carr, History is an unending dialogue between the past and the present. Understanding of history becomes imperative for us in order to understand the control it exercises over the minds of the present society. For long Medieval state has been understood to be established on the basis of force and the subsequent social structure and social relationship reflected that nature of medieval state. This kind of understanding, which generated from the writings of James Mill and other imperialist writers, was also lapped up by the communalist historians. Mohammad Habib is one of the first Indian historians who challenged the thesis and gave a new meaning to the understanding of medieval past. This paper attempts to understand the medieval past and the role of the ruler, state and society in it through the writings of Mohammad Habib.

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