موقف المستشرق مارسدن جونز من الواقدي ومروياته: دراسة تحليلية

Abstract

The British scholar John Marsden Beaumont Jones is one of those Orientalists who have contributed on a large scale in the field of Islamic history and spent their lives in the service of this science. The mentioned one has lived most of his life in Egypt away from his native country. In fact He had immersed himself in the Egyptian environment and society adopted trends at that time. He has extra-ordinary command and ability to write and speak Arabic.

Marsden Jones has a list of contributed work in the aspect of Muslim history in early Islamic centuries. His special focus was on the early development of Msulim institutions and the root cause for the emergence of extremist movements in Isalm. It is to be noted that Marsden Jones has special concentration on Al-Waqidi and his work. Indeed, He edited Al-Waqidi's Kitab ul Maghazi and brought it into printed form. He wrote two knowledgeable articles in relation with AL-Waqidi's work.

The first one highlights the distinguished characteristics of Al-Waqidi over his contemporaries in the aspect of dating of historical events and managing their relevant complete informations. The second one defends Al-Waqidi and clarifies him from the charge of plagiarism as he was accused of it by some orientalists.

Marsden Jones's approach in this regard is very balanced. He is impartial and unbiased in his views regarding Muslim historians and historiography. His practical interaction with Al-Waqidi does not differ from the attitude of Muslim historian toward Al-Waqidi. Whenever he feels need to criticize Al-Waqidi, he doest leave it. He does not trust on Al-Waqidi blindly, but says that we must be conscious while citing from Al-Waqidi. In this article I have discussed this aspect.