What is History?

The state of society in the past, its sufferings, moments of triumph, turning points and countless other factors determine the structure of society. We know that events are shaped according to the structure of society. In this context, in order to interpret these events correctly, it is necessary to know the conditions in the past, the factors affecting the events and the flow of time. 

History; briefly, it is a branch of science that examines past events in a cause and effect relationship based on sources by showing the place, time and perpetrators. If we make a more detailed definition, history is a branch of science that describes the events arising from actions affecting countries, nations, societies and organizations by showing time and place, and examines the causal links between these events, their connections with previous and subsequent events, their mutual influences, the civilizations established by each nation, the internal problems of nations, etc. It is divided into sub-branches based on subjects such as history of civilization, Turkish history, Islamic history, history of literature, etc. This science is the only science that cannot be observed and experimented. Because all of the events examined took place in past ages.

History is a social science that examines the social, economic, cultural, political and religious activities of human communities that have lived throughout the ages, their relations with each other by showing place and time, based on documents in a cause-and-effect relationship. History enables humanity to make the right decisions on social and political issues. The lesson-taking and instructive dimension of history is very important especially for all societies.

The greatest benefit of the science of history, which has been emphasized since ancient times, is that people take lessons from the past for their future deeds. Humanity exists on three dimensions. These are; coming from yesterday, living today and going to tomorrow. I mentioned this in a previous article and explained at length that life consists of only three parameters: yesterday, today and tomorrow. 

Historians can best predict the future of humanity. In other words, the future is a dream, and if there is to be a prediction about how the future might be shaped, historians can best fill it in. Because the best known of these three dimensions is today. However, knowing today is not enough to intuit and predict tomorrow. Thus, the other dimension required for man and humanity to know and intuit tomorrow is the knowledge of yesterday. And knowing the past is only possible through history. Life comes from yesterday, lives today, but at the same time goes to tomorrow. And history is always a cross-section of the life lived in the past. History helps people to better understand the society they live in. 

History teaches people how to explain and understand all kinds of different characters from the past to people in the future. History gives people the codes to dream and to make their dreams come true. History is taught in order for people to get to know the society they live in, to embrace the land they live on as a homeland, to get to know their ancestors better, to learn from the mistakes made by their ancestors or similar societies, and so on. 

Thus, history is also learned and taught in order to instill a country's human values and sense of patriotism. Because the main purpose of history is to build national identity. As it is known, since history is a discipline based entirely on interpretation, the perspective of the historian is also important in this sense that it gives us a perspective that enables us to deeply understand the past.

Let's end our article with the laconic lines written by our national poet, the late Mehmet Akif ERSOY, about history:

A man gets a share from the past... What a fairy tale!

Did five thousand years of parable give half a share?

They describe history as repeating itself;

Would it repeat itself if any lessons were taken?

Stay with respectful love.