من آفاق الكلمة

  Princeton University   Near Eastern Studies Department Jones Hall Princeton, New Jersey 08544 Telephone: 609 452-4280   June 2, 1988   Mr. M. S. Motabagani P.O. Box 279 Madina Saudi Arabia   Dear Mr. Motabagani :   Thank you for your two letters of May 23rd, which have just reached me. I am of course greatly flattered by your desire to prepare a Ph.D. thesis on my historical methodology. I feel it my duty however to point out to you that this topic is unlikely to yield sufficient material for a whole doctoral thesis. My methodology in studying and writing Islamic history is much the same as that of other modern critical historians, dealing with this or with other subjects. There are many countries perhaps, alas, a majority of the states that make up the present day world -- in which historians must conduct their researches and publish their findings in accordance with the dictates of political or relig...