Since much of what we knows about history and the past are from old text and books?

Question

Since much of what we knows about history and the past are from old text and books , how do we know if things really did happen? I mean, people back then could easily just wrote a play or stories and we could very well mistaken them for historical fact. There is no such things as photograph or video back then.

So how do we know for sure if things really did happen?

Answer 1

The best way to know is to find archeological evidence that backs up the author's writing. That's how we found out that the city of Troy and the Trojan war actually existed. Before the 1800's, it was considered just a myth, but then a German archeologist, Heinrich Schlemann, found evidence of the city, including weapons of the correct time period, a city that had been built at the right time, and jewelry and other artifacts that matched the time period and the culture that was described.

If we don't have archeological evidence, the best we can hope for is corroboration from other authors who tell the same story. The more authors who agree with the story mean it's more likely that it actually occurred.

Some legendary cities are actually beginning to become more plausible. For example, Homer's stories about Atlantis were assumed to be pure fiction, but recent discoveries in the Mediterranean have shown that it was plausible. On the island of Santarini, there was a Minoan culture which was far more advanced than the Greek culture. When the Greeks were still in mud huts, they were building palaces of shining stone, which actually had earthquake-proof features. The Egyptians even mentioned them as a civilization which was successful at trading. Atlanteans were said to be very peaceful--if you want people coming to you to trade, you don't meet them with guns blazing.

At the height of this civilization, though, there was a massive eruption of the volcano on Santorini. It blew away half the island, and basically destroyed the civilization. The eruption was so enormous that lava from the eruption has been found as far away as the Nile delta, and some of the consequences may, according to a few archeologists, have even been responsible for the plagues of Egypt. The stories about them having airplanes, etc. are purely modern, but it's probable from the evidence that a highly advanced civilization (for its time) actually existed and was destroyed through a volcanic eruption so massive that legends of it could still have been cirulating in Homer's day.

Answer 2

A good historian will use multiple sources. Read eyewitness accounts from multiple people who were there for the event in the original language, not in a translated language..
There are archaeological artifacts that will back up the event,
and drawings or some other type of art that will help to reinforce the findings.History did not happen in a vaccum, there is always some type of leftover.

Answer 3

Uthman (R.A) made the copies of the Qur'an from the customary manuscript. Many Companions of the Prophet used to write down down the revelation of the Qur'an on their possess at any time when they heard it from the lips of the Prophet. However what they wrote was once no longer personaly tested by way of the Prophet and therefore would include errors. All the verses found out to the Prophet won't were heard individually by way of all of the Companions. There have been prime chances of specific quantities of the Qur'an being ignored by way of specific Companions. This gave upward thrust to disputes amongst Muslims concerning the specific contemp of the Qur'an in the course of the interval of the worn out Caliph Uthman (R.A) Uthman (R.A) borrowed the customary manuscript of the Qur'an, which was once legal by way of the liked Prophet Muhammad(PBUH), from Hafsha (R.A), the Prophet's spouse. Uthman (R.A) ordered 4 Companions who have been a number of the scribes who wrote the Qur'an whilst the Prophet dictated it, led by way of Zaid bin Thabit (R.A) to rewrite the script in a couple of ideal copies. These have been despatched by way of Uthman(R.A) to the fundamental centres of Muslims. There have been different individual collections of the quantities of the Qur'an that men and women had with them. These would were incomplete and with errors. Uthman (R.A) simplest appealed to the men and women to smash some of these copies which didn't fit the customary manuscript of the Qur'an to be able to keep the customary textual content of the Qu'ran. Two such copies of the copied textual content of the customary Qur'an authenticated by way of Prophet are reward to this present day, one on the museum in Tashkent in erstwhile Soviet Union and the opposite on the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul, Turkey.

Answer 4

I suppose it does take a bit of faith, doesn't it?

Probably no more than today, though. How do you know things that happen today really happen? People today can manipluate technology (photos, news stories, etc) today probably more so than back in "history."

Answer 5

Many biblical and historic accounts have been confirmed by archeology.

Answer 6

Back then, they knew how to use VERBS... and you can generally trust much of what you read... but some sources are questionable.