Bias in History - Islamic History

Last updated: May 30th, 2025 at 2:40 pm · Est. Reading Time: 2 minutes

Definition

In very simple words, bias is a partiality in favour of or against anything, any person, any group, any phenomenon, or any hypothesis when compared with another.¹

Root Cause of Bias in History

Bias can be present at any stage of historical scientific research, whether it is data creation, data collection, data storage, data analysis, or data dissemination. Many historical events were recorded according to the recorder’s inclination rather than objectively, to begin with. Preservation of recorded events was influenced by the forthcoming generation’s belief system. Retrieval of sources of history depends to some extent upon the preferences of the collectors. Finally, twists can be given while analysing the data depending upon the wishes of the analyst. In the end, the historian, who presents the hypotheses to the public in final format, has the freedom to select or reject analysed data at his whim.

Consequences of Bias in History

Bias is pernicious to any science. Irrespective of the stage at which it emanates, the result is the same. The final hypothesis derived is prejudiced.²

Efforts to Overcome Bias in Research

Physical sciences have strived to develop foolproof tools to eradicate the possibility of bias in their research methodology. Unfortunately, the Social sciences are lagging. History is more notorious among them. Historians have developed guidelines to avoid bias, however, they are mostly neglected by the researchers in history.

Acceptance of Bias

Lately, writers and readers of history have started accepting the phenomenon of inclination bias in a historical narrative to one or other point of view as unavoidable. For example, we hear phrases like ‘history of WWII from the Soviet point of view’ or ‘history of WWII from the Allied point of view’, etc. Maintaining objectivity is particularly difficult in an area of history where passions are extensively involved, for example, the history of the advent of Islam.³

Endnotes

To understand what bias is, see Gordon Guyatt and Drummond Rennie, eds., Users’ Guides to the Medical Literature (Chicago: American Medical Association Press, 2002), 319-322. For a discussion on the psychological roots of bias, see Keith E. Stanovich, The Bias That Divides Us (Cambridge, MA., MIT Press, 2021).
For a discussion on how badly bias can affect scientific knowledge, see Stuart Ritchie, Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science (London: The Bodley Head, 2020).
W. B. Gallie, Philosophy and the Historical Understanding (London: Chatto & Windus, 1964), 157.