That s all history we sometimes say in order to brush away matters we regard as no longer important. This may often be a healthy attitude in daily life.
Oblivion is at times a means of survival and a condition for a fresh start.
However, examining the ways we retrieve the past and the ways we narrate and interpret it are of crucial importance to serious research. In the Middle East itself, history is an indispensable source for inspiration for researchers, politicians and ordinary people from all walks of life. The construction of the past and the transmission of culture may serve or justify linguistic, aesthetical, social, political or religious programs. Different means of retrieval and construction of the past form the grounds for the competing views, aspirations and claims by the diverse social, ethnic, linguistic, religious and national groups in the region. For each, history provides a means of perceiving their own present and formulating a vision for their future.