Any narration of the past is known as 'history'. It is used as a generic term when one talks of 'the history of civiliza- tions', 'the political history of a country', 'the economic history of any region', 'the history of religions' or 'the history of mankind'. But when one frames the history sylla- bus for school children or teaches 'history' as a subject in schools and colleges, one generally deals with the political history of races, nations, peoples and mankind. Whether we are teaching the history of the world or the history of a nation or the history of a region, we describe the rise and fall of nations, or the growth and expansion of political progress or downfall of houses and families. Even when we speak of civi li.sations and cultures, we consider them in the context of peace and war among groups of people or nations or races. In other words, racial, cultural, social, economic and moral history of mankind is always presented within the context of the growth, expansion and fall of political autho- rity. When the past of mankind is presented in the Qur'an, the same rise and fall of political authority is discussed. The narration of the past of mankind through history in the restricted sense of the word is therefore, both in the Qur'an and in modern connotation, the narration of the rise and fall of political authority.