As to what thou didst ask regarding the history of the
philosophers: history, prior to Alexander of Greece, is extremely confused, for
it is a fact that only after Alexander did history become an orderly and
systematized discipline. One cannot, for this reason, rely upon traditions and
reported historical events that have come down from before the days of
Alexander. This is a matter thoroughly established, in the view of all
authoritative historians. How many a historical account was taken as fact in
the eighteenth century, yet the opposite was proved true in the nineteenth. No
reliance, then, can be placed upon the traditions and reports of historians
which antedate Alexander, not even with regard to ascertaining the lifetimes of
leading individuals.
Wherefore ye should not be surprised that the Tablet of
Wisdom is in conflict with the historical accounts. It behoveth one to reflect
a while on the great diversity of opinion among the historians, and their
contradictory accounts; for the historians of East and West are much at odds,
and the Tablet of Wisdom was written in accordance with certain histories of
the East.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a Tablet, ‘Additional Tablets, Extracts and
Talks”; Online Baha’i Reference Library, Baha’i World Centre)
