Past past and Future past: A Study of the Layers of Time in Yaʿḳūbī 'S Taʾrīkh

Historians’ accounts of their past events are simultaneously influenced by the past of those events and their future. The historical past or the “pasts past” refers to pre-contemporary events of the historian. In contrast, the historical future includes the future of historical agents and actors, as well as the future of the historian. Accordingly, the main question of this article is how Yaʿḳūbī, as a case study, was influenced by past and future events in his narrative. The term “futures past,” coined by Koselleck, was used to emphasize the fact that the future was seen differently before the Sattelzeit, which coincided with the Age of Enlightenment. Koselleck paid close attention to this asymmetry, based on the Sattelzeit time and its consequences for writing history. The term “pasts past” was also adopted from Koselleck’s views on the past. Koselleck used these terms to describe the basic concept of “historical time.” Therefore, the first part of this article deals with the concept of historical time”, along with the two categories, called “the space of experience” and “the horizon of expectation,” which are essential for understanding historical time. The second part of this article discusses these concepts and terms in Tarikh-e-Yaghubi