Tradition, National Identity and the Question of Historiography

The main problem of this article is to study the relations between ethnic traditions with national identity and the impact of these traditions in formation of the category of historiography. It means that the history of each nation would be formed in the framework of the traditions inherited to that nation and that the historiography of each ethnic group cannot be separated from the traditions belonged to that group or nation. This study deals with two basic questions: 1. what's the relation between ethnic history and the cultural sphere that forms the national identity? 2. What's the relation between national identity and understanding of the traditions inherited from the past? The hypothesis of this article is that the histories of various nations differ with each other because of their various historical traditions, and historiography is under the effect of values, cultures, judgments and specific behaviors belong to each nation. The purpose of this study is to show that the imitation of historiography styles of other nations not only is not useful but also implodes the research and certainly is an obstacle towards understanding the formative elements of national identity.