Content Analysis of the Historiography of the Mughal Empire in the Islamic Cultural History Textbook of Class XI Madrasah Aliyah

Abstract

The narrative of Islamic civilization history in the madrasah curriculum is often trapped in a dichotomous simplification between the idealism of past glory and the stereotype of dogmatic decline that ignores the depth of critical analysis among students. This study aims to comprehensively analyze the material on the Mughal Empire in the Islamic Cultural History textbook for Grade XI Madrasah Aliyah published by the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs in 2020. Using the Klaus Krippendorff model of qualitative content analysis, the data were critically evaluated through external and internal criticism. The validity of the data was tested using data triangulation techniques based on Norman Denzin's theoretical framework. The results of the study indicate the reproduction of colonial historiographic bias in the textbook, particularly the binary labeling that separates the leadership of Akbar and Aurangzeb in black and white. Furthermore, the textbook also ignores the dimensions of rational scientific progress, madrasah curriculum reform, and the socio-economic agrarian crisis that triggered the decline of the empire. The implications of this paper emphasize the urgency of reconstructing the religious history curriculum through the integration of international revisionist historiography to foster critical, objective, and multicultural thinking among madrasah students.