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## History of the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, and the Post-Enlightenment Arab historiography was strengthened upon the arrival of Islam, and it tried to bring together the Church and ancient Greek methods of historiography. Like the Jews and Christians, the Arabs were deeply aware of the past....

## History of the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, and the Post-Enlightenment Arab historiography was strengthened upon the arrival of Islam, and it tried to bring together the Church and ancient Greek methods of historiography. Like the Jews and Christians, the Arabs were deeply aware of the past. During this time, historical research generally advanced steadily as well. Islamic scholars introduced novel approaches and procedures, including *isnad*, a chain of authorities that enables cross-verification and corroboration of events. The age of Enlightenment spanned from 1600s to the 1800s. "The Enlightenment" was an intellectual movement that dominated Europe in the eighteenth century and was based on the use of reason and the scientific method. It advocated ideals such as liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state. During these times, historiography was marked by pragmatism and economic liberation. It represented the significant changes that occurred during that time. This school included historians like Bolingbroke, Bentham, Macaulay, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Mill. According to Sujay Rao Mandavilli, the colonialism and expansionism of European powers led to a renewed interest in the history of nations like India around the end of the 18th century. However, the historical works of the time suffered from racism and biased colonial attitudes. During this time period, notable English historians were Thomas Carlyle and Edward Gibbon. This historical period also saw other trends. For instance, the positivist school stressed a rational and analytical investigation of historical events to comprehend human motives and detect trends, whereas Romanticism focused on romantic and fantastical conceptions. ## The historical narrative school of Germany The modern world has greatly benefited from the contributions of the German school of historiography. Hegel was among the German thinkers of the time who propounded his Dialectics theory. Dialectics is a formal system of reasoning that arrives at the truth by the exchange of logical arguments. In Hegel's Dialectic method, a theory is proposed at the beginning called 'Thesis', and then another theory is proposed which is contrary to the thesis and is called 'Antithesis'. After a thorough logical discussion, 'Synthesis' results from the reconciliation of thesis and antithesis. This theory also profoundly impacted Karl Marx and emerged as a fundamental concept in Marxism and Marxist historiography. Another outstanding German historian, Ranke, made significant contributions to both philosophy and history, including the introduction of a scientific method to historiography. Like all other disciplines, the academic discipline of history has been marked by a great deal of diversity and change in focus, perspectives, and methods over time. According to Sujay Rao Mandavilli, the focus of historical research has shifted.