Historiography of Albania
[5] At that time, these scholars lacked access to many primary sources to construct the idea that Albanians were descendants of Illyrians, while Greater Albania was not considered a priority.
[8] After the Second World War the communist government trained scholars to become historians and write Albanian history, while due to the political context they were preoccupied with matters relating to national identity.
[7] In 1959, the first volume on the history of Albania was published that dealt with topics ranging from antiquity until the 19th century and was a major undertaking that was a serious analysis of Greek, Latin, Byzantine and Ottoman sources.
[7] During the communist period, the regime attempted to instill a national consciousness through the scope of a teleological past based upon Illyrian descent, Skanderbeg's resistance to the Ottomans and the nationalist reawakening (Rilindja) of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
[12] Buda belonged to a small group of intellectuals allowed by the Albanian communist regime to have access to foreign literature in order to use them to prepare new ideological and theoretical directives for the rest of their colleagues.
[14] The legacy of understanding history through such dichotomies has remained for a majority of Albanians which for example they view Skanderbeg and the anti-Ottoman forces as "good" while the Ottomans are "bad".
Schmitt explained that because of political influence it was impossible to organize open discussion about socialist historiography, while those who attempted to criticize it would be denounced often as non-professionals or foreigners with evil objectives.
[18] The influence of such historical myths still remain which for example in 2009 Schmitt was severely criticised in Albania after producing an academic biography that challenged the traditional Albanian concept of Skanderbeg.
[9] Post-communist Albanian historiography has attempted to move away from previous political influences of the Hoxha era and shift the discipline toward a more scientific methodological direction, however, themes of national struggles continue.
[19] For example the Albanian government in 2013 reformed the Academy of Sciences by allowing it to influence the scholarship of historians by urging them to rewrite history (mostly in relation to the modern period).
Actually, he wanted to encourage national unity while still respecting each person’s religious belief.Albanian nationalist historians like Ramadan Marmallaku, Kristo Frasheri, Skender Anamali, Stefanaq Pollo, Skender Rizaj and Arben Puto in their books deliberately emphasized "the Turkish savagery" and "heroic Christian resistance against the Osmanli state in Albania"....there are many instances of religiously inspired animosities, which present day Albanian historiography tends to ignore.
