Just wanting to add a source to what said @Shalom : the Tiferet Lemoshe from the Maharts Hayes, Chapter 1, explain the importance of knowing history,especially that of Israel. He asked then why did the RamBaM wrote what he did, that read Chronicles of Arabs, their Politics and genealogies, is waste of time, and answered that those were impossible stories and also erotical ones (Agavim ?). 