Historical Criticism and Recent Trends in Western Scholarship on the Quran

What is it about?

Nicolai Sinai's article examines how a historical-critical approach to the Qur’an differs from premodern Islamic exegesis and explores avenues for cross-pollination between Qur’anic scholarship as conducted at Western universities and in the Islamic world.

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Photo by Eean Chen on Unsplash

Photo by Eean Chen on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Recent Western research on the Qur’an has yielded results that are apt to interest scholars based in the Islamic world even if some of them may not be prepared to accept the historical-critical approach in its entirety. These results include a close comparison between Qur’anic narrative, on the one hand, and ancient Jewish and Christian traditions, on the other. Such a comparison permits a deepened understanding of the specificity of Qur’anic doctrine against its contemporary intellectual background. Moreover, the last few decades have witnessed a strong interest among Western scholars in the literary and rhetorical structure of the Qur’an. There is increasing awareness that the literary and rhetorical analysis of the Qur’an, even if practiced from a historical-critical perspective, can significantly benefit from Islamic scholarship.

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