Reading a new essay by Devin Stewart, "Ignoring the Bible in Qur’anic Studies Scholarship of the Late Twentieth Century" (2024). It's on the history of qur'anic studies scholarship in the 20th century and the place of biblical literatere therein. Some thoughts ...
Really it's an autopsy of what went wrong why the topic stagnated in qur'anic studies after WW2. He gives this example of Watt's revisions of Bell's Intro to the Qur'an as primary example of what changed. The language of the ToC speaks volumes.
scienceopen.com x.com
scienceopen.com x.com
I think people are too harsh on Watt, but his approach does strike me as minimizing and even censoring the rigorist, comparativist approach of older orientalist philology in favor of practicing scholarship as a way of making nice: For Watt (an Anglican priest) ...
scholarship on the Qur’an/Islam was either to serve the ecumenical aims of religious organizations (interfaith dialogue etc.) and/or used to position oneself as among the self-vaunted advocates for, and patrons of, Muslims in elite institutions. x.com
Another interesting observation the Stewart makes is the role that Wilfred Cantwell Smith (1916–2000) played in leading qur'anic studies scholarship away from the seventh century towards focusing on tafsir literature and its reception in the Islamic tradition...
He pushed for this is his presidential address at MESA in 1978 -- let's just note here that MESA and its journal (IJMES) has not been a bulwark of qur'anic studies for most of its history. This really does seem to be the birthhour of the "religious studies" approach to qur'anic studies. jstor.org
جاري تحميل الاقتراحات...