The Survey of The Quranic Studies of Orientalists in the Last 150 Years

Document Type : Scholary

Author

Department of Comparative Studies of the Qur’ān, Qur’ān and Hadith Specialized University, Al-Mustafa International University, Qom, Iran

10.22059/jcis.2023.358884.1328

Abstract

The survey of Quran in the West has developed and progressed ever since the Quran was presented to Westerners in the first century of Hijri (8th century AD). The current research, with a descriptive-research method and with a critical approach, deals with the Quranic studies of Orientalists in the last 150 years. The Orientalists’ works started with text-based methods and evolved with the emergence of religious sociology and religious psychology methods in the 17th and 18th centuries. In terms of the methods of religious phenomenology, the document analysis method and the archeological method reached their peak in content and extent from the 19th century onwards. Regarding the approaches, although we are facing a significant positive progress in Quranic areas and subjects, the progress and improvement of the approaches and goals of the Quran studies of the Westerners have not been fully achieved. Mostly, a controversial and dogmatic approach has been dominant. However, in addition to these cases, realistic and fair approaches cannot be ignored in any period; in the recent times, this type of approach seems to be more prominent in Western Quranic studies. The present article states, with scientific reasons, that despite the progress it has in various Quranic fields, Western Quranic studies, contain presuppositions and biases, while the studies of Orientalists are facing serious damages.

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References

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