Table Of ContentStudying the Qurʾān
in the Muslim Academy
REFLECTION AND THEORY IN THE STUDY OF RELIGION
SERIES EDITOR
Vincent Lloyd, Villanova University
A Publication Series of
The American Academy of Religion
and
Oxford University Press
LESSING’S PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION TOWARD A GENEROUS ORTHODOXY
AND THE GERMAN ENLIGHTENMENT Prospects for Hans Frei’s Postliberal Theology
Toshimasa Yasukata Jason A. Springs
AMERICAN PRAGMATISM CAVELL, COMPANIONSHIP, AND
A Religious Genealogy CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY
M. Gail Hamner Peter Dula
OPTING FOR THE MARGINS COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY AND THE
Postmodernity and Liberation in Christian PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS RIVALRY
Theology Hugh Nicholson
Edited by Joerg Rieger
SECULARISM AND RELIGION-M AKING
MAKING MAGIC Markus Dressler and Arvind-P al S. Mandair
Religion, Magic, and Science in the
FORTUNATE FALLIBILITY
Modern World
Kierkegaard and the Power of Sin
Randall Styers
Jason A. Mahn
THE METAPHYSICS OF DANTE’S COMEDY
METHOD AND METAPHYSICS IN
Christian Moevs
MAIMONIDES’ GUIDE FOR THE
PILGRIMAGE OF LOVE PERPLEXED
Moltmann on the Trinity and Christian Life Daniel Davies
Joy Ann McDougall
THE LANGUAGE OF DISENCHANTMENT
MORAL CREATIVITY Protestant Literalism and Colonial Discourse in
Paul Ricoeur and the Poetics of Possibility British India
John Wall Robert A. Yelle
MELANCHOLIC FREEDOM WRITING RELIGION
Agency and the Spirit of Politics The Making of Turkish Alevi Islam
David Kyuman Kim Markus Dressler
FEMINIST THEOLOGY AND THE THE AESTHETICS AND ETHICS OF FAITH
CHALLENGE OF DIFFERENCE A Dialogue Between Liberationist and Pragmatic
Margaret D. Kamitsuka Thought
Christopher D. Tirres
PLATO’S GHOST
Spiritualism in the American Renaissance VISIONS OF RELIGION
Cathy Gutierrez Experience, Meaning, and Power
Stephen S. Bush
Studying the Qurʾān
in the Muslim Academy
MAJID DANESHGAR
1
3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
Names: Daneshgar, Majid, author.
Title: Studying the Qur’ān in the Muslim Academy / Majid Daneshgar.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2020. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019012350| ISBN 9780190067540 (hardback) |
ISBN 9780190067557 (updf) | ISBN 9780190067564 (epub) |
ISBN 9780190067571 (online)
Subjects: LCSH: Islam—S tudy and teaching. | Islam—A pologetic works.
Classification: LCC BP42 .D36 2019 | DDC 297.071—d c23
LC record available at https://l ccn.loc.gov/ 2019012350
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Integrated Books International, United States of America
Dedicated to
Seyyed Hossein of Meybod College (Iran), who told 2005 entrants:
This Quranic Sciences faculty is smaller than a high school, so you must
ʾ
always remember to expand your vision beyond its walls!
&
Donald in Dunedin (New Zealand), who told me when I was very much
worried about the reaction of readers to one of my works:
Majid, the Earth doesn’t rotate around you, me, nor anybody else.
Contents
List of Figures and Tables ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xxv
Introduction 1
I. A Taboo- Breaking Project 1
II. Study Organization 6
PART I
1. “Islamic Apologetics” and Islamic Studies 15
I. On “Islamic Apologetics” 15
II. Western Islamic Studies 25
III. Modern Trends in Qurʾanic Studies 27
IV. Studying Islam outside Its Core Lands 32
2. The Qurʾān in the Muslim Academy: What Should Be Censored? 34
I. Muslims’ Views of Western Islamic Studies 34
II. Western Works in the Muslim Academy: Rippin’s Qurʾanic Studies 39
III. Studying the Qurʾān in Muslim Universities and Seminaries 49
IV. Reading the Qurʾān with Other Materials 51
V. Self-S ufficiency in Academic Production 58
VI. Muslims’ Reading of Muhammad’s Adopted Son, Zayd 65
PART II
3. The Sectarian Study of Islam: A Culture of Isolation and the
Isolation of Cultures 71
I. From the Islamization of Biblical Literature to the Sectarianizing
of the Muslim Academy 71
II. The Forgotten East 76
III. Reception and Marginalization of Minorities 85
IV. Forgetting the Language and Culture of Everywhere/A lways 93
4. Hatred of Inferiority and Confrontation with the West: Forgetting
Some, Remembering Others 96
I. Forgetting Western Scholars of the Qurʾān: Origins 97
viii Contents
II. E. W. Said’s Orientalism 98
III. Muslim Study of the Qurʾān in Light of Orientalism 112
IV. Misunderstanding of Europeans in Orientalism 115
V. Remembering Scientists 124
5. Final Remarks 131
I. Conclusions 131
II. Islamic Apologetics Everywhere 134
Notes 143
Bibliography 167
Index 183
Figures and Tables
Figures
2.1. The translation of the Arabic Mawsua al- mustashriqin (Encyclopedia of
ʿ
Orientalists) 45
2.2. Book cover displaying the reception of Western Qurʾanic studies among
traditionalists 46
3.1. The Indonesian translation of Shariʿati’s on the third imam of Shiʿis, Husayn 87
Tables
2.1. A Malay-I ndonesian classification of “Orientalist” attacks on hadith 47
2.2. Common subjects in both Islamic traditional schools and the
Muslim academy 50
2.3. Academic theology subjects in New Zealand 51
