Hazara Islamicus (Dec 2012)
Western Scholarship on Qur’anic Studies in 21 st Century: A Brief Study of the Contribution of Jane D. McAuliffe and Andrew Rippin
Abstract
The theme of this essay is to highlight the Western Scholarship on Qur’anic Studies in 21st Century, by presenting a brief assessment and study of the contribution of two prominent Western (non-Muslim) scholars – Jane Dammen McAuliffe and Andrew Rippin – to the understanding of Qur'an and its interpretation, or, more precisely to the Qur’anic studies. A succinct and precise introduction of the important works, along with a brief profile of the works and field of expertise of these two Western Scholars of Islam, to the area of Qur’anic Studies is also provided. It also discusses, although briefly, the Western scholarship on Islam historically, with a focus on the preceding and present century. Jane Dammen McAuliffe, an internationally known “scholar of Islamic studies” who specializes in Qur’anic exegesis has extensively written on, and much of her work focuses primarily on, the Qur’an and its interpretation. Andrew Lawrence Rippin, a Canadian scholar of Islam at the University of Victoria, Canada, too has his research mostly on the history of the Qur’an and its interpretation, which has resulted not only in numerous publications, but also as a specialist in the Qur’an and the history of its interpretation.
