The myth of European Qur'ān scholarship

Research on the Qurʾān in historical Europe is often portrayed as detached from Muslim traditions, or as fundamentally shaped by misunderstanding and ideological bias. This portrayal has gained substantial influence, especially through the work of Edward Said (Orientalism, 1978). 

While such an approach was prominent in certain historical contexts, it is too simplistic as a general and comprehensive description of Europe’s intellectual engagement with Islam. 

Valuable critique in need of corrections

Said offered a powerful critique of how 'the Orient' was represented in Western thought by highlighting the relationship between power, imperialism, and knowledge production. At the same time, his work has often been read as a general description of all European scholarship on Islam. 

This has contributed to the perception that European scholars, often labelled orientalists, approached Islam from a distance and without genuine access to or understanding of Muslim sources. This understanding needs to be reassessed.

Recent research highlights a far more complex and empirically grounded reality. 

Influential translation

In my own PhD project, which is associated with the ERC-funded The European Qur’an project, I examine how European scholars in the early modern period actually worked with the Qurʾān. This involves studying translations, manuscripts, and, crucially, the ways in which classical Muslim sources were read, used, and transmitted within European intellectual contexts.

A key example is the 1734 English translation of the Qurʾān by George Sale. Long regarded as less polemical than earlier European accounts of Islam, it had a significant impact in Enlightenment Europe. It was read by influential figures such as Voltaire, Edward Gibbon, and Thomas Jefferson, contributing to shaping European understandings of Islam during a period of growing intellectual curiosity.

Less known, however, is how this translation came into being. Sale relied extensively on classical Muslim Qurʾānic exegesis, particularly the exegetical work of al-Bayḍāwī. He did not work in isolation but engaged directly with Islamic scholarly traditions as they were accessible through Arabic manuscripts in European collections. These manuscripts were not marginal curiosities. They formed part of a broader circulation of knowledge in which linguistic competence, philology, and close textual study were central.

This challenges the assumption that European scholars engaged with Islam solely from a distance. They worked directly with Arabic manuscripts in their hands. 

Important to avoid simplification and misunderstandings

The evidence shows that some scholars directly engaged with Muslim texts and interpretive traditions, and that their understanding of the Qurʾān was largely mediated through these sources. This does not mean their readings were neutral or unproblematic, but it does suggest they were more textually grounded and better informed than is often assumed.

The point is not to idealise early modern Qurʾān scholarship. Like all scholarship in this period, it was shaped by its historical and religious context. European scholars were not free from bias, and their work must be read within the intellectual and theological frameworks of their time. 

Simultaneously, it is important to avoid the opposite simplification, where the entire tradition is reduced to a one-dimensional project defined by misunderstanding and distance. 

To challenge our assumptions on how knowledge of Islam has been formed

A more accurate historical account reveals a complex field of knowledge in which European and Islamic traditions intersected through text, translation, and interpretation. It was an encounter in which European scholars were, in practice, dependent on Muslim scholarly traditions in order to study the Qurʾān. 

Maintaining a simplified narrative of this history makes it harder to understand how knowledge has actually been produced and transmitted across cultural and religious boundaries. 

It also reinforces an unwarranted dichotomy between 'Western' and 'Islamic' knowledge, one which does not accurately reflect historical reality. If the aim is to better understand both European intellectual history and the Islamic textual tradition, we need to move beyond established narratives. 

That requires critical reconsideration of the sources, even when they challenge our assumptions about how knowledge of Islam has been formed.

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