Understanding the Qurʾan, the First Book: Qurʾan and the Orientalists by Majid Maʾaref (review)

In the present study, Professor Majid Maʾaref revisits his articles and research gathered over the last ten years about various orientalists' views and opinions on the Holy Qurʾan in Persian. The book is destined to set a new pattern of thinking about the writings and views of orientalists on the Qurʾan in particular and on Islam in general. The author believes that orientalists have made notable efforts in Qurʾanic studies (despite having different motives, including colonialist, commercial, religious or missionary, and scholarly), which has resulted in the expansion and familiarization of Islam in the world, especially in non-Muslim countries.

Majid Maʾaref is Theology Professor at the University of Tehran and is renowned for his studies concerning the understanding of the Qurʾan as the scriptural foundation of Islamic books. He was born in Shiraz in 1953 and has published several articles and books about Qurʾanic studies and the Qurʾan and orientalists. The present volume, Understanding the Qurʾan, the First Book: Qurʾan and the Orientalists, was published in 2015. It consists of a preface, three sections, references (in both English and Persian) and an index. In the preface, Professor Maʾaref presents the goals of his study and explains the division of his book into three sections, including its different chapters and themes. He also describes in further detail in his preface how the book is the result of his past ten years' work and includes published articles and investigations focusing on orientalists and their views, opinions and texts relating to the Qurʾan, which he refers to as Orientalists' Qurʾanic studies'. Prof Maʾaref adds that in the present era orientalists have played an important role in the expansion of Islam, and the extent and quantity of orientalists' Qurʾanic studies, including articles, books, Qurʾanic encyclopedias and texts, has resulted in the familiarisation of Islam and the Qurʾan in the world, especially in non-Muslim countries. In one section of the preface, the author says that orientalists' Qurʾanic studies, regardless of their purposes, are of great importance, and their studies have had dual benefits:

first to infer important properties of the Qurʾan from an outside look and from the views of the nonbelievers, and second to be faced with the doubts and problems raised by the orientalists, and in some cases their incomplete and biased analysis of the Qurʾan, which itself has caused new issues to be defended by Muslim scholars about the Holy Book. Having said that, it is not a new thing for the Holy Qurʾan to be faced with such intellectual challenges from opposing parties, as this has been the case from the beginning when the Qurʾan was revealed and in each era what has happened is that committed scholars have worked hard to defend the Holy Qurʾan through dismissing the misleading doubts brought about from opponents.

(p. 16–17)

The first section of the book, entitled 'The General Views on the Opinions and Works of Orientalists', consists of six chapters. In this section, the author gathers and discusses orientalists' differing views on the Holy Qurʾan, using six of his articles published in various journals in collaboration with colleagues between 2005 and 2013. He also introduces his theory that orientalists' motives towards study of Islam and the Qurʾan can include the colonialist, commercial, religious or missionary, and scholarly,¹ and claims that 'the most important motives of orientalists are missionary as they want to magnify the weaknesses of Muslims and attempt to attribute contradictions and distortions to the Qurʾan. They also try to prove the truthfulness of Judaism and Christianity for their readers through invalidating Islam's fundamental teachings' (p. 26–30).

It is notable that in the first section of his book the author appreciates the great and...