THE APPLICATION OF MODERN CRITICAL THEORIES TO THE STUDY

OF THE QUR’AN – WITH A PARTICULAR FOCUS ON QUR’ANIC

STUDIES IN TURKEY BETWEEN 1980-2002

A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the Degree of Doctor of

Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts

2004

Necmettin Gökk r

Department of Middle Eastern Studies

1
 TABLE OF CONTENT

THE APPLICATION OF MODERN CRITICAL THEORIES TO THE STUDY OF THE

QUR’AN – WITH A PARTICULAR FOCUS ON QUR’ANIC STUDIES IN TURKEY
BETWEEN 1980-2002...................................................................................................... 1

TABLE OF CONTENT ........................................................................................................... 2

LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... 6

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................. 8

ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................. 9

DECLARATION ................................................................................................................... 10

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ................................................................................................ 11

DEDICATION ....................................................................................................................... 12

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................................... 13

THE AUTHOR ...................................................................................................................... 14

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 15

The Purpose of the Study and Theoretical Underpinning ...................................................... 15

Background of the Study ....................................................................................................... 20

Review of the Literature and Contribution of the Study ........................................................ 23

Outline of the Study ............................................................................................................... 28

Methodology .......................................................................................................................... 31

PART I: MODERN CRITICAL THEORIES IN BIBLICAL AND QUR’ANIC STUDIES 32

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 33

1. MODERN CRITICAL THEORIES ................................................................................ 34

Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 34

1.1. AUTHOR-BASED CRITICAL THEORIES...................................................... 35

1.1.1. Historical Criticism ......................................................................................... 35
1.2. TEXT-BASED CRITICAL THEORIES ............................................................ 37
1.2.1. Russian Formalism .......................................................................................... 37
1.2.2. New Criticism ................................................................................................. 38

2
 1.2.3. Structuralism ................................................................................................... 39
1.3. READER-CENTRED CRITICAL THEORIES ................................................. 41
1.3.1. Post-Structuralism ........................................................................................... 42
1.3.2. Reader-Response Criticism ............................................................................. 43
1.3.3. Liberation Theology ........................................................................................ 44
1.3.4. Feminist Criticism ........................................................................................... 46
1.3.5. New Historicism ............................................................................................. 47

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 48

2. APPLICATIONS OF TWENTIETH CENTURY CRITICAL METHODS TO

BIBLICAL STUDIES ..................................................................................................... 50

Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 50

2.1. MODERN CRITICAL THEORIES IN BIBLICAL STUDIES .......................... 55

2.1.1. Author-Based Approach in Biblical Studies ................................................... 55
2.1.1.1. Historical Criticism ......................................................................... 55
2.1.2. Text-Based Theories in Biblical Studies ......................................................... 57
2.1.2.1. New Criticism and Formalism ........................................................ 57
2.1.2.2. Structuralism ................................................................................... 58
2.1.3. Reader-Centred Theories in Biblical Studies .................................................. 60
2.1.3.1. Post-Structuralism........................................................................... 60
2.1.3.2. Reader-Response Criticism............................................................. 60
2.1.3.3. Liberation Theology ....................................................................... 62
2.1.3.4. Feminist Criticism........................................................................... 63
2.1.3.5. New Historicism ............................................................................. 66

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 67

3. PIONEER APPLICATIONS IN QUR’ANIC STUDIES ................................................ 69

Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 69

3.1. FAZLUR RAHMAN .......................................................................................... 75

3.1.1. Short Biography .............................................................................................. 75
3.1.2. His Methodology............................................................................................. 78
3.2. MOHAMMAD ARKOUN ................................................................................. 84
3.2.1. Short Biography .............................................................................................. 85
3.2.2. Applications of Structuralism in Qur’anic Studies: Surat al-Fatiha and Surat

3
 al-Kahf ............................................................................................................ 86
3.3. NASR HAMID ABU ZAYD .............................................................................. 90
3.3.1. Short Biography .............................................................................................. 90
3.3.2. The Textuality of the Qur’an........................................................................... 92
3.4. FATIMA MERNISSI ......................................................................................... 96
3.4.1. Short Biography .............................................................................................. 96
3.4.2. Questioning Patriarchal Hadith and Tafsir literature ...................................... 97
3.5. FARID ESACK ................................................................................................ 100
3.5.1. Short Biography ............................................................................................ 100
3.5.2. Liberation Theology and the Qur’an ............................................................. 102
3.6. ABDUL-KARIM SOROUSH .......................................................................... 105
3.6.1. Short Biography ............................................................................................ 105
3.6.2. His Methodology........................................................................................... 106

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 108

PART II: APPLICATIONS IN TURKEY .......................................................................... 110

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 111

1. INSTITUTIONAL AND INTELLECTUAL HISTORY .............................................. 112

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 112

1.1. STATE POLICIES AND THE STUDY OF THE QUR’AN ............................ 112
1.2. TURKISH ISLAMIC MODERNISM .............................................................. 116
1.3. RELIGIOUS STUDIES UNDER WESTERN INFLUENCE........................... 118

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 123

2. CONTEMPORARY QUR’ANIC STUDIES IN STANBUL ...................................... 125

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 125

2.1. SÜLEYMAN ATE✁ ......................................................................................... 125

2.2. AL BULAÇ ..................................................................................................... 126
2.3. DÜCANE CÜND OGLU ................................................................................. 128
2.4. YA✁AR NUR ÖZTÜRK ................................................................................. 129

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 133

3. CONTEMPORARY QUR’ANIC STUDIES IN ANKARA ......................................... 135

4
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 135

3.1. HÜSEYIN ATAY ............................................................................................ 135

3.2. MEHMET PAÇACI ......................................................................................... 139
3.3. SAL H AKDEMIR ........................................................................................... 142
3.4. YAS N AKTAY ............................................................................................... 142
3.5. H DAYET ✁EVKATL TUKSAL ................................................................... 144

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 146

4. HISTORICAL CRITICISM AND THE STUDY OF THE QUR’AN IN TURKEY .... 147

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 147

4.1. AN OVERVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF HISTORICAL CRITICISM IN

TURKEY.......................................................................................................... 147
4.2. THE INFLUENCE OF FAZLUR RAHMAN, M. ARKOUN AND N. H. ABU
ZAYD ............................................................................................................... 152
4.3. MAJOR THEMES AND ISSUES .................................................................... 154
4.4. EVALUATION OF THE APPLICATION PROCESS .................................... 159

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 161

5. TEXT-BASED CRITICAL APPROACHES AND QUR’ANIC STUDIES IN TURKEY

....................................................................................................................................... 163

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 163

5.1. FORMALISM AND NEW CRITICISM .......................................................... 163

5.2. STRUCTURALISM ......................................................................................... 168
5.2.1. Structural Linguistics and Semantics in Qur’anic Studies ............................ 168
5.2.2. Critical Voices against the Application of Semantics ................................... 172
5.2.3. Evaluation of the Application of Mehmet Soysald✂ ...................................... 174

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 177

6. READER-CENTRED CRITICAL THEORIES AND THE STUDY OF THE QUR’AN

IN TURKEY.................................................................................................................. 179

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 179

6.1. POST-STRUCTURALISM .............................................................................. 179

6.2. THE APPLICATION OF READER RESPONSE CRITICISM ....................... 179

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 6.2.1. Text or Context? ............................................................................................ 179
6.2.2. Understanding the Qur’an in the Context of Turkey..................................... 183
6.3. NEW HISTORICISM....................................................................................... 186
6.3.1. Critique of the Islamic Traditional Discourse in Turkey .............................. 186
6.3.2. A Comparison between John Wansbrough and Salih Akdemir .................... 188
6.4. FEMINIST CRITICISM................................................................................... 192
6.4.1. A Short History of Feminism in Turkey ....................................................... 192
6.4.2. Evaluation of Feminist Criticism by Hidayet efkatli Tuksal ...................... 195
6.5. THE APPLICATION OF LIBERATION THEOLOGY .................................. 198
6.5.1. Feminist Ways for Women’s Liberation ....................................................... 200
6.5.1.1. State Secular Feminism ................................................................ 200
6.5.1.2. Islamist Feminism ......................................................................... 200
6.5.1.3. Muslim Liberal Feminism ............................................................ 201
6.5.2. Women’s Liberation in Islamic Modernisation Project ................................ 202
6.5.2.1. Case 1: Authority of Man ............................................................. 203
6.5.2.2. Case 2: Violence against Women ................................................. 205
6.5.2.3. Case 3: Veiling.............................................................................. 206

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 207

GENERAL CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 210

BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................ 218

INTERVIEWS ..................................................................................................................... 238

APPENDICES ..................................................................................................................... 239

Appendix 1: Süleyman Ate✁ “Al-Kitab mentioned in the Qur’an” ...................................... 239

Appendix 2: Mehmet Paçac✂ “The Qur’an and me, what extent are we historical?” ........... 240

Appendix 3: Current Religious Issues Consultation Meeting- I. (Final Communiqué) May

18, 2002 ✄stanbul ........................................................................................................... 242

LIST OF TABLES

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Table 1: Number of Turkish PhD students sent by the Turkish Higher
Education Council (HES/YÖK) to carry out postgraduate 118
academic studies in Western universities between 1988 and 2002

Table 2: Hierarchy of Qur’anic teachings 155

Table 3: Qur’anic verbal form dealing with Scriptures 166

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 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ATR : Anglican Theological Review

BJRL : Bulletin of the John Ryland Library

BRISMES : The British Society for Middle Eastern Studies

BSOAS : Bulletin of School of Oriental and African Studies

EI1 : Encyclopaedia of Islam (First Edition)

EI2 : Encyclopaedia of Islam (Second Edition)

ELCC : Encyclopaedia of Literary Critics and Criticism

EQ : Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an

ER : Encyclopaedia of Religion

HEC/YOK : Higher Education Council

ICMR : Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations

ISAM : Islam Ara t✁rmalar✁ Merkezi (Centre of Islamic Studies)

JIS : Journal for Islamic Studies

METU : Middle Eastern Technical University

MW : The Muslim World

th
STCL : Studies in 20 Century Literature

8
 ABSTRACT

The aim of this thesis is to examine the application of critical methods and theories in
the study of the Qur’an. Special emphasis is given to the evaluation of Qur’anic
Studies in contemporary Turkey. Existing literature focuses on modern developments
in countries of the Middle East that have imposed severe restriction on applying
modern literary and hermeneutical theories to the divine text of the Qur’an (e.g.
Egypt, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan). Turkey has been so far overlooked and it will be a
major aim of this study to complement and correct the existing literature.

The thesis explores first the nature and characteristics of modern textual analysis as it
were discussed in Western Hermeneutics, Literary and Biblical Studies. It also
explores to what extent Muslim exegetes, who were or still are attached to academic
institutions in the West, have been influenced by these new ideas of how to read and
interpret the Qur’anic text. It will be shown that intellectuals such as Muhammad
Arkoun, Fazlur Rahman, Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd and others have widely absorbed
Western methods of textual analysis in order to understand the Qur’an. The main part
of the thesis will then be devoted to the study of applications as they occurred in
Turkey between 1980 and 2002, the period of intensive debate about new ways of
dealing with the Qur’an in the context of a constantly changing society.

On the basis of academic circles in Ankara and stanbul the thesis discusses
adaptations, modifications and also open rejections of critical methodologies that are
perceived as being either useful or dangerous for the study of the Qur’an in
contemporary Turkey. The overall aim of the thesis is to first demonstrate that the
study of the Qur’an in Turkey has been more extensively shaped by new critical
theories than any other country of the Middle East, because of Turkey’s particular
history of secular religious politics. However, the second aim is to show that in spite
of this wide reception Turkish scholars have hugely modified and sometimes even
manipulated or misunderstood those theories because of different motivations and
aspirations in their interpretations of the Qur’an.

9
 DECLARATION

No portion of this work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an
application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other
institute of learning.

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 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

(1) Copyright in text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies (by any process)
either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with instructions given
by the Author and lodged in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester.
Details may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such
copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with
such instructions may not be made without the permission (in writing) of the Author.

(2) The ownership of any intellectual property rights which may be described in this
thesis is vested in the University of Manchester, subject to any prior agreement to the
contrary, and may not be made available for use by third parties without the written
permission of the University, which will prescribe the terms and conditions of any
such agreement.

(3) Further information on the conditions under which disclosures and exploitation
may take place is available from the Head of the Department of Middle Eastern
Studies.

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 DEDICATION

To my late Mother, Havva (1938-2000)

and

To my wife, Elif

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my utmost gratitude to a great scholar, Dr. Andreas

Christmann, who patiently guided and always encouraged me throughout the process
of my research. Without his priceless support, more than as a supervisor, as a mentor,
it would have been impossible to finish this thesis. And I truly thank my joint
supervisor, Prof. John Healey for his support especially in my first year.

This project would not have existed without the financial support of the Turkish
Higher Education Council (HEC/YÖK). I also must to thank members of the
Theology Faculty at the University of stanbul, especially Prof. Dr. Emrulah Yuksel,
Dean of the Faculty, and Assosiate Prof. Hidayet Aydar for considering the extension
year. My gratitude goes to the former dean of the Faculty, Prof. Dr. Ya✁ar Nuri
Öztürk who persistently supported and encouraged me.

I would like to say thank you to John Morley, Judy Brown and Co✁kun Yorulmaz for
checking my writings; and to my brother, Dr. Bilal Gökk✂r for priceless academic
discussions and his valuable academic support. Grateful acknowledgment is also
made to my exceptional friends, brahim Ethem Ayd✂n, Dr. Hakan Samur, Ali Kemal
Pekkendir, brahim Kolcu, Dr. Sad✂k Ünay, and my short-time-house-mates, Dr. Arif
Karademir and Abdulhamid ri✁.

It is a custom at the end of this section to say that “Finally, I thank my wife”. If I had
my way, I would have acknowledged my dear wife at the top, to be as much the
author of this work as I am. She had no hand in the physical writing of this work.
Nonetheless, she has always been very considerate and supported me instead of
looking after her interest. Therefore, with my gratitude, I dedicate the thesis to you,
Elif, with your mother-in-law. I thank my two little daughters, Havva Betül and Ay✁e
Rana for their patience during the completion of this work.

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 THE AUTHOR

Necmettin GÖKKIR was born in 1973 in Nizip, Gaziantep in southeastern Anatolia.

He received his elementary and religious secondary education in Nizip. Then he
registered in the Theology Faculty at the University of Marmara in 1991. After
completing the undergraduate level in 1996, he continued studying at the University
of stanbul at the graduate level in Qur’anic Studies, which resulted in a thesis
entitled The Qur’anic view of other Scriptures, in which he studied Christian and
Jewish scriptures in the light of a text-based approach with his supervisor, Prof. Dr.
Süleyman ATE✁ in 1999. In 2001, he was awarded scholarships by The Turkish
Higher Education Council (YÖK) and an English Universities Overseas Research
Scholarship (ORS) Award which enabled him to carry out his postgraduate academic
studies in the UK. Since 1996, He has been appointed a research assistant in the
Department of Qur’anic Studies at the University of stanbul.

Relevant Academic Works

2004 Conference Paper “Does Islamic Modernism Really Give Rights to

Women? The Limits of Women’s Liberation in the Islamic Modernization
Project in the Turkish Context” BRISMES 6 July 2004, The University of
London, SOAS

2003 Conference Paper “The Accommodation of the Western Literary

Criticism in the Qur’anic Text in Turkish Scholarship” in Intersections:
Interpretative Approaches in a Multi-vocal World 18-19 June 2003, The
University of Manchester

2003 Research Seminar “Post-modern Approaches to the Qur’an” in

Contemporary Issues in Islam 4 April 2003, The University Manchester,
Department of the Middle East Studies

2000 “The Issue of Tahrif (Corruption) according to the Qur’an” in ✂stanbul

Universitesi Ilahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi pp.221-256
1999 “Religious and Cultural Terms, and Concepts of Judaism and Christianity in
the Qur’an” ✂stanbul Universitesi Ilahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi pp.210-225

14
 INTRODUCTION

The Purpose of the Study and Theoretical Underpinning

The thesis aims to expose the application of contemporary Western critical methods
to the study of the Qur’an. It attempts to evaluate the subject for two different
purposes. One is to explore how these critical methods have been accommodated in
Modern Islamic thought, as these methods, before being applied to Qur’anic studies,
had been developed after the Enlightenment in the West and were eventually applied
to Biblical Studies. The second purpose is, as a case study, to elaborate on the
application of these methods by modern Turkish scholars to the Qur’an. Special
emphasis will be given on highlighting the political and intellectual context in which
such adaptations occurred, and secondly, on evaluating the eventual outcome of such
applications.

In the study it will be vital to critically review and apply the “cultural borrowing”
theory which one-dimensionally stresses the aspect of the “Western impact on
Islamic culture”. It will be examined whether such a theory is still a valuable tool for
students of the Middle East in their assessment of current trends. As far as modern
Turkish society is concerned, most of the studies are inspired, for instance, by
Bernard Lewis’s The Emergence of Modern Turkey1 which supports the same
discourse on the Western impact on Turkey. This approach has been criticized
because it neglects the intellectual roots of Islamic thought in Turkey as well as the
role of internal debates in Turkish society. In his and other similar models the West
has been portrayed as having a total presence in any individual and collective attempt
by Muslims to re-think Islam. Gustave E. von Grunebaum is an eminent scholar who
again stresses the one-dimensionality of the Western intellectual impact on “Islamic
civilization”. Grunebaum`s theory of the cultural transfer has a double-face: foreign

1
Lewis, Bernard, (1968) The Emergence of Modern Turkey, New York: Oxford University Press.

15
 2
(Western) norms opposed to the (Islamic) traditional norms. “The foreign gifts have
to be tested for its compatibility with tradition” and also “tradition may have to be
3
interpreted to render possible the test”.

However, inspite of this criticism some aspects of Grunebaum’s model are valuable.
Grunebaum suggests, for example, that in Western-dominated periods cultural
borrowings from the West occurred systematically. Grunebaum identifies any culture
as a ‘closed system’. When internal and external experiences create intellectual,
doctrinal, ethical, or artistic needs that cannot be met from within, a closed system
4
opens and starts transformation processes. The influence of a foreign system “may
affect the vantage point or objective, the method, or the content of the receiving
system”. 5 In Egypt, for example, the second half of the 19 th
century appears to be the
key period when socio-economic change developed and when new institutions,
6
concepts were formed as the basis of modernisation.

Change and transformation have, Grunebaum maintains, a heterogenic character

because it is usually affected by elements from outside cultures. If the receiving
culture interprets the heterogenic influence as if they have the same concept, the
transformation became orthogenetic in character, which implies that borrowed
elements are assimilated when its foreign origin is no longer remembered or when
7
the linking with alien culture is not any longer wanted. As a result of the aspiration
to Westernise and modernise, transformations of Islamic societies in particular in the
19th and early 20 th centuries show a predominant “foreign” influence (i.e. being
heterogenetic). 8 However, when Muslim societies did assimilate this “foreign”
material within their cultural framework, it was then possible to pronounce the

2
For further information see: Grunebaum, Gustave E. von, (1955) Unity and Variety in Muslim
Civilisation, Chicago; Modern Islam The Search for Cultural Identity, Connecticut: Greenwood
Press 1962; Islam and Medieval Hellenism: Social and Cultural Perspectives, London, 1976.
3
Grunebaum, Gustave, E. (1961) “Westernisation in Islam and the Theory of Cultural Borrowing”,
p. 238.
4
Ibid: 243.
5
Grunebaum (1962), “The Problem of Cultural Influence”, p. 18.
6
Commins, David, (1995) “Modernism”, pp. 118-119.
7
Grunebaum, Gustave E. (1962) Modern Islam, The Search for Cultural Identity, p. 14.
8
Ibid: 14.

16
character of transformations as orthogenetic.

The issue of cultural borrowing seems to be one of the most critical of modernisation
and Westernisation theories because, as the name implies, it is a basis for the analysis
of the modern period of Islam. Modernisation and Westernisation have led to
fundamental changes in belief and practices in Muslim countries. As a result,
Western ideologies, methodologies, and values have been transferred to institutions
th
in the Muslim world in particular at the beginning of the 20 century, when several
Muslim countries such as Turkey and Egypt had already recognised Western
educational, legal and political institutions as the role model to follow. These modern
institutions, adopted from the West, have produced a number of scholars who
9
imitated the West.

Grunebaum claims that the main objective of modernisation and Westernisation

during the last century was to deal with the inferiority of the Islamic world, rather
than to be completely Westernised or secularised. In this way, the modernisation
process of Islam turned into something orthogenetic. Borrowed elements were
accepted by Muslims as if they were, he argues, “envisaged as something bestowed
on the West many centuries ago and now come home, as it were, modified, perhaps,
10
yet of Muslim origin.” So they easily legitimate the foreign elements:

Parliament and monogamy are intimated in the Koran;

equality was practised during the early period of the empire;
the devotion to science as well as tolerance to minorities and
concern over social ills, is characteristic of the Muslim
legacy. The tendency to appropriate as many of the results of
Westernisation as possible by making them into orthogenetic
developments will, of course, at times conflict with that
scholarly conscience which has been made more delicate in
consequences of contact with Western ideas of scientific
effort.11

9
For further information see: Lewis, Bernard, (2002) What Went Wrong? London: Phoenix, p.
148; W. M. Watt, (1983) “Islam and the West” in Islam in the Modern World, ed. by Denis Mac
Eoin and Ahmed al-Shahi, London and Conberra: Croom Helm, pp. 4-5.
10
Grunebaum, “The Problem of Cultural Influence”, pp. 24-25.
11
Ibid: 26.

17
Grunebaum’s model, as useful as it is for the theoretical discussion of cultural
th
change in the 19 century, can be criticized for not being applicable to phenomena of
th
transformations that occurred in the second half of the 20 century. The issue of
cultural borrowing should also be related to global developments which took place
due to advancements in communication, transport and information technology, which
bring the remotest parts of the world within easy reach, enabling exchange of
information, methodology and culture between different parts of the world. It is not
th
just technologies, which carry culture throughout the world, but also people. The 20
century witnessed the immigration of Muslims to Western countries, Great Britain,
France, Germany and North America. One can even suggest that Muslim societies
today are part of the West. Among others, doctoral degrees in the field of Islamic and
Qur’anic studies in major European universities, as well as in the United States,
Canada and elsewhere, are increasingly subscribed to by second or third generations
of immigrants. Consequently, most of these students enter graduate programmes with
a Western educational background and a set of academic assumptions that are almost
the same as those of non-Muslims. This certainly has given them a Western
perspective in their studies of Islam and, more drastically, of the Qur’an.

The advancements in mass education and mass communication in the last two
decades, as another fact of the modern world, also brought a dramatic change in the
social and religious structure of the Muslim world. Greater number of individuals
attend higher educational institutions. This produced a new mass media audience for
intellectual products. Until the 1970s, almost all of the literature in arts, philosophy
and history were either translations of Western originals or they were deeply
influenced by a pro-Western model. Consequently, educated Muslims had direct
access only to Western intellectual and cultural fashions.

The tremendous expansion of the mass media and publishing, additionally, extended
Qur’anic teachings to countless individuals, and this consequently broke the
mediation of the “ ulama”, classical religious scholars. Modern Muslims started to

18
raise questions as to the essence of Islam and its application to contemporary
lifestyle. Finally these developments have created the “ New Muslim Intellectuals”12
13
who challenged the religious authority of ulama. Muhammad Shahrour in Syria,
Dücane Cündiou lu and Ali Bulaç in Turkey, Abdulkerim Soroush in Iran and Nasr
Hamid Abu Zayd 14 in Egypt can be named among such Muslim intellectuals. The
common aim of these scholars is a re-interpretation of the Qur’an as well as the
redefinition and reorganization of traditional concepts in the light of their
15
experiences of modern societies.

th
The last two decades of the 20 century observed a definite break in the traditional
style of interpretation in Qur’anic studies. These new perspectives have mostly been
inspired by Western intellectual developments. A number of scholars in the Muslim
world began to interpret and read the Qur’an through Western perspectives and
methodologies. Fazlur Rahman, Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, Muhammad Arkoun, Farid
Esack are significant figures in the Muslim world who played a pioneering role in
applying this modern perspective in their studies. In addition to being influenced by
the intellectual and the cultural impact of the West, Muslim scholars like Fazlur
Rahman and Arkoun, on the one hand, emphasise, what they called, an “objective”
and “scientific” framework for the analysis and interpretation of the Qur’an. On the
other hand, Farid Esack highlights the readers’ contextual approach to the Qur’an.
Abu Zayd, moreover, attempts a predominantly secular reading of the Qur’an which

12
The term was coined by Michael E. Meeker to describe a new kind of intellectual in the Middle
East. For further information see: Michael E. Meeker, (1991) “The New Muslim Intellectuals in
the Republic of Turkey” in Islam in Modern Turkey, ed. by Richard Tapper, pp. 189-219.
13
For further information see: Andreas Christmann, (2004) “The Form is Permanent, but the
Content Moves: the Qur’anic Text and its Interpretation(s) in Mohammad Shahrour’s al-Kitab
wal-Qur’an” in Modern Muslim Intellectuals and the Qur’an, ed. by Suha Taji-Farouki, pp. 263-
295.
14
For further information see: Navid Kermani, (2004) “From revelation to Interpretation; Nasr
Hamid Abu Zayd and the Literary Study of the Qur’an” in Modern Muslim Intellectuals and the
Qur’an, ed. by Suha Taji-Farouki, pp. 169-192.
15
For further information see: Eickelman, D. F and James Piscatori (1998) Muslim Politics, pp. 3-
79; Dale F. Eikelman, (2000) “Islam and the Languages of Modernity”, Daedalusi, 229, pp. 119-
135; Michael E. Meeker, (1994) “The Muslim Intellectual and his Audience: A New
Configuration of Writer and Reader among Believers in the Republic of Turkey.” in Cultural
Transitions in the Middle East ed. ✁erif Mardin, pp. 153-155 and Duygu Köksal, (1996) The
Politics of Cultural Identity in Turkey, PhD thesis, The University of Texas.

19
he regards primarily as a literary text.

Background of the Study

Modern Turkey is a very important case for studying changes in the field of Qur’anic
sciences. Starting from the late years of Ottoman Empire, Turkey made constant
attempts to adapt Western education, legal and political systems and institutions.

The 19 th century was a time of dramatic reformation. Mahmud II, who tried to
modernise the army and administrative structures, emerged as the most well-known
contemporary Muslim leader. The period is often called the era of the Tanzimat,
“reorganization”. In general terms, the reorganisation was about restructuring a
government and simultaneously improving its status in order to cope with current
16
problems. The source of such reformist approach was the West.

A very limited number of ulama made a direct or important contribution to the

Tanzimat. One of the most well-known was Ahmad Cevdet Pasha (1882-1895), who
had both a traditional religious and a modern education. Cevdet was the most
important figure in the creation of the Majalla, a formulation of a civil code that
17
combined Islamic legal principles with new legal ideas. Some intellectual
movement had taken place at this time such as, the Young Turks who were influenced
by European liberal thinking, the Servet-i Fun n influenced by Western thought
gained in literature and the Ottoman Society of Science (1897-1898) which published
18
the Majmu al-Fun n on modern Anglo-Saxon philosophy.

A Turkish sociologist, Ziya Gokalp, for example, tried to find some ground of

16
For further information see: Voll, John Obert, (1994) Islam Continuity and Change in the Modern
World, p. 88.
17
Voll, ibid: 89.
18
For further information see: Adivar, Abdulhak Adnan, (1951) “Islamic and Western Thought:
Turkey” in T. Cuyler Young, ed. Near Eastern Culture and Society: A Symposium on the Meeting
of East and West, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, p. 124.

20
reconciliation between Western scientific thought and the purely religious Muslim
thought. As a follower of Durkheim, he proposed distinguishing between civilisation
and culture. He argued that Turkey should adapt Western civilisation while national
19
and Islamic culture is preserved.

The Ottoman Empire at the end of the nineteenth century became a country where all
major issues of Islam at that time could be observed. Reform involved adaption of
Western techniques and ideas. The re-assertion of Islamic authenticity and the
restatement of Islam in terms of modern rationalism were common themes in the
Islamic experience at this time.

Turkey, succeeding the Ottoman Empire, accepted the Western social and political
system as a role model. In its way of modernisation, Turkey shows certain
characteristics. One is the secularist trend and the other is its continuation. The
transformation, which was taking place in Turkey, concluded in the adoptation of
secularism. This transformation has affected the position of religion in Turkish
society profoundly. The influence of Islam over public affairs sharply declined
during the 1920’s and 1950’s. The old social and political institutions were
systematically eliminated rather than being reformed. The abolition of the Caliphate
(1924) was followed by the closure of religious courts and madrasas by the state.
The adaptation of a European system of Civil, Criminal, and Commercial Law in
1926 completed the Legal revolution. The Latin script was introduced in 1928; and
attendance at the secular elementary schools became compulsory two years later. In
1933, the Faculty of Theology at the University of stanbul was converted into an
Institute for Islamic Studies within the Faculty of Arts and eventually closed
altogether in 1941. 20

However, secularism in Turkey has not rejected Islam or opposed religion in general.
It has aimed at making Islam a personal, individual matter, in which a person was

19
Ibid: 126.
20
Rustaw, D. (1957) “Politics and Islam in Turkey 1920-1955”, pp. 69-79.

21
free whether or not to follow some established rules and doctrines. It is secularist
21
rather than an atheistic program of modernising reform.

Islamic studies, in general, did not flourish in Turkey in the early years of the
Turkish republic. The foundation of the Republican regime, based on the idea of a
secular state, excluded the religious institutions. Between 1920 and 1950, the main
source of information on religious discussions were the intellectuals who lived in the
late Ottoman period. Part of the latest religious literature consists of transcriptions of
Islamic classics into the Latin alphabet or into Turkish. Since 1949, when the first
faculty of theology was established in Ankara, publications on religion have
significantly increased.

Mass media and communication helped this transformation. The improvement of

mass education and mass communication in the last two decades brought a dramatic
transition in the social and religious structure of Turkish society. A great number of
individuals attended higher institutions. This led to a new mass media audience for
intellectual products. The literatures of arts, philosophy and history were either
translations of Western originals or deeply influenced by a pro-Western model.
Consequently, the new generation of better educated Muslims had direct access to
Western intellectual and cultural fashions.

After the 1980s, the political leaders worked to maintain a balance between Turkish
goals of modernisation and ideals of a growing nationalist and religious
reaffirmation. Most of the social and political leaders in Turkey in the early 1990s
are more “modern-minded Muslims” than fundamentalist in terms of their approach
to social policies and political programs. While accepting secularism and
22
westernisation, they also identified directly with the Turkish Islamic heritage.

After the 1980s Islamic institutes that were established in the 1960s and 1970’s were
transformed into faculties. In the 1990s more faculties of Theology were opened.

21
Voll, ibid: 193.
22
Ibid: 339.

22
There are roughly 20 faculties of theology, which are governed by the state. In other
words, philosophy, sociology, psychology, theology and religious studies are thought
in the Western style. After the 1990s many symposiums and publications were
published where new methodologies in Qur’anic studies, especially historical-critical
methods were discussed.

It is therefore of interest to study the extent of the application of Western literary

criticism to Qur’anic studies taking Turkey as an example. By doing so, we can
better understand the Muslim responses to these new developments. Turkey is of
particular interest because it has been more open to these new methodologies yet at
the same time it upholds a strong Islamic tradition.

Review of the Literature and Contribution of the Study

Almost all contemporary studies on the history of Qur’anic studies follow in the
footsteps of Ignaz Goldziher, the writer of Die Richtungen der Islamischen
Koranauslegen 23. Goldziher did not write a chronology of Qur’an interpretation.
However, by comparing him with earlier scholars, it can be said that he is the first
scholar who tried to establish a typology of tafsir literature. Goldziher was also the
first scholar to draw attention to the modern period of tafsir literature. He gives
details about the Egyptian scholar, Muhammad Abduh.

Following in the footsteps of Goldziher, Jomier’s book, Le Commentaire Coranique

du Man r, Tendances Modernes de L’exégèse Coranique en Egypte 24 focuses only
on Egyptian Qur’anic commentaries, Man r by Muhammad Abduh and also on the
exegesis of Rashid Rida. He offers a virtually complete summary of these scholars’
ideas. Baljon, in addition to this, in his book Modern Muslim Interpretation (1880-

23
Leiden, 1920.
24
Paris, 1954.

23
1960)25 drew the attention of Western observers to contemporary Indian scholars

26
After the translation of Goldziher’s work into Arabic in 1955 , Muslim scholars,
such as H{usayn al- Dhahab > (1961), al-Tafs✁>r wa’l-Mufassiru>n; ‘Abd al-
‘Az >m Ahmad al-Ghuba>shi (1971), Tarikh al-Tafs✁>r; Abu Yaqzân ‘Atiyya al-
Gabûri (1971), Dira>sa>t f ✁> Tafs✁>r wa Rica>lih; Ismail Cerrahoglu (1988), Tefsir
Tarihi I-II ; Ali Turgut (1994), Tefsir Usulu ve Tarihi,27 adapted and assimilated
Goldziher’s typology.

Another influence of Goldziher was that the focus of Qur’anic studies was mostly on
modern Egyptian scholarship, particularly Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida.
Qur’anic studies in other parts of the Muslim world, especially Turkey, India, Iran,
Algeria, Tunisia were neglected.

Among these Muslim countries, Turkey was already in the process of modernisation
and Westernisation. At the intellectual level there were some tendencies towards
Western methodology. Therefore modern Turkish scholarship should not be
28
overlooked. It is interesting to see that Turkish scholars, who study Qur’anic
interpretation, in complete loyalty to Goldzhier, also tend to focus only on modern
Egyptian scholars as if they were the only representatives of modern Muslim
interpreters.

While Jomier, Baljon and Muslim scholars are interested only in the Egyptian
scholars, Jansen follows Goldziher in his trend of categorising modern Egyptian

25
Leiden, 1961.
26
Translated by ‘Ali Hasan ‘Abd al-Qâdir with the title of al-Madha>hib al-Isla>miyya f✂ > Tafs✂>r
al-Qur’a>n, Cairo, 1944. Mustafa Islamoglu more recently, translated this book from Arabic into
Turkish in 1996.
27
In this study, Arabic and Turkish words have often been used. I used the transliteration system
of the Journal of Semitic Studies for Arabic and the sytem of International Journal of Middle
East Studies for Turkish. Turkish has a fundamentally different structure from that of Arabic
despite of the fact that their speakers share the Arabic culture of the Qur’an and the terminology
devised by early Muslim theologians, because Modern Turks have adopted the Latin alphabet.
The original spelling of Turkish words are used in this study. The differences are only on these
letters: ç: ch; ✄: sh; ☎ :g; ✆:i; ü: u; ö: o. For example: the spelling of “Ya✄ar” equals to “Yashar”.
28
For further information see: ✝smail Cerrahoglu, (1988) Tefsir Tarihi (2 vols) and Ali Turgut
(1994) Tefsir Usulu ve Tarihi.

24
interpretation literature. Jansen claims that the modern methodologies like textual
criticism and philology are not authentic Muslim methods but a result of Western
influences.

All the above works reveal that after the 1950s, the common concerns in typologies
is the impact of Western civilisation on the Islamic civilisation. Towards the end of
the 1980s a new typology arose. Muslim scholars were classified in this typology
with reference to their response to Western influence. Based on this criterion,
William E. Shepard’s ideological typology classified Muslim scholars into five
categories. 29 Islamic Secularism emphasises Islam as a purely religious phenomenon
30
without political force. Islamic modernism wants Islam to be the basis for political
life as well as for religious life. On the other hand it recognises to reinterpret those
structures in the light of contemporary circumstances, frequently with clear and
31
unapologetic adoption of Western ideas. Radical Islamism emphasises the
32
legitimacy of past solutions to modern problems. Islamic traditionalism holds to
the full authority of the past and that change should not and does not affect the
33
traditions of the past. Traditionalism maintains its loyalty to past methods. Neo-
34
traditionalism accepts a gradual change.

Andrew Rippin repeated William E. Shepard’s typology, in his work, Muslims 35

where he focused on how Muslims perceive the modern period and how they react to
its challenges and how they understand the Qur’an. He exemplifies Shepard’s
typology by presenting some Muslim scholars and he classifies them by their
responses to Western influence. However, the ideology of scholars and their
methodology in the textual and literal analysis seem to be mixed up. For example:

29
Shepard, William E. (1987) “Islam and Ideology: Towards a Typology” International Journal of
the Middle East Studies, 19, pp. 307-336.
30
Ibid: 309.
31
Ibid: 311-314.
32
Ibid: 314-317.
33
Ibid: 318.
34
Ibid: 319.
35
Rippin, Andrew, (1993) Muslims Their Religious Belief and Practices Volume 2: The
Contemporary Period, London and New York.

25
 …The purpose of the narrative elements of the Qur’an is to
give moral and spiritual guidance to the believers, not history
or fact. ‘A’sha ‘Abd al-Rahma>n’s approach is
conservative but critical, has often been hailed as a
potentially fruitful method for traditionally oriented scholars,
and may best be identified as neo-Traditionalist in Shepard’s
term. While it has similarities with the more-modernist
position in its emphasis on guidance rather then facts, the
absolute emphesis on the text marks it as anti-Modernist… 36

It is obvious that ‘A’sha ‘Abd al-Rahma>n gives precedence to the text of the
Qur’an in order to realize the authentic meanings. Therefore, her position in the
category Qur’anic studies should be related to the methodology rather than as an
ideological response to Western impact. For that reason, this kind of typology seems
unsuitable for modern Tafsir literatures.

Consequently, an analysis and evaluation of modern Qur’an interpretation must

firstly include a methodological categorisation rather than an ideological one,
secondly it must consider the view of cultural influences of Western civilisation, and
finally it should open a place for Turkish scholars.

Most recently, a number of studies have included these aspects. Mohammad

37
Arkoun’s article “Contemporary Critical Practices and the Qur’an” for example is
worth mentioning as it covers Western historical and literal critical methodological
influences on Qur’anic studies. Turkish scholars who have been mostly neglected by
38
previous scholars were introduced by Bilal Gökk r both in his PhD thesis and his
article, “The Application of Western Comparative Religious and Linguistic
39
Approaches to the Qur’an in Turkey”. Gökk r draws attention to the Western
influence on the study of the Qur’an in particular and the study of Islam in general in
Turkey. He studied Turkish institutions and pioneers and linked the adaptation to the

36
Ibid: 94.
37
Arkoun, Mohammad, (2001) “Contemporary Critical Practices and the Qur’an” Encyclopaedia of
the Qur’an, ed. by Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Brill, Leiden, Boston, Koln, pp. 412-431.
38
Gökk✁r, Bilal, Western Attitudes to the Origins of the Qur’an: Theological and Linguistic
Approaches of Twentieth-Century English-Speaking Scholars from William Muir to William
Montgomery Watt PhD thesis in The University of Manchester, Department of Middle Eastern
Studies 2003.
39
Published in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, v.14 No. 3, July 2003, pp. 249-263.

26
privileged position of Western academia in modernising and Westernising Turkey.
Gökk r also presents the reactions against the West and Western oriented
methodologies and approaches (i.e. Comparative religions and linguistics) and at the
end draws our attention to one important point. He concludes:

Generally speaking, Muslim critics of orientalism in both the

modern and post-modern period have been very much
involved in investigating orientalists’ motives and goals
behind orientalism. The question ‘why’? has always
overridden the questions ‘how’? and ‘what?’. In other words
the precise matters and subjects that Western orientalist
proposed for discussion the way they handled these issues
and the methodology they applied have scarcely become the
subject of criticism. Muslim critics seem to confine
themselves to the political and polemical discussion of
orientalism. Rather than looking into the background of the
theories asserted by orientalists, Muslim critics have
preferred to tackle in a more global way the political or
economic and social motives of orientalism. Consequently,
methodologies developed or borrowed from other have been
missing from the repertoire of Muslim critics. 40

This present work therefore will be an important study in order to treat the issue of
Western methodologies: their background in Western literature and biblical studies.
However, Gökk r, as he admits, draws attention only to the question of what and who
not how.

This study will build upon these previous works to examine Muslim applications of
the contemporary critical methods to the study of the Qur’an. The gaps, which are in
the previous works, will be covered. It will be interesting to see how and why
Muslim scholars were influenced by Western methods and what the special
circumstances were that led to the application of these methods to their own religious
texts.

40
Gökk✁r, Bilal, (2003) “The Application of Western Comparative Religious and Linguistic
Approaches to the Qur’an in Turkey” ICMR, 14, pp. 259-260.

27
Outline of the Study

As stated earlier, this study attempts to deal with historical investigation on

contemporary Qur’anic studies within the context of applications of western critical
methods, using Turkey as a case country. The thesis is divided into two parts. The
first part discusses the main characteristics of modern critical theories and their
application in both Biblical and Qur’anic studies. The second part provides a detailed
analysis of their reception and application in Turkey.

The first step will be to submit a survey of literary and textual approaches that have
made an impact on the study of literature and religious texts in Europe/North
America. This is the subject of Part One . This part consists of three chapters.
Chapter One explores the historical background and the definitions of critical
th
methods that were introduced in 19 /20 th centuries Western scholarship. The
different approaches will be categorized as author-based, text-based and reader-
centred methodologies, based on an understanding of a chronological shift from the
earlier to the latter. We presuppose here that there are three main concepts of literary
criticism about reading a text. Drawing inspiration from the assumption that
literature can only be understood through the author’s intention, the first is the
author-based line that conceives original sources and original meanings of the text in
order to reconstruct the meaning given by author. However, for various reasons that
are revealed in the historical development of literary criticism, the construction of
such a true and original meaning for the historical text is an impossible task.
Realising this impossibility, many scholars have developed another strong concept. It
has been proposed a textual reading around some literal theories (Formalism, New
criticism and Structuralism) values. Unlike the first concept, this is a text-based
perspective and the supporters of this concept conceive that the meaning is produced
not by the author but through the language of the text. After 1960s, this concepts has
dramatically lost its power in western literary criticism. The new trend has focused
not on the author or the text, but on the reader. The rise of the reader's importance in
literary critical theories has shifted the emphasis of criticism and interpretation away

28
from author and text-based approaches to reader-centred which allowes for a more
plural responses to texts. In fact, this reader-centred mode of literary criticism based
on pluralistic values is also an ideological move away from author- and text-power to
reader-power.

Indeed, the author/the text and the reader had become the central concepts in literary
criticism. It has also influenced Religious studies in the West and in the Islamic
world. Therefore, after explaining the general views on this concepts, two separate
chapters of the part elucidate applications, which has been embodied in Biblical and
Qur’anic studies since the second half of the century, through its chronological
evolution and their seminal outcomes.

Chapter Two, then, explores the extent to which Biblical studies in Europe and
North America have been influenced by those new approaches in hermeneutics as
well as literary studies. Chapter Three discusses the exposure of Muslim
intellectuals to those new theories and introduces them as pioneers who innovatively
attempted to apply critical methods in their study of the Qur’an. Their role in
transmitting new ideas of exegesis and interpretation into the Turkish context will be
highlighted.

In general, we argue that both two different religious studies have been enormously
affected in their approaching to the sacred text by new paradigms of cultural and
literary studies, and a number of theological discourses have been culturally
interwoven with literary criticism in the Christian west and modern Islamic world in
particular during the second half of the twentieth century in the various examples.
Among these, one important case, namely Turkish applications, is the specific
concern of the study. The way of adaptation by Muslim scholars are open to
discussion. However, regarding the Turkish application process, the main hypothesis
of this study is that contemporary Qur’anic studies in Turkey have not been
independent from western literary criticism. Corresponding to political, intellectual,
and institutional westernisation and modernisation of Turkey, Turkish scholars
come under the methodological influences of the West.

29
In Part Two of the thesis Qur’anic studies in Turkey will be the subject of
discussion. On the basis of the two main scholarly circles in Turkey (Ankara and
stanbul) the thesis explores how far modern theories have been discussed and
applied. The analysis is led by the following questions:
- How and why do Turkish scholars apply new critical methods in their studies
of the Qur’an?

- What has been the role of the (non-Turkish) pioneer scholars (Soroush;
Rahman; Arkoun etc.) in the application process?

- What were the political and intellectual circumstances in which application

took place?

- What are the external and internal factors that contributed to the transfer of
new methods to Turkey?

- What were the practical results of such an application process?

- To what extent do Turkish scholars differently apply new theories and how /
why do they differ from their European/American counterparts?

The First Chapter gives a survey of the political, institutional, intellectual and
academic developments of Qur’anic studies in Turkey. In the post-1980 period, the
main transformations of Qur’anic studies in Turkey require the analysis of
institutional, individual and intellectual parameters. The chapter, therefore, focuses
on different aspects of influences that triggered the taking over of new methods and
theories. Nonetheless, other aspects that lead to the adaptation process could not be
discussed due to the limits of the thesis. The Second and Third Chapters introduce
the two academic circles as they exist in stanbul and Ankara, the two most important
academic centres in modern Turkey. The scholars were selected because of the
leading roles they play in the configuration and implementation of Qur’anic Studies
in Turkey. Chapter Four examines the discussion and application of historical
criticism in a variety of different publications such as academic journals, workshop
bulletins, conference papers and monographs. Chapter Five studies text-based
approaches in similar media, but with specific reference to the work of Süleyman
Ate✁ and his application of formal and structural analysis. Chapter Six examines
reader-centred methods, whereby special attention will be paid to the work of Ya✁ar

30
Nuri. Finally, the General Conclusion re-considers the results of the study and
makes some concluding remarks about the general nature of the application process.

Methodology

The thesis considers itself as a first attempt at making Turkish scholars of the Qur’an
known to a Western audience. Because of the above mentioned lack of attention to
Turkey, most of the material discussed in this thesis has not been covered by any
previous survey and, thus, is now been unearthed for the first time. Understandably,
the discussion of the transmission and adaptation of new methods and theories in
Turkey has to be on a simple descriptive and comparative level, including the
introduction of biographical data about Turkish scholars, who work in Qur’anic
studies, as well as comparisons between Western and Turkish applications of the new
critical theories. The predominant method that was applied throughout the research
process was that of a close reading of existing works on the Qur’an, which were
gathered through fieldwork in Turkey including qualitative and quantitative methods
such as interviews, questionnaires, and continuing correspondences through letters,
telephone calls and e-mails. Most of the written material was purchased or collected
from Turkish archives/libraries, as well as ordered from the British Library.

31
PART I: MODERN CRITICAL THEORIES IN BIBLICAL AND QUR’ANIC
STUDIES

32
 INTRODUCTION

This part aims to introduce contemporary literary critical theories and their
applications in both Biblical and Qur’anic studies. In the first chapter, the twentieth
century literary critical theories, author-based, text-based, and the reader-centred
approaches will be studied within their historical development within Western
thought.

In the second and third chapter, applications of the literary critical theories to
Biblical and Qur’anic studies will be explored respectively. This will enable us to see
the extent of Western literary critical theories and their influences on sacred texts. In
the second chapter, in line with the first chapter, the application of critical theory in
Biblical studies will be studied around the concepts of author, text and reader rather
41
than applicants . As Qur’anic applications are the primary concern of this thesis, the
first and second chapter will provide only a concise review in order to serve as basis
for the analysis of the application of literary theories to Qur’anic studies.

In the third chapter, therefore, having concentrated on contemporary pioneering

Muslim applicants, the process in Qur’anic studies will be studied comparatively in
detail. As the principal exponents of contemporary Qur’anic studies under influences
of the Western critical theories, Fazlur Rahman, Mohammed Arkoun, Nasr Hamid
Abu Zayd, Farid Esack, Fatima Mernissi, and Abdul-Karim Soroush and their
relevant works and methodologies will be studied.

41
The term “applicant” in this study is used for who apply critical theories.

33
1. MODERN CRITICAL THEORIES

Introduction

This chapter focuses on twentieth century critical theories in association with literary
studies. In reading a given text, literary critical theories have been concerned with the
cultural and historical context of the text, its structure, and its relations with the
reader. It can be classified, therefore, under the concepts of author, text and reader.
The Historical Critical approach will be studied as an example of author intentional
reading. Russian Formalism, New Criticism, and Structuralism will be examined
under the concept of text-based approaches. Finally Post-structuralism, New
Historicism, Reader Response Criticism, Liberation Theology, and Feminism are the
reader-centred theories.

Author and text-based and reader-centred critical methods, rather than various
hermeneutical and literary approaches, are considered as the common methods in this
study because they are the most common approaches in the twentieth century
Western and Islamic world. Therefore, not all the concepts around these particular
approaches are explored, but most of them are straightforwardly set out to provide an
analytical base for the Turkish case.

Most of the primary concepts in critical theories are subject to huge theoretical
presumptions and debates. To avoid becoming bogged down in these debates, we
give clear definitions of concepts to make clear what we mean. In some parts of our
study, explanations on some secondary issues may seem very compressed or brief.
But this is inevitable to see a rather clear picture of theories.

34
1.1. AUTHOR-BASED CRITICAL THEORIES

42
Literature is described by Roger Webster as a production of text which is then read
by the reader. The production and transmission process is assumed to be from the
author to the reader and the ideas or meaning would seem to originate in the author’s
mind and are then relayed through the text in the form of a poem, novel, or play to
the reader. The reader is then able go back along this axis to discover the author’s
intention and to re-experience the author’s experience.

The concept of the author has been central to literary criticism since the late
nineteenth century. Literature was not seen as separable from the figure who
produced it. Knowledge of author’s education, character, age, background personal
experiences, emotional state, ambitions, the circumstances that led to the writing, and
the occasions for which it was to be used all help to illuminate the intended sense.
The author’s position as an observer, his internal consistency, his bias or prejudices,
43
and his abilities all affect the accuracy of what he means.

1.1.1. Historical Criticism

Historical Criticism based on the assumption that literature can only be understood
through the author’s intention was dominant in literary criticism and Biblical studies
th
between mid 19 and late 20 th century. Historical Criticism provides valid and
reliable evidence to establish the meaning of documents in their historical contexts.
The historian, therefore, seeks to determine and to understand the motivation behind
the text and its time and place of origin.

John Barton suggests four features of Historical Criticism to provide a general

42
Webster, Roger, (1990) Studying Literary Theory An Introduction, p. 17.
43
For further information see: Krentz, Edgar, (1975) The Historical Critical Method,p. 44.

35
 44
definition:

1- The main interest of scholars who apply Historical Criticism is genetic

questions about the text. They are more interested in the original sources of
the books than the final product.

2- As Historical Criticism is interested in the original text it is interested in

the original meaning (the true meaning) of the text. The Historical critic’s
priority is what the text meant to its first audiences not what it means to
modern audience.

3- Historical reconstruction was an inevitable result for Historical critics who

concentrated on the original sources and original meanings of the text and
who wished to arrive at the original story: what really happened, not what the
writers of those books believed had happened.

4- Historical Criticism suggests a value-neutral approach. Instead of what the

text meant for me, Historical critics ask simply what it meant.

The Historical Critical method is a process for determining what really happened and
what the significance of past happenings was. On the other hand, when the
reconstruction of the past is presented, it is expected that this is supported with
convincing reasons and persuasive data. Therefore, it is not only important to
determine the author’s position and intention but also to evaluate the truthfulness of
the documents.

In the twentieth century, Historical Criticism lost the theoretical high ground in the
academy. New Criticism, Russian Formalism and Structuralism all have an anti-
historicist bias that gives priority to the final text and focuses on the form and
structure of the text. After the 1980s, however, the theory of Historical Criticism has
again received serious attention in New Historicism. Post-modern Historical

44
Barton, John, ( 1998) “Historical-Critical Approaches”, pp. 9-20.

36
Criticism ignores the standards of historical narrative and displays the gaps,
differences, and discontinuities not in order to capture the essence of reality or
original meaning but to show that reality has no simple essence.

1.2. TEXT-BASED CRITICAL THEORIES

The concept of the author has been in the centre of critical theories since the late
nineteenth century. Text was not seen as separable from its author. Whilst some
debate had taken place on the relationship between author and text in the late 1940s
and 1950s, in particular, 1960s which have changed traditional assumptions
regarding the author as the originator or producer of the literary work. The author’s
authority over the text and meaning has been questioned. In text-based critical
theories, attention is focused primarily on the literary work or the text. Text-based
theorists argue that meaning is produced not by the author but through the language
of the text.

1.2.1. Russian Formalism

The critical movement known as Russian Formalism attempted to focus attention on

the literary work itself and on the inseparability of form and content but not on the
intention of the author or on the socio-historical conditions under which it was
produced.

The major work of the Russian formalists grew out of two groups of critics: the St.
Petersburg Opozoy and the Moscow Linguistic Circle. The Opozoy group as its full
title implies ( The Society for the Study of Poetic Language) included Victor
Shklovsky, Boris Eichenbaum, Osip Brik and Yury Tynyanov. The Moscow
Linguistic Circle was primarily linguists who were interested in extending the field
of linguistics to cover poetic language and its best known member is Roman

37
Jacobson. 45

When this critical circle was suppressed by the Soviets in the early 1930s, the centre
of the formalist study of literature moved to Czechoslovakia, and survived in the
work of the Prague School. In the Czechoslovakia, they were, like those in Moscow,
primarily linguists, and they did not significantly alter the basic groundwork of
Formalist literary theory. In the 1940s both Roman Jacobson and Rene Wellek
46
continued their influential work as professors at American Universities.

Russian Formalism has had substantial influences on the linguistic developments in

the 20 th century. Firstly, through Jacobson and Wellek’s teaching and work in the
United States, this theory had an explicitly influenced the Anglo American New
Criticism. Secondly, Russian Formalism had a significant role in the development of
Structuralism during the 1960s.

1.2.2. New Criticism

New Criticism emerged in the 1930s and played a dominant role in literary criticism
until the end of the 1960s and began with I. A. Richards and T. S. Eliot and was
continued by John Crowe Ransom, W. K. Wimsatt, Cleanth Brooks and Allen Tate.
The foundations of the New Criticism were laid in books and essays written during
the 1920s and 1930s by I. A. Richards ( Practical Criticism, 1929), William Empson
(Seven Types of Ambiguity, 1930), and T. S. Eliot ( The Function of Criticism, 1933).
The movement did not have a name, however, until the appearance of John Crowe
Ransom's The New Criticism in 1941, a work that loosely organized the principles of
this basically linguistic approach to literature. Influenced by Russian Formalism,
New Criticism was in part a reaction against the late nineteenth and early twentieth-
century criticism and against the dominance of the traditional philological and

45
For further information see: Jefferson, Ann and Robey, David, (1986 ) Modern Literary Theory,
p. 24.
46
For further information see: Abrams, M. H, (1993) A Glossary of Literary Terms, p. 273.

38
historical critical study of literature. It treated the literary text as an independent
47
object of its author and the social–historical context.

New Critics treated a work of literature as a self-contained, self-referential text.

Rather than basing their interpretations of a text on the reader’s response, the
author’s stated intentions, or parallels between the text and historical contexts (such
as the author’s life), New Critics perform a close reading, concentrating on the
language, and on the text . The most basic assumption of the New Criticism was that
the meaning of a text is not equivalent to what the author intended when he wrote it.
To get the meaning, for New Critics, the reader should engage in close analytical
reading of the text itself. The New Critics not only insisted that the work was
independent of the context of the author and also maintained that the work was
48
independent of the reader.

1.2.3. Structuralism

Structuralism is an intellectual movement of which Emille Durkheim (1858-1917),

the French anthropologist, and Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), the French
speaking Swiss linguist are the central figures. Durkheim’s work on ‘primitive’
religion and Saussure’s on language directly anticipated the subsequent histories of
the two academic disciplines which are directly linked with structuralism:
Anthropology and Semiology.

Durkheim’s major work, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, first published in
1915, takes as its theoretical objects first knowledge and secondly religion . In his
treatment of knowledge, Durkheim clearly rejects the view that what we know is
given by personal experience. Rather, he argues such human individual experiences
are formed by and through systems of thought that are socially variable. He writes:

47
For further information see: Jefferson, Ann and Robey, David, Ibid: 73.
48
May, Charles (1999) “Modern Literary Theory”, p. 767 and Abrams, M. H., Ibid: 248.

39
“A concept is not my concept; I hold it in common with other men”. In his treatment
of religion, Durkheim introduces a further structuralist view. The “real characteristic
of religious phenomena” he claims” is that they always suppose a bipartite division
of the whole universe…into two classes which embrace all that exits, but which
radically exclude each other” The relation between two classes are, famously, those
of the sacred and the profane. Sacred things are set apart, forbidden and defined only
in relation to the profane that is not set apart and not forbidden. Saussure’s Course in
General Linguistics was first published in 1916, only a year after The Elementary
49
Forms. Its central thesis is that every language is an entirely separate system.

In literary criticism, structuralism is also closely related to Formalism, as represented

by both American New Criticism and Russian Formalism. The New Criticism and
Russian Formalism, in short, promoted the view of literature as a system and a
50
general linguistic approach to a text.

Structuralism emphasises that meaning is not a private experience but a product of

certain shared systems of signification. Structuralism gets its motion from the
methods of modern linguistics as developed by Saussure. Saussure’s assertions about
linguistic structuralism were that it can be summarised as several pronouncements in
particular. Firstly, he emphasised that “language” should not be thought of simply as
a crowd of words used for communication. Instead, language is made up of both
individual utterances (Saussure called Parole) and the general system of language,
which makes such individual utterances possible (Saussure called Langue).
Individual utterance ( parole) is also made up of two parts: sound and concept.
Saussure calls these signifier and signified. The relationship between the two is
purely arbitrary and conventional. Secondly, Saussure emphasise that the meaning
of the words are relational that is to say; no word can be defined in isolation from
other words. The definition of any given word depends upon its syntagmatic and

49
For further information see: Milner, Andrew, (1994) Contemporary Cultural Theory, pp. 77-78.
50
For further information see: Anderson, Gorton T. R. ( 1989 ) Contemporary Literary Criticism:
Literary and Cultural Studies, p. 145.

40
paradigmatic relation 51 with other words. 52

Structuralism has had a major influence on many different disciplines and schools of
thought. The most important of the various schools of structuralism to be found in
Europe in the first half of the 20th century have included the Prague school, and
Roman Jacobson, who represents a kind of transition from Formalism to
Structuralism. They elaborated the ideas of Formalism, but systematized them more
firmly within the framework of Saussurean linguistics. With the work of the Prague
school, the term “structuralism” comes to combine with the word “semiotics”.
Semiotics means the systematic study of sign, and this what structuralists are really
doing. 53

Structuralism is not only about linguistic but also literary phenomena. The most
notable attempt to use structuralism to apply to a signifying phenomenon other than a
language was the effort of the French anthropologist Levi Strauss to understand
myth. As a literary critic, anthropologist and semiologist, influenced by Saussure,
Roland Barthes attempted to analyse contemporary myths from the structural point of
view. In his Mythologies, Elements of Semiology (1964) and The Fashion System
54
(1967), elements of popular culture were examined.

1.3. READER-CENTRED CRITICAL THEORIES

After the 1960s, a number of theorists who introduced literary theories usually
known as “post structuralism”, “reader response theory”, “feminist theory” etc.
focused not on the author or the text, but on the reader as the central figure in the
reading and critical process. The rise of the reader's importance in literary and critical
theories has shifted the emphasis of criticism and interpretation away from author
and text-based approaches to the reader and allowed both for a more plural set of

51
Syntagmatic relation is in the sentences, whereas paradigmatic one is in the system of language.
52
For further information see: Peter Barry, Ibid: 42.
53
For further information see: Terry Eagleton, (1996) Literary Theory: an Introduction, p. 87.
54
For further information see: Charles May, Ibid: 770.

41
responses to texts and also to give more attention to the complex processes of
reading and interpretation. Reader-centred theory will emerge as important in
relation to feminist and liberalist approaches that promote the individual and
different types of readers. In one sense this shift can be seen as an ideological move
away from author- and text-power to reader-power.

1.3.1. Post-Structuralism

Post-Structuralism refers generally to methods of inquiry generated by critics who

have examined the social construction of “discourse” (language and other forms of
representation) and the power arranged and social relationships organised through
discourse. Post-structuralism, like structuralism, focuses on relationships among
signs. However, while structuralists imply that a fixed relationship among signs can
be discovered and then used as a basis for reliable understanding, post-structuralists
suggest that relationships are contextual. That is, the relationships are never fixed or
fully knowable.

In his Of Grammatology and Writing and Difference, Derrida challenges earlier

philosophical notions of truth and objectivity. Derrida starts to inquire using the
structuralist notion that meaning is made through relationships among signs. He
remarks that the relationship-based meanings come from logo-centrism and therefore
are not stable. 55

He alternatively suggests a deconstructive method to understand text. Jacques

Derrida introduced his method in De la Grammatologie in 1967. Derrida's
deconstructive methodologies, which take off from Ferdinand de Saussure's
insistence on the arbitrariness of the verbal sign, have subsequently established
themselves as an important part of post-structural literary theory and text analysis.
Deconstruction undermines “logo-centrism”. It follows from this view that the

55
For further information see: Donald E. Hall, (2001) Literary and Cultural Theory, pp. 162 -163.

42
“meaning” of a text bears only accidental relationship to the author's conscious
56
intentions.

Derrida also coined the expression “ there is nothing outside the text”. This does not,
however, mean self-referential text itself as in Formalism or Structuralism. It means
there is no ‘world’ outside the text at all. John Barton explains Derrida’s saying as
“everything there is, is characterised by textuality”. All aspects of human culture,
Barton suggests, are directly or indirectly ‘texts’ and everything that is signified is
also a signifier, or in other words, a text reads me as I read the text: we are both
57
caught up in the play of signification that is human life/textuality.

The French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault is another important

representative of the post-structuralist movement. He argues that language and
society are shaped by rule-governed systems, and that it is impossible to step outside
of discourse.58

1.3.2. Reader-Response Criticism

Reader Response criticism is a reaction against New Criticism and other Formalism
which placed emphasis on the text: and also against historical and author-intention
based approaches. Because of the rejection of the significance of the human
originator of the work, structuralism is also criticized. The term ‘reader response
criticism’ refers to how readers respond to a text. Reader response criticism
developed mainly during the 1970s and 1980s when the post structuralists, such as
Barthes announced the death of author.59

This critical theory argues that a word in any literature does not elicit an identical

56
For further information see: Williams Haney, (1999) “Jacques Derrida”, p. 303 and Elizabeth
Kuhlmann, (1999) “Deconstruction”, pp. 296-297.
57
John Barton, (1984) Reading the Old Testament: Method in Biblical Studies, pp. 221.
58
Stuewe, Paul, (1999) “Michel Foucault”, p. 395.
59
For further information see: A. W. Lyle, (1999) “Reader Response Criticism”, p. 920.

43
response in two different readers. The word “rose”, for example given by Thomas
Barry,60 “in a dictionary has a botanical meaning; but in a poem or in a love-letter
has an emotional meaning and this emotion will probably be different for every
reader.” So if no readers will respond in same ways to a word, it is not possible, for
them, to construct a framework of responses or understanding of literature.

61 62
Reader response theory has been elaborated by Wolfgang Iser and Stanly Fish .
The basic distinction between what the text provides and how the reader actualises or
realises this are the main issues of Iser’s approach. This is the most important
concern in reader response theory. Another crucial dimension lies in the distinction
between schematised aspect and virtuality. The first refers to certain aspects of the
text which guide the reader to the perception of predetermined structural patterns,
elements of plot, of character or location. The second, virtuality, on the other hand
refers to the uncertain dimension with individual subjectivity of the reader. However,
subjectivity must be restrained and limited. This is linguistic, historical, common
63
knowledge that the reader brings to the text to enable actualisation and realisation.

1.3.3. Liberation Theology

Liberation Theology is a movement centred in Latin America that seeks to apply

religious faith by aiding the poor and oppressed through involvement in political and
civic affairs. Liberation theologians believed that God speaks particularly through the
poor and that the Bible can be understood only when seen from the perspective of the
poor. The birth of the Liberation Theology movement is usually dated to the second
Latin American Bishops' Conference, which was held in Medellin, Colombia, in
1968. At this conference the attending bishops issued a document affirming the rights

60
Ibid: 921.
61
Iser, Wolfgang, (1974) The Implied Reader, Baltimore; (1978) The Act of Reading, London,
62
Fish, Stanley, (1980) Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities,
Cambridge.
63
For further information see; A. W. Lyle, Ibid: 921.

44
of the poor and asserting that industrialized nations enriched themselves at the
expense of Third World countries.

64
Gustavo Gutiérrez , a Peruvian priest and theologian wrote the movement’s seminal
text, A Theology of Liberation. Other leaders of the movement included Archbishop
Oscar Arnulfo Romero of El Salvador, Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff, Jon
Sobrino, and Archbishop Helder Câmara of Brazil.

In the course of the development of Liberation Theology, there has been some
contribution from different theoretical circles. The different approaches which
promote equality of race and gender are grouped together under Liberation
Theology. The use of a Marxist analysis of social reality as a frame of reference for
reading the Bible, for example, is considered.

For the liberation theologians, the church must support poor people as they demand
justice. The liberationist, however, do not call for the creation of divisions in society
into a wealthy elite and poor majority. They advocate class and church struggle.

Liberation Theology has not only different contents, but also has different
methodology as a literary critical theory. This differences declared by a liberationist,
Per Frostin in a work:

The theologies from Europe and North America are dominant

today in our churches and represent one form of cultural
domination. They must be understood to have arisen out of
situations related to those countries, and therefore must not be
uncritically adopted without our raising the question of their
relevance in the context of our countries. Indeed, we must, in
order to be faithful to the gospel and to our peoples, reflect on
the realities of our own situations and interpret the word of God
in relation to these realities. We reject as irrelevant an academic
type of theology that is divorced from action. We are prepared
for a radical break in epistemology which makes commitment
the first act of theology and engages in critical reflection on the

64
Gutierrez, G., (1983) A Theology of Liberation, London: SCM; (1983) The Power of the Poor in
History, London: SCM; (1990) The Truth Shall Make you Free, Maryknoll, New York: Orbis;
(1984) We Drink from Our Own Wells , Maryknoll, New York: Orbis.

45
 praxis of the reality of the Third World. 65

This quotation demonstrates two crucial points about Liberation Theology. First, in
this theology there is a focus on epistemology. Second, in this new methodology the
experience of oppression and of the struggle for liberation are fundamental. The
opening phrases of one of the first reflections on liberation theologies, Gustavo
Gutierrez's A Theology of Liberation, emphasises the role of experience as the
starting point for theological reflection.

In their emphasis on epistemology and the experience of oppression in the struggle

for liberation and life, liberation theologies ask a question not usually asked in
Western theology: who are the interlocutors of theology? Or, who are asking the
questions that theologians try to answer? Liberation theology not only poses this
question, it also gives a specific answer: the poor and marginalized.

1.3.4. Feminist Criticism

Feminist Criticism developed from the women’s movement in Europe and North
America in the 1960s. First wave of feminism, which began around 1860, tackled
66
certain human rights, such as the right to education and to vote. Feminist criticism
is thankful to first wave of feminism, but the main forward motion comes from the
women’s liberation movements and post-structuralism. The second wave of
feminism, the post-structuralist period, is characterised by the works of Simone de
Beauvoir, Derrida, and Foucault. Especially Beauvoir’s work, The Second Sex67,
68
stimulated debates on the female subjects.

Feminism in this century has naturally turned its attention to literary criticism. It is
impossible to isolate feminist cultural theory from feminist literary criticism.

65
Torres, S. and V. Fabella (eds), (1978) The Emergent Gospel: Theology from the Underside of
History, p. 269.
66
Liladhar, Janine (1999) “Feminist Criticism”, p. 377.
67
Beauvoir, Simone de, (1972) The Second Sex, tr. H. M. Parshley, Harmondsworth, Penguin.
68
Bronwen, Martin, (1999) “French Literary Theory: Twentieth Century”, p. 404.

46
Feminist literary criticism is an approach, which emphasises the ways in which
discrimination against women is obvious and it can be restricted by the feminist
perspective. Feminist literary criticism, after 1960s, argues that the established canon
of literary works in Western culture was developed and maintained by males and
therefore needed to be expanded to include valuable ignored works by female
writers. 69

In England Virginia Woolf in A Room of One’s Own focused on some of the

problems specific to the woman writer. She insisted that the lack of a ‘room of one’s
own’ and the kind of financial and social independence it represented put a brake on
women’s ambitions in literature. She felt that literary forms had been suffered by
70
centuries of masculine writing into something unsuitable for women.

1.3.5. New Historicism

The American critic Stephen Greenblatt coined the term ‘ new historicism’. Most
critics refer to the 1980s as the beginning of New Historicism as a theory and literary
critical practice. New Historicism is a method based on the parallel reading of
literary and non-literary texts, usually of the same historical period. That is to say,
New Historicism refuses to give priority to the literary text: instead of a literary
‘foreground’ and a historical ‘ background’ it advocates and practises a mode of
71
study in which literary and non-literary texts are given equal credibility. H. Aram
Veeser cited from Louis A. Montrose saying ‘the historicity of texts and textuality of
history’ 72

New Historicism, for Robert P. Carroll, “is a turn away from theory and a movement
in the direction of culture, history, politics, society and institutions as the social

69
For further information see; Charles May, Ibid: 774.
70
Blamires, Harry, (1991) A History of Literary Criticism, p. 374.
71
For further information see: Peter Barry, Ibid: 172.
72
Veeser, H. Aram, (1989) The New Historicism, p. 20.

47
 73
contexts of the production of texts” .

For New Historicism, the historical documents are not subordinated as contexts, but
74
are analysed in their own right, Peter Barry calls them ‘ co-texts’ rather than
‘contexts’. The text and co-text used will be seen as expressions of the same
historical ‘moment’, and interpreted accordingly. New historicism expends most of
its energies on identifying and exposing different historical documents, including
books, penal document, journal entries and travel narratives, as well as canonical
literary text.

Conclusion

In this chapter, first the emergence of the literary critical methods has been
explained. Then, bibliographic resources, theoretical principles, the main figures and
their relationships with each other are examined. We have seen that in the twentieth
century, the major debates concerning critical theories are mostly text-based and
reader-centred in character rather than author-based which emphasis that literature
can only be understood through the author’s intention in order to reconstruct the
meaning given by author. However, for various reasons that are revealed in the
historical development of critical theories, the construction of such a true and
original meaning for the historical text is an impossible task. Realising this
impossibility, many scholars have developed another strong concept. A textual
reading around some literary theories (Formalism, New criticism and Structuralism)
has been proposed. Unlike the first concept, this is a text-based perspective and the
supporters of this concept conceive that the meaning is produced not by the author
but through the language of the text.

73
Carroll, Robert P. (1998) “Poststructuralist Approaches New Historicism and Postmodernism”,
p. 52.
74
Barry, Peter, Ibid: 173.

48
Since the 1960s, this concept has lost its power dramatically in critical theories. The
new trend has focused not on the author or the text, but on the reader. The rise of the
reader's importance in literary critical theories has shifted the emphasis of criticism
and interpretation away from author and text-based approaches to a reader-centred
approach which allowed for a more pluralistic response to the text. In fact, this
reader-centred mode of literary criticism based on pluralistic values is also an
ideological move away from author- and text-power to reader-power.

Additionally, the growth of critical theory in the post-war period seems to include a
series of waves; formalism, structuralism, post-structuralism all associated with a
specific decade and all aimed against each other.

Indeed, the author, the text and the reader have become the central concepts in
critical theories. They have also influenced Biblical and Qur’anic studies since the
second half of the century. Therefore, after explaining the general views on these
concepts, two separate chapters of the part elucidate applications through their
chronological evolution and their seminal outcomes will be studied.

49
2. APPLICATIONS OF TWENTIETH CENTURY CRITICAL METHODS
TO BIBLICAL STUDIES

Introduction

Before interpretation began to play such a prominent role in literary criticism, it was
in the sphere of religion that the major debate over interpretation took place. Indeed,
Hermeneutics, the science or theory of interpretation had its origins in the
interpretation of religious texts. Hermeneutics is a term for any formal methodology,
rather than the practice, of the interpretation of texts. The word “hermeneutics” was
derived from Hermes, the name for the messenger of gods in Greek mythology.
Greek hermeneuein, as a verb, is meaning “to announce”, “to interpret”, and “to
translate” and hermeneia, as a noun , is meaning “interpretation”. The first reference
to the “ hermeneutics” is the Aristotle’s Organon (335-323 B.C.) in the passage “On
Interpretation” ( peri hermeneias). Borrowing from Aristotle and other classical
authorities, the early Christian commentators on scripture developed hermeneutics
75
for the Bible.

There has been a steady shift of emphases in hermeneutics, especially since the
Reformation. The Roman Catholic assertion that the revelation testified to in
Scripture can only be understood in light of the tradition presented by the church,
which became for the Catholics a partial solution to the hermeneutical problem, was
rejected by the Reformers. Against this view of tradition the Reformers posited the
principle of sola scriptura , maintaining that Scripture has its own illuminating
power. 76

The modern period has seen a series of developments of fundamental importance to

75
McCulloh, Mark R, (1999) “Hermeneutics”, p. 519.
76
Ferguson, Duncan S., (1987) Biblical Hermeneutics, p. 4.

50
 77
Biblical studies. The rise of Enlightenment worldview led to a sharp conflict with
traditional way of reading the Bible.

Having been used almost exclusively to refer to interpretation of biblical texts,

hermeneutics since the nineteenth century has been applied to texts other than the
Bible, especially to modern literatures and became the theory of understanding
78
itself. Schleiermacher is the main figure in the history of hermeneutics, because he
extended hermeneutics outside the sphere of religion with the result that it could be
applied to the interpretation of texts in a more general sense. Schleiermacher changed
the focus from reading texts and directed attention to the conditions and theories of
79
interpretation.

Schleiermacher developed a new approach to textual interpretation that emphasized

the experience of the human being in relation to the text and the author.
Schleiermacher argued that the interpretation has two aspects: grammatical and
psychological. Grammatical interpretation states that a specific purpose of any point
in a given text must be determined on the basis of the use of language which is
familiar to the author and his original public and the meaning of the word must be
determined by the context in which it takes place. Psychological interpretation
consists of two methods: divinatory and comparative. Divinatory reading projects a
meaning not yet expressed in the text. As a result of Schleirmacher’s influence,
Werner claims, 80 hermeneutical thinking has been developed on two levels:

- Hermeneutics as a general philosophical discipline

- Hermeneutics as a sub-discipline of those disciplines among the humanities.

The second crucial figure, in “Die Entstehung der Hermeneutik”, Wilthem Dilthey

77
See further information about the Enlightenment and its influences on the Christianity: Alister E.
McGrath, Alister E., (1994) Christian Theology, pp. 89-98.
78
McCulloh, Mark R, Ibid: 519.
79
Newton, K. M, (1990) Interpreting the Text, p. 41.
80
Jeanrond, Werner G., (1990) “Hermeneutics”, p. 282.

51
characterises modern hermeneutics as “ liberation of interpretation from dogma.”81
Dilthey sees as the fundamental principle of modern hermeneutic theory: texts are to
be understood in their own terms rather than those of doctrine so that understanding
requires not dogma but systematic application of interpretative rules. He criticises the
theological reading as a dogmatic and thereafter articulates new hermeneutic
principles: reading the individual books of the Bible in the light of differences in
context and linguistic usage. This principle, Warnke claims, allowed to extend the
tenets of religious hermeneutics to the philological study of classical texts and
ultimately permitted Schleiermacher to formulate the principle of a general theory of
interpretation, applicable to all discourse.

Dilthey applied the science of hermeneutics to all humanistic disciplines. He

believed that hermeneutics could provide a common methodological basis for all the
humanities, including everything from literary criticism to sociology. Dilthey made a
distinction between the human sciences and the natural sciences. To Dilthey, while
the natural sciences can be explained, the human sciences can be understood.
Hermeneutical understanding was considered by Dilthey as the effort to understand
the meaning of the text, which was written by someone else.

As a result of his objective-idealist approach to text, Betti triggered new discussion

in hermeneutic tradition. Betti, like Dilthey, accepts that knowledge is not a passive
mirror of reality; its objects are determined by the way we comprehend them. Betti
considers ‘objective interpretation’ as the only valid form of interpretation and the
82
best rendering of the term may be ‘interpretation’.

With Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), twentieth century Hermeneutics is no longer

concerned with the understanding and interpretation of written documents or speech.
Twentieth century Hermeneutics moves from the epistemological arena into the area
of ontology. This means that we are not concerned with understanding something;

81
Diltey, W., (1976) Selected Writings, ed. H. P. Rickman, p. 235.
82
For further information Betti’s objective interpretation see: Josef Bleicher, (1980) Contemporary
Hermeneutics London, Boston and Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp. 27-31.

52
 83
rather understanding is grasped, as we exist in the intellectual activity.

Bultmann and Karl Barth apply Heidegger’s existential hermeneutics. Both agree
that Biblical interpretation ought to be more than the purely historical and
philological analysis of biblical text; both scholars emphasize the faith response
provoked by the texts as the primary concern of the biblical interpretation.

Bultmann accepts Heidegger’s analysis of the hermeneutical circle and stresses that
exegesis without presupposition is impossible. Moreover, he followed Heidegger’s
existentialist concerns and language by demanding that the act of biblical
understanding ought to become an act of eschatological decision for Christian life.
His particular phrase ‘ demythologisation’ aims at translating into a modern horizon
those biblical passages, which reflected the world-view of a past era and therefore
were no longer able to challenge the self-understanding of the modern reader. Thus,
he suggests that we should not ignore the mythological parts of the Bible, but we
84
interpret them.

Gadamer’s contribution to Hermeneutics is the concept of “ philosophical

hermeneutics”, which has been adopted and applied by numerous scholars.
Philosophical hermeneutics purposes to evaluate problems that arise when the reader
85
tries to understand a text. Gadamer is currently influencing biblical scholars by
drawing his attention to the need to interpret the biblical texts as works rather than
accumulations of individual sentences. His main emphasis is that reading biblical
texts cannot be considered a neutral activity; rather, it participates in the effective
86
history of these texts.

The central conclusion that comes from this brief survey is that the Hermeneutic
tradition in modern biblical studies attempt to liberate Biblical interpretation from
dogmas. In the hermeneutic tradition there was a theological and doctrinal conflict

83
Jeanrond, Werner G., Ibid: 283.
84
Ibid: 284.
85
Busges, Michael J. (1999) “Hans-George Gadamer”, p. 417.
86
Jeanrond, Werner G., Ibid: 284.

53
between historical criticism and the dogmatic tradition of the church. Historical
reading of the Bible originated in the opposition between church dogma and the new
liberal political philosophy of emergent modern Europe in the seventeenth century.
This in turn led to a concerted effort in the eighteenth century to uncover the original
message of Jesus apart from church tradition. Historical criticism in the
Enlightenment tradition relies on rational, scientific investigation to reveal the
content of scripture. However this kind of criticism is under the attack of
postmodernism which refute all Enlightenment and modern values. According to
postmodernism, it is impossible to be absolutely objective and to exercise a
disinterested awareness, uncover the facts, and achieve the true meaning.

Biblical studies, in the second part of the twentieth century, have tended to be in
dialogue with various contemporary literary critical theories which are concerned
with such questions as the cultural and historical context of the Bible, the meaning
and significance of the sacred text, its structure, the relations between the reader and
the way of reading the sacred text.

This chapter will examine some of the crucial applications of critical methods to
Biblical studies. We will investigate the Biblical applications of contemporary
critical theories around the concepts of author, text and reader. It is not our purpose
87
here to provide a precise investigation. That has been well done by several scholars.
Rather, we shall chiefly introduce the well known applications, bibliographic
resources, main figures and some discussions dealing with the application process.

87
For instance see: Schwartz, Regina, (1990) The Book and the Text; the Bible and Literary
Criticism Cambridge: Basil Blacwell; John Barton, (1998) Biblical Interpretation Cambridge:
University Press.

54
2.1. MODERN CRITICAL THEORIES IN BIBLICAL STUDIES

2.1.1. Author-Based Approach in Biblical Studies

2.1.1.1. Historical Criticism

Historical Criticism is simply the study of literature which purports to convey

historical information and attempt to read the text in such a way as to bring out its
inner coherence, the techniques of style and composition used by the author in order
to determine “what actually happened”. As the Bible is a collection of ancient books
written at different times, for different purposes, in different social context and by
different authors, Historical Criticism is interested in the meaning, which is
constituted by authorial intention, genetic contexts, and the original readers of the
Bible. 88

Biblical scholars use the historical critical method on the Bible to discover truth and
explain what really happened. The method uses secular sciences, such as
numismatics, epigraphy, archaeology, and comparative analysis of the contemporary
ancient documents. In the issue of canon, for example, the boundaries of the canon
are not the boundaries of the source material for Israelite or early Christian history.
Extra-biblical literature is the basis of chronology, archaeology illuminates the daily
life and cultic fixtures of ancient Israel and inscriptions give the course of world
history.

Some scholars criticised the applications of the historical critical approaches to the
literature in several aspects. One of the most crucial criticisms was the relation of
historical criticism with Enlightenment that claims ‘the neutral, scientific pursuit of
truth by a disinterested scholars’. Secondly, contrary to the aim of historical criticism

88
Vorster, W.S. (1991) “Historical Criticism”, p. 18.

55
to recover the original meaning and intention of the author, the contemporary
argument has been advanced that a text may have an implicit meaning going far
89
beyond the author’s intention, that can only be understood by a later audience.
Thirdly, historical criticism does not produce adequate understanding of documents
as literary wholes, since it concentrates on the pre-literary history of the text, and
90
tends to ignore its post-history. Finally, the critics put themselves into the past, and
91
they criticise the past with their own historical perspective.

There are many types of criticism that together make up the historical critical
tradition peculiar to Biblical studies. Textual criticism, for example, seeks to
establish an accurate text and has two purposes. The first is to reconstruct the original
version of a book and the second is to interpret the documentary evidence of that
book. The main concern of Source criticism is to determine the source that lies
behind a particular text. Whereas both textual criticism and source criticism look to
the Bible as a written document, Form criticism considers that the Bible is an
expression of human experience with its own oral preliterary period. Written in the
language of human beings, the Bible is subject to the laws of the communication of
92
human experience. Biblical Criticism in the last century was preoccupied with the
sources of the Gospels, chiefly the synoptic gospels. The centre of interest in Biblical
criticism is moving from source criticism and form criticism to an examination of
what happened at the final stage in the composition of the Gospels. Redaction
criticism looks at the Gospel as complete documents and sees the individual
comments of writers/authors/evangelists, their editorial links and sumaries, and
generally at the selection, modification and expansion of the material they use in
93
order to discover how each writer understood, interpreted and edited the text.

89
Nations, Archiel, (1986) “Historical Criticism and the Current Methodological Crisis”, pp. 61-
62.
90
Ibid: 62.
91
Bryan, Christopher, ( 1992) “The Preachers and Critics; Thoughts on Historical Criticism”, pp.
37- 53.
92
Collins, Raymond F., (1983) Introduction to the New Testament, p. 156.
93
For further information see: Smalley, Stephen S., (1985) “Redaction Criticism”, p. 181-182.

56
The common feature of above criticism is that they are the part of the historical
criticism that promotes an author-based approach. However, twentieth century
literary critical theories characteristically, as shown in the first chapter, have rejected
authorial control and has promoted the autonomy of the text and the role of the
reader in the reading process. This is the second most crucial shift in the history of
Biblical interpretation. Thus, in attempting to bring together two disciplines with a
divergent aims, the pioneers of interdisciplinary approaches in Biblical studies have
created a new way of interpretation of the Bible.

2.1.2. Text-Based Theories in Biblical Studies

2.1.2.1. New Criticism and Formalism

During the beginning of twentieth century, literary criticism has shifted its focus of
attention from the author, the redactor and the source of the text to the text itself. A
parallel movement can be traced in Biblical studies.

Amos Wilder and Nathan A. Scott are often credited with being pioneers to
intertwine the literary criticism and Biblical studies as a distinct field of study. They
especially appealed to New Criticism in dealing with the Biblical text. T. S. Eliot was
crucial figure in development of the New Criticism and also the interdisciplinary
work of Wilder and Scott. In his essay, “Religion and Literature”, Eliot claimed that
“literary criticism should be completed by criticism from a definite ethical
94
theological standpoint”.

As a matter of fact, Biblical studies has methodological similarities to New Criticism

that promotes reading the Bible as a final corpus or canonical form of the text, which

94
For further information see: Mills, Kevin, (2001) “Literature and Theology”, p. 392.

57
is Canon Criticism. Brevard Childs rejects critical theory in Canon criticism.
Childs’s approach insists that historical critical methods must be replaced by literary,
synchronic analysis. Thus he employes techniques that are similar in some respect to
New Criticism. Nevertheless Canon criticism and critical theories always have
95
inhabited the same cultural environment, similarities might be possible.

As we have seen, New Criticism treats a work of literature as a self-contained, self-

referential artefact rather than basing their interpretations of a text on the reader’s
response, the author’s stated intentions, or parallels between the text and historical
contexts. The work of H. W. Frei, The Eclipse of biblical Narrative illustrates the
point. Frei purposes to find correct way to read the biblical text not as a source of
information but as narrative. In the discussion on Genesis 1-2, if we give an example,
the chapters have been read some times as a historically accurate account of the
creation and sometimes it has been suggested that they are not really historical
account at all, but ‘a way of saying’ that God is creator. Frei in this discussion find
both sides in the wrong. According to him, both sides make the mistake of supposing
that Genesis must lie in the information whether historical or theological. In fact
96
Genesis does not lie in ‘information content’ at all, but in narrative character .

2.1.2.2. Structuralism

As we observed in the first chapter, structuralism is the application of principles

derived from certain movements within linguistics to other areas of discourse. The
emergence of structuralism from the model of language proposed by Ferdinand de
Saussure eventually affected Biblical studies. In Britain, the anthropologist Edmund
Leach published a structuralist reading of Genesis in 1969, while, in America,
Structuralism-inspired readings of Biblical texts were produced by Daniel Patte and
John Dominic Crossan in the 1970s.

95
For further discussion see: John Barton, (1984) Reading the Old Testament: Method in Biblical
Studies, pp. 140-154.
96
Ibid: 159-164.

58
In the context of Biblical interpretation, structuralism has contributed most
significantly to the understanding of narrative. As far as biblical narrative is
97
concerned, structural exegesis resemble either Propp’s or Levi Strauss’s methods.
Roland Barthes was one of the first to apply the method deriving from Propp to
Biblical narrative. His essay entitled “The Struggle with Angels” was one of the most
celebrated examples of structuralist literary criticism. In his earlier essay “An
Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives”, Barthes asserted that all
narratives obey a fundamental narrative grammar. In “The Struggle”, Barthes
attempted to test the implications of this grammatical approach in the context of
biblical narrative.

Whereas Barthes was influenced by Propp, Edmund Leach, the second important
scholar, used the method deriving from Levi-Strauss in his Genesis as Myth (1969).
Leach used Levi-Strauss’ structural analysis of myth in order to highlight the
permanent mythical structures behind Genesis. Leach asserted that myth has a binary
and opposition structure. Gods and man, mortal and immortal, male and female,
98
good and bad are common to structural system of Genesis.

Structural analysis of the Bible has tended completely to ignore the historical and
diachronic aspect of biblical narratives. They, in fact, have neglected the referential
dimension of historical narratives and the relationship between text and reality in the
Bible.

Structuralism, on the other hand, allows the reader to see the Bible as a whole, rather
than as a series of separate collections and compositions from different periods of
history. In The Great Code, Northrop Frye, for example, discovers the unity within
the structure of the Bible. From the beginning of the creation of the world and ending
with its final transformation, the Bible, tells the story of Adam and Israel, using the
recurring concrete images of city, mountain, river, garden, tree, bread, and wine. The

97
Stibbe, Mark, (1990) “Structuralism”, pp. 650-651 .
98
Ibid: 652-653.

59
general form is a series of falls and restorations, misfortunes and misunderstandings
leading to devastating consequences which end in a happy outcome. This is the form
99
of the whole Bible from the fall of Adam to the access to Jerusalem.

2.1.3. Reader-Centred Theories in Biblical Studies

2.1.3.1. Post-Structuralism

The most important advocate of the poststructuralist and deconstructive Biblical

studies is the works of Moor in his Mark and Luke in Post-structuralist
Perspective100 and Post-structuralism and New Testament101 and in Seeley’s
Deconstructing the New Testament102. Post-structuralist approaches to the Bible are
illustrated in succeeding applications.

2.1.3.2. Reader-Response Criticism

Reader-Response and Reception Criticism have been developed with theoretical

works of Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser. Jauss regards the process of
reception in the past as highlighting how texts are received in any age and hence also
in our own. Iser uses Reader response criticism to read contemporary textual
reception. Iser’s theory centres on the existence of gaps in the text. There are all the
places where the reader has to supply the links between episodes, passages,
paragraphs, or other units of text to invent in his own mind of assumption and
convention. The reader is not as in structuralism, trying to establish how the text
scientifically works. The reader will read the text within the context of expectations.
The reader is not passive but active and constructive. In the context of biblical

99
Davies, Margaret, (1990) “Literary Criticism”, p. 404 .
100
S. D. Moor, (1992) Mark and Luke in Post-structuralist Perspective, New Haven and London.
101
S. D. Moor, (1994) Post-structuralism and the New Testament: Derrida and Foucault at the
Foot of the Cross, Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
102
D. Seeley, (1994) Deconstructing the New Testament, Leiden: Brill.

60
interpretation, Reader response criticism suggests that to understand, the reader can
begin to fill in the gaps because literature in the Bible does not simply tell us all
103
about the past age or its social conditions, but allows us to experience them.

As an example in biblical interpretation, John Barton attempts a reader response

criticism on Eccles 8. Verses 10-13 speaks of god’s coming destruction of the
wicked and his reward for the righteous: ‘though a sinner does evil a hundred times
and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God…but it
will not be well with the wicked’. Verses 14-15, on the other hand note that ‘there
are righteous men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and
there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous’;
and accordingly the author commends enjoyment, ‘for man has no good thing under
the sun but to eat, and drink, and enjoy himself. Finally verses 16-17 argue that it is
impossible to find out the work of God ‘that is done under the sun. According to
Barton, the gaps are understood from different perspectives. “Source critics”, for
instance, “would use it to argue that the book was originally composite”; “form
critics” on the other hand, “would examine the oral history of each of the units”; or
structuralism considers it part of the whole literature. But the Reader response critic,
Barton suggests, would differ from them all in not seeing the book’s inconsistencies
as a problem in any case. “The text is a kind of exercise for the reader, who has to
104
interpret it as coherent in spite of its gaps.” Barton continues:

In Eccles. 8 we might attempt a reader-response

interpretation as follows. There appear to be gaps between
the three pericopes analysed above, which make mutually
incompatible points about human life and destiny. As
competent readers, however, we can extract from this
confusion (whether we call it apparent or real does not much
matter) a coherent ‘message’, by looking for a larger context
of our own in which all three sections would make sense. We
live as people with a commitment to doing 'good', whatever
exactly that means, and we need to do good as though God,
the universe, or whatever we choose to call it favours well-

103
Davies, Margaret, (1990) “Reader-Response Criticism”, p. 578.
104
John Barton, Reading the Old Testament, pp. 214-215.

61
 doing over ill-doing. We cannot think of the difference
between good and evil as a matter of mere indifference. At
the same time, we may well be sceptical about the real
ultimate destiny of mankind, for we know that ‘all go to the
same place’, and we do not know whether there is more to be
said, or whether death is absolutely the end. And for living
our life, the best recipe is to live as though morality made a
difference, while acknowledging that we do not know
whether this is really so or not, and to accept the
mysteriousness of the moral and metaphysical order, for
‘even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it
out’.

It is the nature of the Reader Response criticism to concentrate on the text which has
gaps in its argument and failures in connection between sections. But this makes this
criticism sound like a technique for handling this kind of difficult text. Reader
response criticism also promotes not what meanings we ought to find in obscure
texts, but how we find meaning in any texts and how we remove our naive
105
assumption that our reading is dictated by the text we read.

2.1.3.3. Liberation Theology

The Bible is one of the basic sources of liberation theology. This is certainly the case
in South African and African American black theology, and Latin American
liberation theology. The Bible is read as a narrative of liberation. For the poor and
oppressed people, in particular, the Bible is not only a strategic tool for liberation but
also the source of God’s liberation project. God, according to Liberation Theology, is
on the side of those who are oppressed in society. In the Old Testament, God takes
side with the exploited against pharaohs and removes the Jews from Egyptian
oppression. Similarly, in the New Testament Jesus regards the poor and oppressed
people as the main addressees of his message. In this attempt to understand the
meaning of the biblical message, there is a hermeneutical circle, a dialectical

105
See further information; John Barton, Ibid: 180-219.

62
 106
relationship between the poor and the world.

107
However, in the well-known anecdote , it is illustrated that the Bible occupies a
central position in the process of oppression and exploitation as follows: “when the
white man came to our country he had the Bible and we had the land. The white man
said to us ‘let us pray’. After the prayer, the white man had the land and we had the
Bible… and we got the better deal”. This anecdote also illustrates that the oppressor
and the oppressed people had been sharing the same Bible and the same faith. The
main distinction between them is the experience of oppression in the struggle for
liberation.

2.1.3.4. Feminist Criticism

Feminist criticism seeks change for the better in terms of justice for women and tries
to remove the androcentrism, which defines males and their experiences as the
normal and neutral criterion and females and their experiences as a variation on or
108
even deviation from that standard. Feminist Criticism of the Bible started in the
nineteenth century with the appearance of The Women’s Bible (1890) as a result of
pioneering work of Elizabeth Candy Stanton. Social and political progress, Elizabeth
Candy Stanton believed, would never occur without an equivalent liberation for
109
women from dominant and oppressive scriptural images.

It was only after the 1960s that feminist studies really appeared on the scene. Mary
Daly restarted the feminist criticism to the Biblical Interpretation in its new shape
with a publication The Church and the Second Sex which was soon followed by
110
numerous publications.

Feminist criticism of the Bible offers an alternative assessment of the biblical text as

106
Sherbok, Dan Cohn, (1990) “Liberation Theology”, pp. 396-397.
107
Quoted from: West, Gerald, (2002) “The Bible and The Poor”, p. 131.
108
Loades, Ann, (1998) “Feminist Interpretation”, pp. 81-82.
109
Sawyer, Deborah F., (1990) “Feminist Interpretation”, p. 231.
110
Nortje, S. J., (1991) “Feminism”, p. 272.

63
seen through the eyes and experience of women readers. Many feminist theologians
have thought that the misogynist attitudes towards women have their roots in the
history of biblical interpretation rather then in the biblical text itself. In biblical
exegesis, there is a tendency, in interpreting the creation of humans in Genesis, the
church fathers mostly blamed the first woman for the estrangement between God and
humanity so that Eve became the source and sign of original sin. Biblical material
concerning women was either marginalized or interpreted in this context. This
criticism is therefore focusing on women and the gender symbolism of the Bible and
the impact of gender on interpretation.

However, there are two main trends in feminist interpretation: the Radical tends to
reject the Bible and Christianity in favour of alternative, essentially feminine
religious experience. The most famous example of a radical feminist theologian is
Mary Daly. In her first book, written as a member of the Roman Catholic Church,
The Church and the Second Sex (1968), she examined the Church’s oppression of
woman. Daly was critical of the Church. She was in the hope for the liberation of
women. Mary Daly became increasingly radical. She began to move outside the
boundaries of the Catholic Church to express her changing theology. In 1973, her
second book Beyond God the Father was published. Mary Daly feels that
Christianity is a male structure designed by men for men. According to her,
‘patriarchy’ is simply ‘father-rule’, that is, the perspective of some powerful males
over some other males and over most women and children. She argues against this
111
as follows: “When God is male, the male is God’.

The Reformist whilst rejecting most Christian tradition about woman sees the Bible
as the means of reconstructing a positive Christian theology for woman. The best-
known reformist biblical scholars are Rosemary Radford Ruether, Phyllis Trible, and
Elisabeth Shussler Fiorenza. They attempt to go directly to the biblical text rather

111
Deborah F. Sawyer, ibid: 232.

64
 112
than the historical commentaries and traditions.

In her work God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality, (London 1978), Phyllis Treble
applied rhetorical criticism. She describes this method as both scholarly and intuitive.
She applied this methodology to the story of Eve in Genesis and she discovers that
Adam and Eve were co-operative and sharing in both sin and punishment. The
woman of the story is a ‘helper’. She ‘corresponds’ to the man in full
companionship. Thus Phyllis Treble finds meaning within these and other biblical
113
texts to help restart renewed relationships between women and men.

In the 1980s, in feminism as in other critical approaches, the mood changed. Firstly,
feminist criticism became more eclectic (Marxism, structuralism, linguistics and so
on). Secondly, it switched its focus from attacking male versions of the world to
exploring the nature of the female world and outlook, and reconstructing the lost or
suppressed records of female experience. Thirdly , attention was switched to the need
to construct a new canon of women’s writing by rewriting the history of the novel
114
and of poetry in such a way that neglected women writers were given new status.

In 1983, with her In Memory of Her, a Feminist Theological Reconstruction of

Christian Origins, Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza contributes to feminist interpretation
of the New Testament. She argues that revelation and authority are found in the lives
of poor and oppressed woman. This idea seems to be taken from liberation theology.
For her, early Christian history needs methodical reconstruction as women’s history,
and the biblical text is by no means related with human reality and history. She
rejects, therefore, not only patriarchal violence against and subordination of women
but also the near-eradication of women from historical and theological
consciousness. 115

112
Ibid: 232.
113
Ibid: 233.
114
Barry, Peter, ibid: 123.
115
Loades, Ann, ibid: 89.

65
2.1.3.5. New Historicism

Two theologians, Gordon Kaufman and Mark C. Taylor, have extended the
implications of new historicism to Biblical studies. Kaufman’s 1981 The Theological
Imagination and Theology for a Nuclear Age and Taylor’s 1982 Deconstructing
Theology and 1984 Erring: A Post-Modern A Theology. For both Kaufman and
Taylor, theology is a historical discipline in the sense that it builds itself entirely
116
within history and out of a history of thought.

117
William Dean says :

A new historicist theology would apply the interpretive

imagination to a particular religious history. Here the
Christian theologian would look not just at any religious
history, but also at the history of Christian scriptures,
institutions, and thought. And the Christian theologian would
look at that history not from an isolated interpretive
standpoint, but from a standpoint in conversation with other
Christian standpoints also naturally concerned with that
religious history. The same conditions would apply to a
Hebrew, a Native American, a Buddhist, or other religious
thinker…

Since the 1970s, there have been some critical approaches to the biblical text and
archaeological materials. The first new historicist approach to the writing of such
histories appeared in Thomas L. Thompson’s book on the so-called patriarchs: The
Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives: the Quest for the Historical Abraham
(Berlin 1974) and Early History of the Israelite People: from the Written and
Archaeological Sources (Leiden 1992). There are a lot of books that contribute to
laying the foundations of a New Historicist approach to reading the Bible. For
example, Neels Peter Lemche, Early Israel: Anthropological and Historical Studies
on the Israelite Society Before the Monarchy and ancient Israel: a new History of
Israelite society (Leiden 1985) and John Van Seters Abraham in History and
Tradition (New Haven and London 1975) and In Search of History: Historiography

116
Dean, William, (1988) History Making History: the New Historicism in American Religious
Thought, p. 15.
117
Ibid: 17.

66
in the Ancient World and the Origins of Biblical History (New Haven and London
1983).118

In these works, the Biblical narratives have been read as textual productions of
period. The Bible is now seen as the construction of writing in the Persian or Greek
period. The New Historians would challenge the belief in an ancient Israelite
domination of truth in the representation of its own history and they would seek to
correct this mistaken belief by introducing a balancing focus on what is left out of the
biblical text, what is silenced by it and also on what the material remains may be said
119
to indicate in relation to that text.

New Historicist approaches to the Bible seek to redress history in favour of the
silenced and repressed of history. For example, Whitelam says in his The Invention
of Ancient Israel (p. 220; cited from Carroll): “Palestinian history has been silenced
by an entity which in literary terms is entirely small”. It is for him a form of
‘retrojective imperialism ’, which collaborates in the Palestinians’ lack of their own
120
ancient history.

Conclusion

Modern biblical studies whose roots can be traced back to the Enlightenment and
Reformation attempt to liberate Biblical interpretation from dogma which centred on
an unquestioned acceptance of the Judeo-Christian understanding of God and to turn
their attention to the modern thought, in particular, historicism. Historicism , built on
the eighteenth-century rationalist attacks upon Christianity causes a sharp break in

118
Carroll Robert P, (1988) “Poststructuralist Approaches New Historicism and Postmodernism”,
p. 53.
119
Ibid: 54-55.
120
Ibid: 55.

67
the traditional history of interpretation. The prime task of criticism was the issue of
the origins of the Bible. Because of its concern for (historical) origins, Biblical
criticism eventually accommodated the term ‘historical criticism’. Historical
criticism sought to measure the meaning of Jesus’ message according to the
standards of Enlightenment morality and rationality. Biblical critics eventually
retreated from the claim that a neutral and objective inquiry of the Bible could be
disclosed by scholarly investigation. This has resulted in the creation of complicated
hermeneutical procedures. Historical criticism, however, is under the attack of
postmodernism which refuse the all Enlightenment and modern values. According to
postmodernism, it is impossible to be absolutely objective and to exercise
disinterested awareness, uncover the facts, and achieve the true meaning. But biblical
scholars have never utterly withdrawn from the confident assumption that the
historical discipline determines the standards of meaning and value that are used to
interpret scripture.

During the post-war period, as the second crucial break in the history of biblical
interpretation, there developed an influential school of secular literary critical
reading the Bible, whose main manifesto is reading the final text. Historical
questions about the origin and growth of the Bible are consciously rejected; attention
is focused instead on the text itself. The meaning of the text, it is argued, is not the
result of the intentions of the authors, or compilers, but is generated by the shape of
the text.

There are some advantages of literary critical theories to biblical studies. The
applications of text-based literary theories have caused more attention to be paid to
the texture of biblical literature. Structuralism, for instance, allows the reader to see
the Bible as a whole, rather than as a series of separate collections and compositions
from different periods of history. The application of literary criticism in biblical
studies, moreover, parallel to a development in literary criticism, has allowed more a
plural and individual set of responses to sacred texts and interaction between Bible
and the reader.

68
3. PIONEER APPLICATIONS IN QUR’ANIC STUDIES

Introduction

This chapter will investigate contemporary Muslim intellectuals who are pioneer
applicants of twentieth century critical theories and literary criticism in Qur’anic
studies. These terms are quite new in Qur’anic studies and not used in traditional
scholarship. That is not to say that there are no interpretative ideas in traditional
approaches to the Qur’an. Indeed, there are several interpretative activities usually
employed in the traditional methodology of exegesis of the Qur’an, by which writers
and theologians explore its ramifications as much as possible and make it
understandable to the reader. The tradition of Qur'anic interpretation emerged during
the first century of Islam. After the Prophet Muhammad’s death, his followers
encountered the hermeneutical problem of understanding the Qur’an. The first
generations of Islam generally sorted it out by referring to the Qur’an or Sunnah,
and, in the absence of these, they commonly used their religious experience and the
vast pre-Islamic literature, particularly poetry.

The two terms, tafs >r and ta’w >l, came to designate two distinct branches of the
general science of the Qur'an ( Ulu>m al-Qur’a>n). 121 Tafs >r122means, as a
technical term, the act of interpretation of the Qur’an. It includes the elucidation of
the occasion or reason for the revelation of a verse ( asba>b al-nuzu>l) 123, and its
story or historical reference. Tafs >r also determines whether a verse or passage
belongs to the meccan or medinan period of revelation, whether it is muh}kam or

121
See for further information: Ayoub, M, (1984) The Qur’an and its Interpreters, p. 20.
122
It is believed by some Western scholars that origin of the term, tafs✁>r is not Arabic. The verb, F-
S- R was borrowed from Aramaic or Syriac. See for instance: Arthur Jeffery, (1938) Foreign
Vocabulary of the Qur’an, p. 92.
123
Asba>b al-Nuzu>l deals with the occasions of the revelation of chapters or verses and the time,
place or circumstances of its revelation. For further information see: Andrew Rippin, (1985)
“The Exegetical Genre Asba>b al-Nuzu>l: A Bibliographical and Terminological Survey”
BSOAS, 48, pp. 1-15: Andrew Rippin, (1988) “The Function of Asba>b al-Nuzu>l in Qur’anic
Studies” BSOAS, 51, pp. 1-19.

69
mutasha>bih, naskh and mansu>kh124. Ta’w >l is the science of elucidating the
general as well as particular meanings of the words of the Qur'an. The difference
between tafs >r and ta’w >l, according to some commentators, is that tafs >r is
concerned primarily with the transmission (riwa>yah) of tradition, whereas ta’w >l
is concerned with the deeper comprehension (diraya>h) of the inner meaning of the
sacred text. 125

126
Islamic interpretative activities can be historically divided into four different
periods. The first activity of tafs >r, which is called the formative period, is the
introduction of paraphrasal, philological, grammatical, legal, narrative etc. sciences
in exegetical works. The second period consists of collections of exegesis that were
supposed to have originated with the Prophet, his companions ( as{h{a>b) and their
successors ( Ta>bi‘u>n). Ibn Jar✁>r al-Tabar✁> is generally accepted as the most
important scholar who established the classical period of tafs >r. His Ja>mi‘ al-
Baya>n is a collection of sources which is made up of reports transmitted from early
authorities.

Linguistic, narrative, legal, and allegorical methodologies are well-known in the

classical period. To start with, questions of vocabulary and syntax, lexical
explanations, grammatical analysis and an agreed apparatus of variant readings of the
Qur'an (Qira‘a>t) are raised. Then questions involving rhetoric are asked: how is

124
Naskh derived from the word ‘nasakha’ which carries meanings such as ‘to abolish, to replace, to
withdraw, to abrogate’. In technical language this term refers to certain parts of the Qur'anic
revelation, which have been 'abrogated' by others. The disciplines of Asba>b al-Nuzu>l and
Naskh have been significant elements in Us}u>l al-Tafs ✂>r in relating to the contextual and
background analysis of the Qur’anic text. For futher information see: Rippin “The Function”, p.
2.
125
Ayoub, Ibid: 21. Contemporary scholars use the terms, Tafs ✂>r and Ta’w✂>l, for the basis of
hermeneutical discussions. See for instance: Abu> Zayd, Nas}r H{a>mid, (1996)
“Ishka>liyya>t Ta’w✂>l al-Qur’a<<>n Qad✂>man wa-H{ad✂ >than” ✄slami Ara☎t✆ rmalar, 9, pp. 1-
23.
126
Historical classification of tafs ✂>r tradition is also, as Shuruq Abdul Qader Naquib pointed out in
her PhD thesis, The Meaning of Purity in classical Exegesis Of the Qur’an (Manchester
University 2003, p. 43) based on the formal literary features which distinguish the text from the
different periods as in the case of John Wansbrough’s diachronic typology that reflects the
development of the disciplines, namely haggadic, halakhic, masoretic, rhetorical and allegorical.
See Wansbrough, John, Qur’anic Studies, pp. 119-246.

70
repetition to be explained in a perfect book? Among the earliest works of this kind
were the tafs >rs of al-Farra>’ (d. 822) and Abu> ‘Ubayd (d. 838) entitled
respectively Ma‘a>n > al-Qur’a>n (the Meanings of the Qur'an) and Fad}a>'il al-
127
Qur'a>n (the Virtues of the Qur'an).

The main aspects of the Qur’an were specifically studied in the classical period.
Many statements and gaps in the Qur'anic narrative, for example, were filled from a
very familiar source: folklore/myths from the Near East in Narratives. In this type of
tafs >r are exemplified the works of the earliest commentators of this genre, such as
128
Muqa>til b. Sulayma>n (d. 767) and Muhammad Kalbi (d.763) . Legal tafs >r
material is arranged according to legal themes. One of the earliest examples of this
kind of tafs >r is that of Ibn Sulayma>n's Tafs >r al-Khams min al-A>yah min al-
Qur’a>n. This work deals with matters such as faith, prayer, pilgrimage, the conduct
of jiha>d, inheritance, marriage, divorce, inheritance, debts, and contracts. Ah}ka>m
al-Qur’a>n of Abu> Bakr al-Jassa>s (d. 982), al-Ja>mi‘ li-Ah}ka>m al-Qur’a>n of
Abu> ‘Abd Alla>h al-Qurt}u>b✁> (d. 1273) are well-known works in this category.
129
It should be noted that many of these tafs✁>r works would fit into more than one
category. Zamakhshar✁> (d. 1143)’s al-Kashsha>f, for example, deals not only with
the linguistic and rhetorical aspects of the Qur’an but also with theological issues,
and Qurtu>bi’s al-Ja>mi‘ is not only a legal tafsir but also discusses linguistic
issues. The genre of allegorical tafs >r is notable first for its near absence of
grammatical, rhetorical, legal, and theological discussions, and secondly for its
attempt to go beyond the apparent meaning of the Qur’anic text in order to give
hidden and deeper meanings. The Tafs >r of Sahl al-Tustar✁> (d. 896) is an early
130
example of this kind of genre.

Yet until the time of Muhammad Abduh, a scholar who lived at end of the nineteenth
century, the art of Qur'anic interpretation was mainly an academic affair. To

127
For further information see: Rippin, A, (1987) “Tafsir”, ER, p. 239.
128
For further information see: Wansbrough, J., (1977) Qur’anic Studies, p. 135.
129
For further information see: Rippin, A, “Tafsir”, p. 238.
130
See for further information: Rippin, A, “Tafsir”, p. 240.

71
understand a commentary required detailed knowledge of the technicalities and
terminology of Arabic grammar, Muslim law and dogmatics ( shari‘ah), as well as
the traditions of the Prophet and his contemporaries ( hadith), and the Prophet's
biography ( s >ra). As a result, Qur'anic exegesis became an exercise for the elite, a
practice reserved for a small group of academics. Consequently interpretation
became solidified and almost canonized.

There has been a pronounced need to re-interpret the Qur'an in the Modern period. A
crisis descended upon Islam in the encounter with the enlightened and more or less
secularized Europe of the 19th century. The Islamic world faced both a physical and
an ideological challenge. During that period Muslims no longer ruled their lands;
European colonialism encroached progressively on the Islamic world. The modern
exegesis of the Qur'an began, not due to academic problems, but to contemporary
world affairs. It is notable that modern interpretation of the Qur’an since the
beginning of the nineteenth century has been under the influence of Western thought.
131
The impact of Western science has been, Rippin maintains, “the major factor in
creating new demands and also the element of contemporary life to which much
early modern tafs >r made its response.” The Qur’an has always been regarded as
one of the sources of Islam. But in the modern period of Islamic intellectualism that
promotes the notion of the reinterpretation of Islam as the result of Western
132
influences, the Qur’an is the only source in reference to the new development.
Muhammad Abduh, for instance, presents the Qur'an in a practical manner to a wide
public, wider than the professional Islamic theologians, to show that the Qur'an has
solutions for the urgent problems of the day. His concern was,
To liberate [exegesis] from the shackles of Taqlid, to return,
in the acquisition of religious knowledge, to its first sources,
and to weigh them in the scales of human reason, which God
has created, in order to prevent excess or adulteration in
religion, so that God's wisdom may be fulfilled and the order

131
Rippin, A., “Tafsir”, p. 242
132
See further information about western impact on modern Muslim interpretation: Rippin, A.,
“Tafsir”, pp. 242-3.

72
 of the human world preserved... 133

With the increasingly literate public demanding answers to current problems, which
the traditional commentaries did not deal with, Abduh's commentary inevitably
became quite popular. Abduh’s exegesis is determined by "the need of the times."
Thus, for example, the interpretation in ‘Abduh’s reading of Sura 2:27 was to resist
134
Western domination, as Egypt was being occupied by the British at that time’.
Sayyid Qutb as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood is also a committed anti-
colonialist and anti-imperialist who seeks to revive a Qur’an-based “Islamic system”
(al-Niz}a>m al-Isla>m > ) that remained true to the cultural and social values
established by God and the Muslim consensus. Western imperialism, he asserts, has
created in the Muslim world a “new ignorance” ( Jahiliyya) that is characterised by
immorality, political corruption, and a servile reliance on Western paradigms.
Vincent J. Cornel explains the title of Qutb’s Tafsir, F > Z}ila>l al-Qur’a>n (in the
Shade of the Qur’an) as an indication of protection from these destructive
135
influences.
Because of the influence of Western technology and culture, 19th and 20th century
Muslim exegetes were forced to focus, as Jansen points out, on three aspects of
interpretation:
- Scientific exegesis (tafs >r ‘ilm >) seeks to draw all possible fields of human
knowledge into the interpretation of the Qur'an; to find in the Qur'an that which has
been discovered by the sciences of the 19th and 20th centuries. They looked for
scientific evidence within the Qur'an, and sought to find parallels within
contemporary Western sciences.
- Philological exegesis is the science of discovering what words in the Qur’an meant
in the past, and what the author/God intended them to mean. In the philological
genre, the author intention principle (maqa>s}id) was only used by Muslims when
trying to derive what those in Meccan and the Medinan period had meant. Am✁>n al-

133
Quoted from: Hourani, (1988) Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age (1798-1939), p. 141.
134
Jansen, J. J. G., (1980) The Interpretation of the Koran in Modern Egypt, Leiden, E.J.Brill, p. 30.
135
Cornel, Vincent J., (1995) “Qur’an” in The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern World, p. 391.

73
Khu>l > got around the grammatical problems by maintaining that the Qur'an came
to humanity in an Arab costume, and therefore in order to understand it we should
know as much as possible about the Arabs of that time. He advocated a historical-
critical study of the Qur'an; suggesting one should first study the history, society, and
language of the people to whom it was addressed, and only then interpret the
136
Qur'anic verses in the light of these studies.

- Practical exegesis deals with seeking to implement the Qur'an in everyday life.
Practical exegesis became an exercise in explaining to what degree one should
tolerate Western influence on secular and religious life. Muhammad ‘Abduh was a
good example of how one could apply a practical interpretation of the Qur'an in the
world of his day. He believed that Islam not only had all the answers for humanity,
but could also adopt, through reason and Ijtihad, those discoveries which were being
evidenced within European and Western culture, providing a proper set of laws were
enforced by a just Islamic power. There will always be a need to interpret the Qur'an
for today, to explain how and where we can take its precepts and apply them to our
lives.

In parallel to modern developments in Muslim countries, Islamic intellectualism had

continued systematic attempts to reinterpret the Qur’an in the twentieth century in
ways which reflect the realities of modern Muslim intellectualism and politics. In this
period Muslim societies have experienced significant transformations. Under
Western influence Muslim countries followed a path of Westernisation and
secularisation as they increasingly adapted Western norms and models in politics,
law and education. In the light of Western values e.g. democracy, social justice,
freedom, gender and race equality, tolerance, human rights etc, the political and
social spheres need re-interpretation. Since 1980, new paradigms have been
intensively debated throughout the Islamic world. As a part of the academic and
intellectual interaction with the West a new kind of intellectual group has emerged.
These scholars are similar to and probably inspired by their Western counterparts,

136
Jansen, J. J. G., ibid: 66.

74
whom we have evaluated in the two previous chapters. These scholars have adapted
critical theories and methods as new hermeneutical models of understanding the
Qur’an. Their aim is to re-read the Qur’an in the light of modern textual and
philosophical disciplines, such as literary criticism, epistemology, hermeneutics,
structuralism and post-structuralism and to re-read the Qur’an asking the question,
not what, but how do we interpret.

In this chapter, we introduce Fazlur Rahman, Mohammed Arkoun, Nasr Hamid Abu
Zayd, Farid Esack, Fatima Mernissi, and Abdul-Karim Soroush their bibliography,
relevant works, and how they apply critical theories in their study of the Qur’an.
These names have been selected as representative of other applicants and because of
their important role in transmitting Western literary criticism to Turkey, which we
evaluate in the next part as a case study of this work. We will investigate their
position as the mediators of Western literary criticism to Islamic academia.

3.1. FAZLUR RAHMAN

3.1.1. Short Biography

Fazlur Rahman was born in 1919 in the Hazara district, which was then in undivided
India, and is now in north-west Pakistan. His father Mawlana Shahab al-Din was a
graduate of the Deoband school, and was thus considered a religious scholar with a
traditional madrasa education. Fazlur Rahman started his early education in
traditional Islamic thought under the guidance of his father. After memorising the
entire Qur’an in his tenth year, Rahman continued with studies in Arabic, Persian,
Rhetoric, Literature, Aristotelian logic, Philosophy, Islamic theology (Kalam), Law
(Fiqh) Hadith and Tafs >r (Qur’anic Exegesis). When he was fourteen years old, in
1933, his family moved to Lahore where he went to a modern school.

Fazlur Rahman received his B.A in 1940 and M.A. in 1942 from Penjab University.
He later studied at Oxford University under Professors S. Van den Bergh and H.A.R.

75
Gibb, and completed his Ph.D. in 1949 with a thesis on the medieval philosopher Ibn
Sina. The thesis was published by Oxford University Press as Avicenna’s Psychology
in 1952.

In the 1950s, Rahman taught first at the University of Durham in England, and later
at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Soon after arriving at McGill, Rahman
published Prophecy in Islam , which drew on his Oxford philosophical and
theological studies, in addition to classical Islamic texts and major Western
137
philosophical texts and commentaries in Greek, Latin, German, and French.

During his education and teaching in England, Fazlur Rahman realized there was a
gap between traditional Islamic and modern education. As a result of this conflict,
he 138 confessed to “an acute scepticism brought about by the study of philosophy”,
which finally shattered his traditional beliefs. After completing his PhD at Oxford,
Rahman continued his research in the history of Islamic prophecy. The result of this
research was a book, Prophecy in Islam , which treated critically, in its historical
setting, the doctrine of prophecy developed by Muslim thinkers. When preparing this
work, Fazlur Rahman delved into Muslim Peripatetics (Mashsha>iyyu>n). He again
came across conflict between their doctrine and that of such orthodox scholars as al-
139
Ash‘ar >, al-Ghaza>l > and Ibn Taymiyya:

In 1956, I wrote a book entitled Prophecy in Islam, in which

I discussed the head-on collision between the views of
traditional Islamic theologians and those of Muslim
philosophers who derived their theories on the nature of
religion from the precept of Greek philosophy. The
philosophers were intellectually clever, excelling in subtlety
of argument, but their God remained a bloodless principle- a
mere intellectual construct, lacking both power and
compassion. Although intellectually less skilful, the
theologians were nevertheless instinctively aware that the
god of religion was a full-blooded, living reality who
responded to prayers, guided men individually and
collectively, and intervened in history: “He speaks and acts”

137
Denny, Frederick, (1981) “The Legacy of Fazlur Rahman”, p. 96.
138
Rahman, Fazlur, (1990) “An Autobiographical Note”, p. 227.
139
Ibid: 228.

76
 as Ibn Taymiyya so poignantly put it.

Rahman was, however, dissatisfied with both the philosophical and traditional
doctrines of prophethood. He rejected both of them. He realised that “while traditions
are valuable for living religions in that they provide matrices for the creative activity
of great minds and spirit, they are also entities that ipso facto isolate that tradition
from the rest of humanity.” Rahman then developed out of this predicament the
synthesis that “all traditions need constant revitalisation and reform”. There were, for
Rahman, two kinds of revivalist trends in Islam: one was concerned with the system
of beliefs and thus was theoretical and intellectual; the other was moral, practical and
140
thus activist. Rahman emphasised both the activist and intellectual revival.

As a thinker, Fazlur Rahman was interested in theological issues so far as they had a
contemporary relevance. This approach to contemporary Islamic issues can be seen
in his academic work, even during his teaching career at Durham University. He
published several articles and works which were devoted to the contemporary
challenge to Islam from ideas and social issues.

In the early 1960s Fazlur Rahman was called to Pakistan to head the new Institute of
Islamic Research in Karachi. He founded and for several years edited the journal
Islamic Studies and was intensely engaged in Islamic affairs in Pakistan, both as a
scholar and as an influential theorist of opinion and policy. When a new regime took
over the country in the late 1960s, Rahman was offered the opportunity to teach at
the University of California, Los Angeles; he moved there, with his family, in 1968.
In 1969 he was appointed professor of Islamic thought at the University of Chicago,
th
where he remained until his death on 26 July 1988, having made an enormous
141
contribution to Islamic and Western intellectualism and philosophy.

140
Ibid: 228.
141
Denny, Frederick, “The Legacy of Fazlur Rahman”, p. 97.

77
3.1.2. His Methodology

Rahman argues that the imperfection and imprecision of traditional Islamic

methodology cannot help us understand the Qur’an today. Classical and medieval
commentators on the Qur'an treated it verse by verse. Commentators have recognised
that the principle parts of the Qur'an interpret other parts. They have also written
numerous works on the methods or principles of Qur'an interpretation, which are
called Us}u>l al-Tafs >r. In the formulation of this science, Muslim scholars have
given great service to the understanding of the Qur'an, particularly in bringing out the
style and idiom of the Qur'an, and its literal and metaphorical use of the language, for
example in distinguishing verses that are of general import from those that are
particular in their meaning. These approaches, according to Fazlur Rahman, are
indeed essential for an understanding of the text of the Qur'an. Nevertheless we need
a hermeneutical theory that will help us to understand the meaning of the Qur'an as a
whole so that the theological sections of the Qur'an and the ethical parts become a
142
unified whole.

The theory of understanding the Qur’an as a whole is not a new issue of Islamic
intellectualism. Since the fourteenth century there has been an influential theory, ‘ Ilm
al-Muna>saba>t (the science of intratextuality) that views each surah as a unified
discourse. Badr al-Din al-Zarkash✁> in his Burha>n, and Jala>l al-Din al-Suyu>t✁> in
143
his Itqa>n mention the idea of the surah as unities.

Until the twentieth century, however, this theory was rarely used. Recently, Western
attacks on the coherence of the Qur’an have led to an apologetic defence. ‘Izzat
Darwaza, Sayyid Qutb, Mohammed Husayn al-Tabatabai, Elmal✁l✁ Muhammad
Hamdi Yazir and Said Nursi are the most important scholars in regard to the Qur’an
as unity. Darwaza in his al-Tafs >r al-Had >th, for example, tries to clarify how the

142
Rahman, Fazlur, (1986) “Interpreting the Qur’an”, p. 45.
143
For further information on historical development of the Science of Intratextuality, ‘Ilm al-
Muna>saba>t in Muslim Tafsir tradition see: Mustansir Mir (1993) “The Sura as a Unity”, pp.
211-224.

78
Qur’anic chapters, verses even passages are interconnected with each others. More
clearly, Sayyid Qutb discusses what he calls the mih{wa>r (central thesis) of each
surah. For him, every chapter has a central idea and is to be understood with
reference to it. Tabataba’i coined the term gharad (objective, purpose, intent) to
explain the central idea of the surah. More radically, Elmal l , a Turkish scholar,
claims that not only the suras but also the whole Qur’an has unity; the chapters have
not been put next to one another arbitrarily, on the contrary, the ideas continue in the
next chapter. Said Nursi, another Turkish-Kurdish scholar, maintains that the main
four ideas, that is unity of God , prophethood, eschatology , and worship, explicitly or
144
implicitly exist in every chapter, verse, even word of the Qur’an. Abdel Haleem’s
article 145, “Context and Internal Relationships” is a most recent example. The above
scholars, however, failed to provide a systematic, comprehensive application of the
theory of intra-textuality to the Qur’an, which gives rise to discussion on new
methods for the study of the Qur’an.

The modern application of the theory of the unity of the Qur’an and of its chapters,
although it is claimed that it originally belonged to Muslim intellectual tradition, has
however been indirectly under the influence of the West. Muslim scholars who
encounter the attack of Christian missionaries or criticism of Western orientalism are
146
trying to maintain a defence against the notion that the Qur’an is discontinuous.
Consequently the twentieth century in particular witnessed the publication of
commentaries which classified key passages of the Qur’anic text according to their
main subject and treated verses related to the same subject synoptically. In this
method, the exegesis of the Qur'an is not done verse by verse. On the contrary, it
seeks to study the Qur'an by taking up a particular theme from among the various
doctrinal, social and cosmological themes dealt with by the Qur'an.

Indeed, the modern application of the theory of unity to the Qur’an has another cause

144
Said Nursi, I✁aratul Icaz, pp. 12-13
145
Abdel Haleem, M.A.S., (1993) “Context and Internal relationships: keys to Qur’anic Exegesis” in
Approaches to the Qur’an, pp. 71-92.
146
Mir, Mustansir, ibid: 218.

79
in the twentieth century. It is notable that modern interpretation of the Qur’an since
the beginning of the nineteenth century has been under the influence of Western
147
thought. The impact of Western science has been, Rippin maintains, “the major
factor in creating new demands and also the element of contemporary life to which
much early modern tafsir made its response.” The Qur’an has always been regarded
as the primary source of Islam. But in the modern period of Islamic intellectualism
that promotes the notion of the reinterpretation of Islam as a result of Western
148
influences, the Qur’an is the only source in reference to the new development.

As part of understanding the Qur’an as a unity, for Rahman, it becomes essential to

understand the “ urf” (customs), institutions and the general way of life of the Arabs;
in particular, the situation in Mecca immediately before Islam. We must try not only
to understand pre-Islamic Arab religion but also, as we have said, their social
institutions, economic life and political relationships. The prominent role of the
Quraish and its religious and economic superiority among Arabs must be understood.
The Qur'an has therefore to be understood in its proper context.

During his PhD, Fazlur Rahman had noted the lack of historical thinking among
Muslim intellectuals. Fazlur Rahman maintained that the Qur’an should be studied in
historical order to appreciate the development of its themes and ideas; otherwise one
is apt to be misled on certain important points. One should then study it in its socio-
historical background - this applies not only to individual passages, for which there
were what the Qur’an commentators call ‘occasions of revelation’, but also to the
Qur’an as a whole, for which there was a background in pagan Mecca that can be
149
called ‘the occasion of the Qur’an’.

The formulation of Fazlur Rahman’s system of hermeneutics, according to his

147
Rippin, A., “Tafsir”, p. 242.
148
For further information about western impact on modern Muslim interpretation see: Rippin, A.,
“Tafsir”, pp. 242-3.
149
Rahman,Fazlur, (1976) Islam, p. 261.

80
 150
Turkish student, Alpaslan Acikgenc, falls into three periods. First is the crisis
period, which covers the time of his education until his early teaching career at
Durham. Second is the synthesis period, beginning in 1958 when he began teaching
at McGill and lasting until his resignation in 1968 from the directorship of the
Central Institute at Lahore. And third is the resolution period, which covers his
teaching career at the University of Chicago (1969-1988).

By the crisis period, Acikgenc means Fazlur Rahman’s becoming aware of conflict
between his early traditional education and the modern one. In order to solve this
conflict, Fazlur Rahman had suggested reform and revival in Islam. He would later
try to find out how Islamic tradition could be reformed. In the second stage (1958-
1968), he aimed to concentrate on solutions rather than developing a theoretical
formulation of his method. The first theoretical formulations of his methodology
were to come during his directorship of the Central Institute of Islamic Research,
Karachi (1962-1968). These methodological considerations first appeared as a series
of articles, which were collected later in a book entitled Islamic Methodology in
History. 151

Fazlur Rahman developed his methodology in the last period (1969-1988) with the
publication of his Major Themes of the Qur’an152 while teaching at the University of
Chicago. In a later work entitled Islam and Modernity, 153 Rahman theoretically
formulated his method. He suggests two main steps in the interpretation of the
Qur’an using historical methods. The first step is to understand the meaning of a
given statement by studying historical situations. The second step is to generalize
those specific answers and pronounce them as statements of general moral-social
objectives that can be ‘distilled’ from specific texts in light of the socio-historical

150
Acikgenc, Alpaslan, (1990) “The Thinker”, p. 239.
151
Rahman, Fazlur, (1965) Islamic Methodology in Histor,y Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute.
152
Rahman, Fazlur, (1980) Major Themes of the Qur’an Chicago, Minneapolis: Bibliotheca
Islamica.
153
Rahman, Fazlur, (1982) Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition,
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

81
background and the often-stated ratio legis. 154

Fazlur Rahman’s methodology, at the start, seems to fit into a category of modern
thought called “ historical criticism ” in Western literary criticism. As we introduced
155
it in the first chapter, historical criticism tends to place the documents in their
historical context and examines them in the light of their contemporary environment.
This is necessary for understanding, whether they are historical in character or
belong to another literary genre. The historical critical method is based on the
assumption that literature can only be understood through the objective study and
reconstruction of the original context.

Rahman suggests this approach in order to generalize the Qur’anic response to socio-
historical situations and to apply them to contemporary situations. This is, for him,
156
technically called “ ijtihad”. Yet Rahman believes that ijtihad is an essential
element in Islamic methodology and that its definition clearly demonstrates that
Islamic historicism predates the West’s development of the methodology. At the
157
same time, he expresses agreement with Western thinkers.

His discussin of riba> (interest) in the Qur’an is an example of his application of

158
historical criticism . According to Rahman the first statement of the Qur'an about
riba> occurs in the Surah al-Ru>m, which is wholly a Meccan revelation. The inner
evidence indicates that it was revealed during the fourth or fifth year of the Prophet's
mission, or even earlier, for the Persians began defeating the Romans in "the
neighbouring lands" (adna> al-ard}), i.e. Syria and Palestine, referred to in these
verses, in 611 A.C. (i.e. the first year of the Prophet's Mission) their campaign
reached its culmination (i.e. year 4 of the Prophet's Mission). It is not at all surprising
that riba> is condemned in so early a revelation; rather if such early condemnation
had been lacking it would have not only been surprising but also contrary to the

154
Rahman Fazlur, Islam and Modernity, pp. 5-6.
155
For further information see relevant pages in the first chapter.
156
Rahman Fazlur, Islam and Modernity, pp. 7-8.
157
Ibid: 8-9.
158
Rahman, Fazlur, (1964) “Riba and Interest” Islamic Studies, 3, pp. 1-43.

82
wisdom of the Qur'an. When Islam became politically dominant after the Prophet's
migration to Medina, riba> was categorically prohibited in the following words of
the Medinan Surah A< Ii-'Imra>n verse 130 : “0, you who believe, do not consume
riba> with continued redoubling and protect yourselves from God, perchance you
may be blissful”.

It is obvious, according to Rahman, that the interest which has been prohibited by the
Qur’an is that which is redoubling the original amount in the pre-Islamic world. But
in modern times, Rahman argues, interest is necessary in trade:

In the modern science of Economics the rate of interest

occupies the same place as price and performs the all-
important function that any price-mechanism performs, viz.,
of regulating the supply and demand of credit and rationing it
among the customers. If the rate of interest, i.e., the price of
loaning money, is reduced to zero, then we are faced with a
limited supply and an infinite demand. It would become
impossible to control the rationing of credit available, so to
say, and to assign priorities… 159

Rahman finds the solution through using mas{a>lih al-mursala in usu>l al-fiqh.
Landlordism, feudalism, profiteering and hoarding are surely much nearer to the
160
manifestation of riba> than bank interest.

Rahman’s methodology, he claims, is based on E. Betti’s hermeneutical theory,

161
which insists on objective study of historical/Qur’anic materials. This school was
already under criticism by Gadamer’s school. While an objective approach seeks the
original mind in order to understand the truth, a subjective reading suggests that all
experience of understanding presupposes a precondition. Thus, for Gadamer, there is
162
no objective understanding at all. For Betti, the meaning of a past text or
precedent, the present situation, and the intervening tradition can be sufficiently and
objectively known and the tradition can be fairly objectively brought under the

159
Ibid: 37
160
Ibid: 36.
161
Rahman Fazlur, Islam and Modernity, p. 8.
162
Ibid: 8.

83
judgment of the normative meaning of the past, under whose impact the tradition
arose. Thus, the tradition can be studied with adequate historical objectivity.

It is obviously said that Fazlur Rahman is familiar with the debate between Betti and
Gadamer. However, Gadamer in fact does not offer any methods to find out the truth;
163
he simply wants to illustrate a fact during the reading process. How does Rahman
stand against this argument? Without thinking of Gadamer’s caution about ‘historical
consciousness’, Rahman formulates so-called objective general principles and then
applies them to contemporary issues. Making general principles seems impossible
because one is reading the historical text from a different historical point of view.
Although the main aim is to re-interpret the text according to the challenges of our
times, how is it possible to carry these so-called “objective” interpretations to the
next generations’ challenges? When he reinterprets the Qur'anic verses touching
upon interest, women, etc, Rahman is very much driven by his own “effective
history” that led him to produce some projects in harmony with his history.

Besides, does Rahman really make objective historical inquiry into the Qur’anic
materials? He is not using secular historical materials, like archaeological evidence
or numismatics etc. to discover “what really happened” and the ultimate true
meaning in the Qur’an. In fact very little and limited material is available for the
study of early Islam and also they are all of questionable historical authenticity.
Instead, his theories have more in common with text-centred literary theories rather
than author-based methods such as historical criticism. A suitable term to describe
his approach is canon criticism or new criticism, which relies on the final corpus of
the text not the historical sources. Historical attention to the Qur’an in his writings is
there to demonstrate the fact that there is a contextual gap between the contemporary
context and the historical context.

3.2. MOHAMMAD ARKOUN

163
Gadamer, H., (1979) Truth and Method, p. 465.

84
3.2.1. Short Biography

Mohammad Arkoun, an Algerian Muslim scholar and intellectual, was born in 1928
164
in Taourirt-Mimoun of Kabylia. He began Arabic studies in his own country. In
1956, he completed his M.A. thesis in Paris. He taught in Strasbourg and in Paris
both in the Voltaire high school and in the Faculty of Arts from 1956 to 1959. He
joined the Sorbonne University as a research assistant in 1960. He completed his
165
PhD thesis about the Muslim philosopher, Ibn Miskawayh . He was Director of the
Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies and is presently emeritus professor of the
History of Islamic Thought in the Sorbonne.

Despite his Arabic cultural background in Algeria he seems to prefer French and
English to write his works. Almost all his works have been translated into Arabic by
other scholars; mostly by his pupil, Hashim Salih. The reason for preferring French,
as he pointed out, is the lack of philosophical expressions in Arabic. Lectures du
Coran 166, Rethinking Islam 167
and The Unthought in Contemporary Islamic Thought
168
are his best-known and most crucial works on reading the Qur’an. Rethinking
Islam, as one of his projects, re-evaluates Islamic culture from a new perspective.
The goal of the project is to develop a new strategy for the study of cultures. Arkoun
insists on a historical, sociological, and anthropological approach, not to deny the
importance of the theological and philosophical perspectives, but to enrich them by
the inclusion of the concrete historical and social conditions in which Islam has
169
always been practised.

164
Douglas, Fatma Malti, (1995) “Arkoun, Mohammed”, p. 139.
165
This thesis published in 1970 in Paris and translated into English under the title of L’humanisme
arabe au IV`IX`siecle: Miskawayh philosophe et historien.
166
Arkoun, Mohammed, (1982) Lectures du Coran, Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose; (1991) 2nd ed.
Tunis: Alif.
167
Arkoun, (1994) Rethinking Islam, Boulder, San Francisco, Oxford: Westview Press.
168
Arkoun, (2002) The Unthought in Contemporary Islamic Thought, London: Saqi books.
169
Arkoun, M., (1997) “Rethinking Islam Today”, Mapping Islamic Studies edited by Azim Nanji,
pp. 221-2.

85
 170
Arkoun started the “rethinking Islam” project with an article in 1970 in which he
asked “how to read the Qur’an?” He recommends the reading of the texts according
to the new epistemology introduced by modern linguistics and semiotics. That is not
to mean we can interpret religion merely as positivist historicism and secularism. The
project of rethinking Islam is basically a response to two major needs:

1- The particular need of Muslim societies to think about

their own problems, which had been made unthinkable by
orthodox scholastic, thought.

2- The need of contemporary thought in general to open new

fields and discover new horizons of knowledge. 171

Following the examples set by anthropologists who started the practice of “applied
anthropology”, Arkoun called another project “ applied islamology ” to suggest new
dimensions i.e. religious, social, political, anthropological, psychological and cultural
trends in Islamic studies. It is briefly a critical re-reading of the comprehensive
Muslim tradition, free from the dogmatic definitions of the existing literature on
sects, leading to a new mode of religious analysis and thinking that will integrate all
modern knowledge and science.

3.2.2. Applications of Structuralism in Qur’anic Studies: Surat al-Fatiha

and Surat al-Kahf

Arkoun theoretically explains his applications in Lectures du Coran. He explicitly

offers Semiotics and Saussurean linguistics, i.e. Structuralism, as a method
applicable to the Qur’an. Surat al-Fatiha and Surat al-Kahf are his case studies for
applying Western literary criticism.

Classic Muslim commentators employ several approaches in the commentaries on

surah al-Fatiha and surah Kahf, the historical, philological, etymological, theological

170
The first chapter of Lectures du Coran, which was published firstly in Le Coran by Kasimirski,
Paris: Flammarion 1970.
171
Arkoun, M., “Rethiking Islam Today”, p. 237.

86
 172
and juristical. With regard to the occasion and place of revelation of surah al-
fatiha, commentators have commonly asserted that it was revealed in Mecca, just
after the first revelation. They prove it with Hadith records under the name of
asba>b al-nuzu>l.

Regarding the names of the first surah, the traditional scholars suggest several names
reported from the Prophet. Among them are Umm al-Kita>b (mother of the Book),
al-Sab’ al-Matha>n > (the seven twice-repeated verses ), al-Ka>fiyah, al-Va>fiyah,
al-As{a>s{ (foundation), al-Shifa> (healing) etc. This shows the virtues ( fada>’il) of
the surah.

There is a historical debate on one particular verse of the Surah, Basmala. There is an
argument over whether the Basmala is a complete verse at the beginning of each
surah, part of a verse of the Fatiha or whether it is even a verse in the beginning of
the Fatiha. This debate has also been an issue between schools of Islam: should it be
recited loudly in the ritual prayer ( s}ala>t) or not?

The traditional commentators mostly rely on the historical usage of the Arabic
language in the Arab Peninsula when they explain terms, like H{amd, S}ira>t,
‘Alam >n, Ma>lik etc.

Whereas classical scholars bring forward a particular reason or occasion, Arkoun

advocates each verse as a part of the official closed corpus, the final form of
revelation, of the Qur’an. Unlike classical scholars, he does not seem to give any
credit to etymology and literary beauty; on the contrary, he regards them as
apologetic. Arkoun also sees that classical tafsir books are greatly involved with
ritual and theological context rather than with the meaning and structure of the surah
itself.

Arkoun’s methodology is considerably different from classical exegesis. He suggests

172
For further information see: Mahmoud Ayyoub, (1984) The Qur’an and its Interpreters, Albany:
State University of New York Press

87
the application of structural reading to the surah, and to the whole Qur’an. Arkoun
does not find other methodologies as reliable as linguistics since it is not under the
control of ‘explicit and implicit presuppositions’. For him this point has already been
173
proved by the experience of Biblical scholarship.

Arkoun suggests Saussurean linguistics i.e. Structuralism as a method that is

applicable to the Qur’an, instead of philology as used by the classicists. He gives
174
Izutsu as an example who has already applied part of structural reading: semantics.
According to structuralism, Arkoun asserts that meaning in the Qur’an is not in the
175
sentences or verbs but in the system of relationships in the Qur’an. This would
enable the reader, according to Arkoun, to see that the Qur’an is a whole. This, in
176
turn, will open the way for new readings.

Arkoun starts with the linguistics elements, the verbal system, and, finally the
syntagmatic structures. For Arkoun, the construction known as Id}a>fa in Arabic
grammar makes it possible to underline a close relationship between the syntax and
the meaning. He believes that classical scholars, such as al-Ra>d >, did not really
appreciate the philological value of ‘ a>lam✁>n. To him this word is Syriac and
Aramaic in origin. This explanation, as he admits, belongs to his friend, G. Troupeau.
This etymological approach is quite typical of traditional orientalism and as a matter
of fact it contradicts Arkoun’s structuralist approach. Here Arkoun charges classical
scholars with giving too much credit to the etymological approach and forgetting the
whole structure of the Qur’an. He too knowingly or unknowingly does the same.

His analysis of the Surat al-Fatiha remains more theoretical, as he does not provide
us with a satisfactory analysis but rather theoretical suggestions. Arkoun continues to

173
Arkoun, M., Lectures du Coran, p. 41.
174
Izutsu, Toshihiko, (1964) God and Man in the Koran: A Semantical Analysis of the Koranic
Weltanshaung, Tokyo.
175
Arkoun, M, Ibid: 5.
176
Ibid: 44.

88
 177
suggest his own methodology in the Surat al-Kahf.

Surat al-Kahf, the 18th surah of the Qur'an, means “The Cave”. Typically, Muslim
scholars give some information on the virtue and occasions of the revelation.
According to the classicists, the surah belongs to the Meccan period but also contains
178
some Medinan verses. “.

The Surah is identified by a story, which gives the name to the surah, “Companions
of the Cave” 179. In the Qur’an, the “Companions” refer to a group of youths whose
180
story is described as being among God's ‘signs’. Some orientalists believe that the
Qur’anic narrative has its roots in a story of Christian origins known as the story of
“The Seven Sleepers”. Making use of much material from the Christian oriental
tradition about the story, early Muslim commentators have attempted to fill the gaps
181
in the Qur’anic narrative. Tabari, for instance, gives considerable details.
According to Rudi Paret, the extra-Qur’anic variations, which fit Qur’anic exegesis,
are significant for the history of the transmission of the legend in pre-Islamic
times. 182

According to John Wansbrough, this kind of story provides a narrative framework

for lengthy commentary on the Surah.183 Rippin notes that such accounts “are
adducted, and thus recorded and transmitted, in order to provide a narrative situation
in which an interpretation of the Qur’an can be alive. The material has been recorded
184
not for its historical value but for its exegetical value…”

In the context of the Surah, Arkoun attempts to demonstrate the deficiency of

classical commentary and suggests an alternative methodology. According to

177
Ibid: 69-86.
178
Qurtubi, (1994) al-Ja>mi` li Ahka>m al-Qur’an, v.10, p. 346
179
This story is well known by the western people by the name of “Seven Sleepers of Ephesus”.
180
Paret, Rudi, “Ashab al-Kahf”, EI2, p. 691; A. J. Wensick, “Ashab al-Kahf”, EI1, p. 478
181
Tabari, Ibid: v. 15, pp. 219-220.
182
Paret, Rudi, Ibid: 691.
183
Wansbrough, J. Qur’anic Studies, p. 123.
184
Rippin, Andrew, (2001) “Literary Analysis of Qur’an, Tafsir and Sira: the Methodologies of John
Wansbrough”, p. 153.

89
Arkoun, the classicists implicitly affirm the primacy of standards in rhetoric, logic
and textual composition in the tradition of writing of the Arab Muslims. Traditional
commentators have employed the linguistic, literary, historical, hagiographic, and
mythical data gathered through intense multi-field activity (regional grammar,
philology, lexicography, biographies, stories, anthologies...) and have fixed the
framework and the principal explanations of all interpretative activity up to the
present day. Even the orientalists have been dependent on the data which has been
185
developed under the pressure of Muslim orthodoxy.

Inspired presumably by Wansbrough, Arkoun asserts that all the classics rely on a
186
narrative framework which Muqatil b. Sulayman records in his Tafs >r. Arkoun
says all these collections represent the process of organizing the thinkable under the
pressure and consensus of the orthodox discourse. Anything outside of orthodoxy is
rejected and cast into the field of the unthinkable. 187

Finally, we can conclude that Arkoun wants to shake the theological foundations of
Islamic orthodoxy, in order to introduce an unthinkable field to Islamic
intellectualism and academia. Thus, he suggests a critical re-reading of Qur’anic
verses free from the definitions of the existing classical literature.

3.3. NASR HAMID ABU ZAYD

3.3.1. Short Biography

Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd was born in 1943 in the village of Quhafa, which is near the
city of Tanta in Egypt. Abu Zayd started his early education by memorising the
entire Qur’an in his eighth year. He took Islamic Studies at Cairo University and in

185
Arkoun, Lectures du Coran, pp. 69-86
186
See for further information: Wansbrough, Qur’anic Studies, p. 122.
187
Arkoun, Ibid: 79.

90
1976, he took his MA degree in Arabic Studies. He then studied at the American
University in Cairo and at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1981, he completed his
PhD at the University of Cairo. From 1985 to 1989 he was a lecturer at Osaka
University in Japan and thereafter, in Cairo University as an assistant professor for
188
Islamic and Rhetorical studies.

Abu Zayd has published several works on the methodology of interpretation ( Us}u>l
al-Tafs >r) in Arabic. Al-Ittijah al-Aql > fi’t-Tafs >r 189 is his MA thesis and his first
190
book dealing with the way of reading the Qur’an. Falsafa al-Ta’w >l is his PhD
191
thesis and about Ibn Arabi’s reading methodology. Mafhu>m al-Nas}s{ is his
most famous and seminal book. Because he used the word text in reference to the
Qur’an in this book, Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd has had unpleasant reactions from the
authorities in his country. He was accused of heresy, dismissed from his post at the
University, forced to divorce, and deported from Egypt.

The court case for Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd took place on 14 June 1995 in Cairo’s
Shari‘a court. The verdict was that Abu Zayd is a heretic. As a consequence, it was
decreed that he should be dismissed from his academic post in Cairo University, and
that he should be separated from his wife since as a heretic he could not remain
married to a Muslim woman.

The Court gave as the reason for its verdict that he made fun of the Qur’anic verses.
The Court seems to regard as heresy his suggestion in Mafhu>m al-Nas}s} that the
Qur’an is a text and should be read as a literary text like any other. Let us read from

188
For further information about Abu Zayd’s biography see: Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd “H{aya>t✁>” in
Abva>b v. 25 2000, pp. 233-259; information also available online:
http://msanews.mynet.net/Scholars/NasrAbu.
189
Abu> Zayd, N. H., (1996) Al-Ittijah al-Aql✂ > fi’t-Tafs✂>r: Dirasa>h fi-Qad}iyya> al-Maja>z
fi’l-Qur’a>n ‘inda al’Mu’tazila (the Rational exegesis of the Qur’an) Beirut: Markaz al-Sakafi
al-Arabi, fourth edition.
190
Abu> Zayd, N. H., (1983) Falsafa al-Ta’w✂ >l: Dirasa>t fi-Ta’w✂ >l al-Qur’a>n ‘inda
Muh}yiddin b. ‘Arab✂ > (Philosophy Of Hermeneutics: A Study Of Muhiyi Al-Din Ibn 'Arabi's
Hermeneutics Of The Qur'an) Beirut: Markaz al-Sakafi al-Arabi.
191
Abu> Zayd, N. H., (1990) Mafhu>m al-Nas}: Dirasa>t f✂ >-Ulu>m al-Qur’a>n (The Concept of
the Text: A Study in the Qur’anic Sciences) Cairo.

91
 192
the court document :

Since according to all Muslims unanimously, when such

writings and words are said and committed by a Muslim
knowingly, that person becomes immediately an apostate,
then, if he was a preacher for such matters he is called a
zendeek (heretic) who is even worse than an apostate. … He
has even used his position as a university professor to teach
his students those lies about God's Book, and forced them to
study and understand such deadly information with all the
despicable descriptions…Those youths are in the process of
formation and influence, especially as they are influenced by
their ideals such as their professors. The Court therefore
finds that the faculty in which the defendant teaches and the
university are responsible for those books, and have the
ability to prevent such books that try to destroy the Islamic
doctrines... What the professor has written is not just
contravening with religion but is also in contradiction with
the constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt. Article 2
states that Islam is the religion of state, and therefore the
state is not a secularist state, nor atheistic state nor Christian,
and it is a Muslim state whose religion is Islam. Since the
Religion of the state is Islam then attacking its basis is an
attack against the state on which it is founded…

Abu Zayd and his wife have had to live outside his country in the Netherlands since
1995. He has been professor of Islamic Studies at Leiden University.

3.3.2. The Textuality of the Qur’an

According to Abu Zayd, rejecting the textuality of the Qur’an, the Muslim scholars
in al-Azhar University want to be the authority on Islam and manipulate the meaning
for political ends. Through such identification between political authority and the
meaning of the Qur’an, he claims, Islam becomes politicised. Scholars in al-Azhar
University were saying that “in all the history of Islam, no one uses in reference to
the Qur’an words other than what God himself used in the Qur’an. No one of the
‘ulama> has ever dealt with the Qur’an as text”. They meant that Abu Zayd neglects

192
The official court document was published in Abu Zayd’s web page in
http://.geocities.com/~Irrc/Zaid.

92
the holiness of the Qur’anic verses whereas he uses the term nas} (text) in the
meaning of the whole text of the Qur’an, which has been entirely recognised in
classical Qur’anic studies and modern Islamic thought.

According to Abu Zayd, ‘the Qur’an is the word of God revealed to the Prophet
193
Muhammad in plain Arabic language in the span of 23 years’ . What does he mean
by the term of word of God? Is it limited to the Qur’an? Instead, words of God, he
asserts, are infinite and non-exhaustible. Therefore, ‘if the word of god is impossible
to be confined whereas the Qur’an as a text is limited in space, the Qur’an should
only represent a specific manifestation of the word of God’. The word of God was
revealed to Muhammad through non-verbal communication, wah}y in a plain Arabic
language simply because God always considers the language of the people to whom
a messenger is sent. (The Qur’an 14/4). Abu Zayd, then, concludes that the word of
God cannot be limited to the Qur’an. In other words, Abu Zayd seems to disagree
with the assumption that the Qur’an presents literally and exclusively the word of
God. The Qur’an is then ‘one manifestation of the word of God inspired to Prophet
194
Muhammad through the mediation of the archangel Gabriel’.

On the other hand, the textuality of the Qur’an, Abu Zayd claims, does not mean that
it is a human text. However, as the Qur’an is one of the revelations and
manifestations of God’s words at a specific time and place, it should follow as
th
contextual that what was revealed to Muhammad in Arabic in the 7 century is a
historical text. Therefore, socio-historical and modern linguistic analyses, for him,
are needed for understanding the Qur’an. In fact Abu Zayd promotes the historicity
of the Qur’an not in order to apply author-intentional or contextual approaches,
195
despite his assertion, but in order to prove that the Qur’an is not eternal, but was
created in a certain context. By doing so, Abu Zayd eventually says that the Qur’an is

193
Abu> Zayd, N. H., “The Qur’an: God and Man in Communication”, p. 2. Paper delivered in a
lecture in Leiden 2000, downloaded from Abu Zayd’s web page: http://.geocities.com/~Irrc/Zaid.
194
Ibid: 2-4.
195
Abu> Zayd, N. H., “The Textuality of the Qur’an”, pp. 4-5 downloaded from:
http://.geocities.com/~Irrc/Zaid. The reason of his support of historical critical reading would be
against traditional scholars in al-Azhar University.

93
a text of a certain historical culture. It is implicitly said that the textuality of the
196
Qur’an is endorsed by the historicity of the text. He says:

Certainly it is a message from Heaven to the earth, but it is

no message independent of the rules of reality, with all the
structures in which this reality is embedded, and the most
important of these is the cultural framework. The absolute
reveals itself to humans by means of its speech, “it lowers
itself to them” (yatanazzal ilayhim) by employing their
cultural and linguistic system of meaning.

After humanizing the language of the Qur’an by insisting on its textuality and
historicity, Abu Zayd focuses on the other human dimensions in the content and the
197
structure of the Qur’an:

The human dimension is more obvious when we take into

consideration two facts. First, the Qur’an was revealed in
instalments, munajjam, and, second, the process of the
canonisation of the Qur'an depended on human manoeuvre.
Being revealed portion by portion, munajjam, the Qur'an
corresponded to the community needs and demands.
Demands of Muslims are reflected in the Qur'an by the
frequent occurrence of the phrase, “they ask you”
(Muhammad), yas'alu>naka (15 times)… Providing answers
to such questions, much of the legal aspect of the Qur'an was
gradually articulated, thus reflecting the dialectical
relationship between God's word and human interest

Abu Zayd, above, maintains that the dialectical relationship between the Qur'an and
the reality of the early Muslim community has formulated the Qur’anic contents.
198
Another aspect of the human impact on God's word is the process of canonisation:

Canonisation of the Qur'an included also the rearrangement

of the Qur'anic verses and chapters in their present order,
which is not the same as chronological order. The present
order is called tart >b al-tila>wa (order of recitation), while
the chronological order is called tart >b al-nuzu>l. It is
important here to refer to the impact of such rearrangement
in partially demolishing the historical and occasional context

196
Abu> Zayd, N. H., Mafhu>m al-Nas}s{, p. 64 (The English translation is quoted from “From
Revelation to Interpretation”, p. 176.
197
Abu> Zayd, N. H., “The Qur’an: God and Man in Communication”, p. 5.
198
Ibid: 5.

94
 of every portion of revelation, thus elevating the semantic
structure of it above the original reality from which it
emerged. Nevertheless, the original content of the Word of
God in its unknown absoluteness, I mean before it became
expressed in Arabic, is divine and sacred while its
manifested expression is neither sacred nor divine. Whether
one follows the Mu'tazilite doctrine of the 'creation of the
Qur'an', or prefers the Ash'arite doctrine, the conclusion is
the same: the Qur'an we read and interpret is by no means
identical with the eternal word of God.

What is the methodology of understanding the Qur’an as a text? Abu Zayd advocates
literary studies, arguing that if the Qur’an is a text it should be read as a literary text
199
like any other text. Navid Kermani claim that Abu Zayd’s literary study of the
Qur’an refers to a tradition of Muslim scholars like ‘Abd al-Jabb>ar, ‘Abd al-Qa>hir
al-Jurja>n > and the recent scholar Am >n al-Khu>l >. Apparently, he was also
influenced by Western critics and thinkers. Toshihiko Izutsu, Hans-Georg Gadamer,
200
and Russian formalist, Jurist M Lotman are documented and discussed in the
book, Ishka>liyya>t al-Qira>‘a wa-‘Aliyya>t at-Ta’w✁>l 201, which is a compilation
of his relevant articles.

Abu Zayd bases his attempt on traditional religious literary science and on modern
Western literary and hermeneutical theories. By doing so, Abu Zayd has continued a
promising project on literary exegesis initiated by Am >n al-Khu>l >. He, like al-
Khu>li and his school, advocates the Qur’an as a poetically structured text, a literary
202
monument and not just a list of Judgments or mere legal text.

Finally, it is worth mentioning his critique of dominant religious discourse which

affects academic and social life in Egypt. Abu Zayd puts forward a provocative

199
Kerma>n✂>, Na>vid, (2004) “From Revelation to Interpretation”, pp. 9-10.
200
Abu> Zayd translated two of his works into Arabic: Naz}ariyya>t h}awla al-Dira>sa>h al-
Simiyutiqiyya li’t-Thaka>fah and Mushkil al Luqta both published in Nas}r H{a>mid Abu>
Zayd and Siza> Qa>s}im (Eds), Al-Zima>t al-Ala>ma>t: Madkhal ila>-Simiyutiqa Cairo, 1986.
201
Abu> Zayd, N. H., (1994) Ishka>liyyat al-Qira>‘a wa-Aliyya>t at-Ta’w✄ >l (The Problematics
of Reading and the Mechanisms of Interpretation) Cairo.
202
For further information about his methodology and adaptation of western literary criticism and
hermeneutics see: Kermani, Nabid “From Revelation to Interpretation” in Modern Intellectuals
and the Qur’an Suha Taji-Faruki (ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press 2004, pp. 1-16.

95
critique in Naqd al-Kh{ita>b al-D >n > 203 He argues the plurality of exegesis and
204
rejects the authority and monopoly in Islam. He says:

This is a statement that is disproved by the history of Islam,

the history that was the witness of a diversity of directions,
currents, and groups that arose for societal, economic, and
political reasons and that formed their standpoints by
interpreting and trying to understand the texts. Whatever the
intentions of one book or the other, this insistence on the
existence of a single Islam and the rejection of the actually
existing plurality leads to two results: The first result is a
single, unchanging understanding of Islam, an understanding
impervious to the influence of the movement of history and
of the differences between societies, not to mention of the
diversity of the groups that take form within a single society
due to the differences between their interests. The second
result is that this unchanging understanding is possessed by a
group of people - exclusively the theologians - and that the
members of this group are considered to be free of the
arrogance and the natural bias of humans.

Abu Zayd’s determination in criticising religious authority, stressing the individual

experience in reading the Qur’an, reminds us of Mohammed Arkoun, Abdul-Karim
Soroush and Farid Esack.

3.4. FATIMA MERNISSI

3.4.1. Short Biography

Fatima Mernissi is a contemporary Moroccan feminist writer. She was born in 1940
in Fez. She studied political science at Mohammad V University and sociology in
Boston, Massachusetts. From 1973 to 1980 she was professor of sociology at the
University of Rabat and since then has been a member of the Research Institute of
Mohammad V University in Rabat.

203
Abu> Zayd, N. H., (1994) Naqd al-Kh{ita>b al-D✁>n✁> (Critique of Religious Discourse) Cairo.
204
Abu> Zayd, N. H., ibid: 30 (The English translation is quoted from “From Revelation to
Interpretation” by Nabid Kermani, p. 182.)

96
She has published in French, Arabic and English. Beyond the Veil Male-Female
Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society is a shortened version of her PhD
205
dissertation. Doing Daily Battle 206, The Veil and the Male Elite: a Feminist
Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam 207, Women's Rebellion and Islamic
Memory: Different Cultures, Different Harems 208 are well-known works. 209

3.4.2. Questioning Patriarchal Hadith and Tafsir literature

Feminism employs a particular mode of analysis, namely feminist hermeneutics.

Feminist hermeneutics focus on sociological and historical reconstructions of the
210
society behind the Qur’anic text, and also Hadith literature.

As a part of the feminist ideology, Fatima Mernissi believes that women’s rights are
a problem for some Muslim men not because of the Qur’an or the prophet, but
simply because those rights conflict with the interest of the males. In The Veil and
the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam ,211 she writes:

...if women's rights are a problem for some modern Muslim

men, it is neither because of the Koran nor the Prophet, nor
the Islamic tradition, but simply because those rights conflict
with the interests of a male elite...Not only have the sacred
texts always been manipulated, but the manipulation of them
is a structural characteristic of the practice of power in
Muslim societies... 212

Mernissi in the introduction of her The Veil and the Elite, as always, gives an
anecdote which taken place in the grocery with her school-teacher. The misogynistic
behaviour of males leads her to re-investigate the religious texts. At the end of her

205
Schenkmann Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1975, a revised edition: Indiana University Press,
1987 and Saki Books Publisher, London, 1985.
206
Rutgers University Press, 1989.
207
London: Blackwell, 1991.
208
London: Zed Books, 1996.
209
For further information see: http://www.mernissi.net/index.html
210
Woodhull, W., (1993) “Feminism and Islamic Tradition”, p. 27.
211
Trans. by Mary Jo Lakeland New York: Addison-Wesley, 1987
212
Mernissi, (1991) The Veil and Male Elite, p. ix.

97
deep studies of classical sources, she found Hadith literature a formidable political
213
weapon in Islamic culture in misogynist hands.

Mernissi accepts Abu Zahra’s source analysis on the Hadith literature. According to
him, the reasons for production of Hadith lie in material and ideological advantages.
Therefore, Mernissi says, “we must keep in mind the power struggles, conflicting
214
interests in a Muslim community…”

Tackling a record in al-Bukha>r >: “ those who entrust their affairs to a woman will
never know prosperity”, Mernissi aims to bring her historical-critical methodology
on the so-called authentic sources of Islam. She says:

So nothing bans me, as a Muslim woman, from making a

double investigation - historical and methodological - of this
Hadith and its author, and especially of the conditions in
which it was first put to use. Who uttered this Hadith, where,
when, why, and to whom? 215

She discusses the historical background of the Hadith. The first transmitter is Abu
Bakra who is a Companion of the Prophet and who spent enough time in his
company to be able to report the Hadith that the Prophet is supposed to have spoken.
According to Abu Bakra, the Prophet pronounced this Hadith when he learned that
the Persians had named a woman to rule them: "When Kisra died, the Prophet,
intrigued by the news, asked: “And who has replaced him in command?” The answer
was: “They have entrusted power to his daughter.” It was at that moment, according
to Abu Bakra, that the Prophet is supposed to have made the observation about
women.

In AD 628, at the time of those interminable wars between

the Romans and the Persians, Heraclius, the Roman emperor,
had invaded the Persian realm, occupied Ctesiphon, which
was situated very near the Sassanid capital, and Khusraw
Parviz, the Persian king, had been assassinated. Perhaps it
was this event that Abu Bakra alluded to. Actually, after the

213
Ibid: 34.
214
Ibid: 46.
215
Ibid: 49.

98
 death of the son of Khusraw, there was a period of instability
between AD 629 and 632, and various claimants to the
throne of the Sassanid Empire emerged, including two
women. Could this be the incident that led the Prophet to
pronounce the Hadith against women? AI-Bukhari does not
go that far; he just reports the words of Abu Bakra - that is,
the content of the Hadith itself - and the reference to a
woman having taken power among the Persians. To find out
more about Abu Bakra, we must turn to the huge work of Ibn
Hajar aI-'Asqalani

Mernissi reveals historical clarification, the political background, and the identity of
the conflicting parties in the Fath al-Ba>r > of al-‘Askala>ni. This Hadith, she
concluded, was not told by the Prophet, but produced by someone at the time of the
216
Battle of the Camel between Caliph ‘Ali and ‘A’isha.

Misogynistic interpretation of the Qur’anic verses by traditional scholars also,

according to Mernissi, needs historical re-investigation. Historical background,
occasions of the revelation and the practice of the Prophet are important in her
scrutiny. As an example, surah (chapter) 4, verse 34 is used as a focus for a debate
on gender constructions and violence against women. Traditional scholars analyse
several aspects of this verse: reflections on interpretations of qawwamun, which
provides the framework for the definition of gender, the definitions of the term
qanitat, which is used to describe righteous women, and constructions of the
217
nushu>z, the “disobedient” woman. Feminist scholars criticise them as having an
218
ideological bias in favour of patriarchal authority.

Mernissi is against such interpretations, which explain that nushu>z means a

rebellion by women, a refusal to obey their husband. “Beating a woman” was not
part of the Prophet’s tradition. Ibn Sa‘d who is often mentioned by Hadith
219
authorities, says: “The Prophet never raised his hand against one of his wives, nor
against his slave, nor against any person at all”. However, in Islamic tradition there is

216
Ibid: 50.
217
Surah Nisa>, 4/34.
218
See for feminist interpretation on this verse: Sa‘diyya Shaikh, (1997) “Exegetical Violence:
Nushuz in Qur’anic Gender Ideology” JIS v.17, pp. 49-73.
219
Ibn Sa‘d, Tabakat v.8, p. 204.

99
a contrary opinion represented by ‘Umar. Mernissi holds that Tabari and other
traditional ulama/authorities interpret that very problematic verse according to
220
Umar’s opinion, not according to the authentic message of Islam.

3.5. FARID ESACK

3.5.1. Short Biography

Farid Esack is a South African Muslim scholar. He was born in the Cape Town
suburb of Wynberg in 1959. At nine, he joined the international Islamic
fundamentalist-revivalist movement known as the Tablighi Jama’ah, an intensely
pious group. In these years, Esack’s Islamic faith was intense, personal and orthodox.
By the age of ten, he was a teacher at the local madrasa (Islamic school.). By the
time he turned fifteen, he had won a scholarship to attend a seminary in Pakistan.
Esack spent the nine years 1974-82 in Pakistan, where he studied a range of Islamic
and other subjects, qualifying as a Muslim cleric. He also completed his secular
education, gaining a degree in Islamic theology and sociology. Esack did his
undergraduate studies at Jami'ah Ulum al-Islamia and graduated from Jami'ah
Alimiyyah al-Islamia with a Bachelors Degree in Islamic Law & Theology. He did
post-graduate research in Qur'anic Studies at Jami'ah Abu Bakr (all in Karachi).

Some of Esack’s most important contacts in Pakistan were among the Christian
community of Karachi, which required him to make room in his theology to respect
and to value "the religious other". The Pakistani Catholics he met in the seventies
also introduced him to Christian liberation theology, at the core of which is the idea
that religious belief is most fully expressed in commitment to the political liberation

220
Mernissi, Fatima, The Veil and The Male Elite, pp. 154-160.

100
of the oppressed. 221

When Esack returned to South Africa in 1982, he and some friends, the best known
being his cousin Ebrahim Rasool, formed the religious-political group Call of Islam.
Originally a small discussion group for anti-apartheid Muslims who wanted to relate
their faith to their politics, Call of Islam grew into a significant sub-organisation of
the United Democratic Front. In 1990, Esack’s intellectual and religious side
asserted itself again. He left South Africa to read for a doctorate in Qur’anic
interpretation, spending the next five years in Britain and Germany, conducting
doctoral and post-doctoral research. Farid Esack completed a doctoral degree in
Qur'anic Hermeneutics at University of Birmingham (UK) in 1996, with his thesis,
Side-by-side with the other: towards a Qur'anic hermeneutic of religious pluralism
for liberation.222 In his thesis, Esack examines the question of religious pluralism and
liberation in the Qur'an as it emerged in South Africa during the 1980's through
223
Muslim participation in the struggle against apartheid. He is strongly influenced
by Christian liberation theology and by the sceptical, secular-minded, contextual
study of religion dominant in Western universities.

In 1994-95 he was a Research Fellow in Biblical Hermeneutics at the Philosophische

Theologische Hochschule, Sankt Georgen, Frankfurt am Main. In 1984-89 he was
the National Coordinator of Call of Islam As a person committed to inter-religious
solidarity for justice and peace and the struggle against apartheid, he played a leading
role in the United Democratic Front, The Call of Islam, the Organisation of People
Against Sexism, the Cape Against Racism and the World Conference on Religion &
Peace. He has been a regular political columnist for the Cape Times (weekly), South
African daily newspaper and a socio-religious columnist for Al-Qalam, a South
African Muslim monthly newspaper, Islamica, a British Muslim quarterly and
Assalaamu Alaikum, a New York-based Muslim quarterly.

221
For further information see: http://uk.geocities.com/faridesack/fewhoisfaridesack.html
222
This thesis was published in 1997 in Oxford under the title of Qur’an Liberation and Pluralism.
223
Esack, Farid, (1997) Qur’an Liberation and Pluralism, p. 83.

101
Formerly a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at the University
of the Western Cape, where he also directed a Human Science and Research Council
funded project on Religion Culture and Identity, he has delivered lectures at a
number of universities across the world, included Amsterdam, Cambridge, Oxford,
Harvard, Temple, Cairo, Moscow, Karachi, Birmingham, Makerere (Kampala) Cape
Town and Jakarta on various issues relating to Islam and Muslims in South Africa,
Islamic theology, politics, environmentalism and gender justice. After serving as
Commissioner for Gender Equality in the South African government for four years,
224
he is now Visiting Professor in Religious Studies at the University of Hamburg.

In addition to a number of articles published in different parts of the world, he is the

author a major work on Islamic Liberation theology, Qur’an, Liberation and
Pluralism (1996). He has also written On Being a Muslim: Finding a Religious Path
in the World Today (1999) and An Introduction to the Qur’an (2002). (All by
Oxford: Oneworld).

3.5.2. Liberation Theology and the Qur’an

Farid Esack proposes a methodology which sets out the process of interpreting how
different individuals and groups have appropriated the text, and he explains this
through his insights into reception hermeneutics. Reception hermeneutics, contrary to
historical positivism, which accepts fixed and objective meaning, sees different
receptions of the text, including present popular understanding of the text, as
225
concreticisation of its meaning.

Esack signifies his methodology by the term regressive-progressive . This means “to
discover the historical mechanisms and factors, which produced these texts and
assigned them such functions (= regressive procedure).” The process of revelation

224
For further information see: http://uk.geocities.com/faridesack/fewhoisfaridesack.html
225
Esack, F., Qur’an Liberation and Pluralism, p. 51.

102
of the Qur'an within a social context has to be examined and its meaning within that
particular (past) context comprehended. The principles of progressive revelation
(tadr >j), meccan and medinan revelations, occasions of revelation (asba>b al-
226
nuzu>l), and abrogation (naskh) are the tool of regressive procedure.

This process of understanding, however, operates within a (present) personal and

social context. Because these texts are an inseparable part of the interpreter’s identity
and active in his ideological system, we have to rework them in order to assign a
contemporary and contextual meaning to them (= progressive procedure ).
According to Esack, this dual process of regression-progression between the Qur'an
with its socio-historico-religious context and the community with its current socio-
political context is necessary for contemporary contextual understanding and
meaning to emerge. 227

Esack’s dual process of a regression-progression system and Rahman’s double-

movement approach at first sound similar. But if we focus more deeply on the two
processes, the differences will emerge. Objective reading of the historical text and its
adaptation to present issues is the main character of the Rahman methodology, Esack
on the contrary suggests understanding the Qur’an in its historical context, not in
order to confine its message to that historical context but rather in order to
understand its revealed meaning in a specific past context and then to be able to
228
contextualize it in terms of contemporary reality.

From this point of view his hermeneutical task derives also from Arkoun’s
methodology. According to Esack, “Arkoun’s ideas imply that there can be a class of
super readers, expert historians or linguists who will be able to access the true
229
meaning of a text”. As reception hermeneutics asserts, Esack claims, interpretation
and meaning are always partial, and every interpreter enters the process of

226
Ibid: 60.
227
Esack, F., “South Africa and Emergence of Qur’anic Hermeneutical Notions”, pp. 218-9.
228
Esack, F., Qur’an, p. 68.
229
Ibid: 73.

103
interpretation with some pre-understanding of the questions addressed by the text,
and brings with him certain conceptions as presuppositions of his exegesis. However,
Arkoun’s methodology, in contrast to that of Rahman, is rooted in a pluralistic
base. 230

The contexts of South Africa which engaged Esack, such as liberation injustice,
division and exploitation, are employed in his approaches to the Qur’an. According
to Esack, in South Africa liberation means liberation from all forms of exploitation,
including those of race, gender, class and religion. Esack defines a number of
hermeneutical keys and their employment within a context of oppression in South
Africa. Esack re-interprets them as the basis of a Qur'anic theology of religious
pluralism.

Taqwa> literally means “to ward off”, “to guard against” etc. In connection with the
Qur’an, in the context of liberation the term means to struggle to remain true to the
.231
commitment for liberation in all its dimensions

Tawh >d (Divine Unity) In the South African context, this implies a rejection of the
traditional separation between religion and politics and rejection of division of
232
people because of ethnicity. From the hermeneutical perspective it means that the
different approaches to the Qur’an, such as philosophical, spiritual, juristic or
233
political, must be regarded as components of a single tapestry. It represents a
comprehensive socio-political worldview

Al-Na>s (The people) is the family of Allah, essential in the divine scheme. The
interpreters and the addressees of the Qur'an are al-na>s. Given the stewardship of
al-nas on the earth, the Qur'an has to be approached in a manner which gives

230
Ibid: 78.
231
Ibid: 87-90.
232
Ibid: 91.
233
Ibid: 93.

104
particular support to the interest of al-na>s as a whole. 234

Mustad}‘afun fi’l-‘Ard} (The oppressed and the marginalized) means that, within
a socio-political context of oppression, the Qur'an is being comprehended with the
object of transforming society. Inherent in the Divine instruction to the Prophet to
remain close to the marginalized, in his prophetic option and in the Divine option for
the oppressed and marginalized, is the exhortation to adopt their hermeneutical
perspectives.

3.6. ABDUL-KARIM SOROUSH

3.6.1. Short Biography

Abdul-Karim Soroush was born in southern Tehran in 1945. Soroush underwent his
primary schooling in the Qa`imiyyeh School, in the south of Tehran. After spending
six years there, he began his secondary education at Mortazavi High School, and a
year later moved to the Alavi High School. During his time at Alavi, Soroush was
235
able to study modern sciences as well as religious studies.

Upon finishing high school, Soroush entered university for pharmacy. After
completing his degree, he left Iran to continue his studies in London in 1970. It was
after graduating in this subject from the University of London that he went to the
Chelsea College, London, to study History and Philosophy of Science, spending the
next five and a half years of his life there. During these years, confrontation between
the people and the Shah's regime was gradually taking a more serious, acute and
open form, and the political gatherings of Iranians in America and Europe, and

234
Ibid: 94-97.
235
Vakili, Valla, “Abdolkarim Soroush and Critical Discourse in Iran”, p. 152.

105
 236
Britain in particular, were on the increase. Soroush, too, was drawn into the field.

Throughout his education Soroush had been influenced by Iranian religious activists
such as Mutahhari, Bazargan and Ali Shariati. After the revolution, Soroush returned
to Iran. He went to Tehran's Teacher Training College where he was appointed the
Director of the newly established Islamic Culture Group. In 1983, owing to certain
differences which emerged between him and the management of the Teacher
Training College, he secured a transfer to the Institute for Cultural Research and
237
Studies where he has been serving as a research member of staff until today.

In addition to teaching Philosophy of Science he gave lectures on Philosophy of

History, Philosophy of Religion - also known as Modern Theology, Mysticism, and
238
Comparative Philosophy.

3.6.2. His Methodology

According to Soroush, the text cannot stand alone, but in a context, which is
preceded by certain assumptions and principles. These assumptions range across the
philosophical, historical, and theological. These assumptions can change religious
knowledge, and this change, obviously, will be reflected in the understanding of
religion. Interpretation, Soroush says, is always surrounded by contemporary data
and considerations. It remains constant as long as these external elements are
constant. 239 In recent years, Islamic methodologies, especially Us}u>l al-Fiqh, have
according to Soroush not grown up; on the contrary, they have been stagnant. “Since
Fiqh is ‘consumer’ science, its stagnation is due to the lack of dynamism on the part
240
of the “producer” disciplines like economics, political philosophy and sociology”

236
For further information see: www.seraj.org
237
Vakili, Valla, ibid: 152.
238
For further information see: www.seraj.org
239
Soroush, Abdul-Karim, “The Evolution and Devolution of Religious Knowledge”, p. 246.
240
Ibid: 250.

106
An objective interpretation, according to Soroush, is impossible because the history
of religion demonstrates clearly that no one is ever able to wipe every idea and
opinion from his mind. Therefore, interpretation depends on intertextual positions.
According to Soroush this is practically and epistemologically inevitable:

We come to the conclusion then that the whole history of the

sincere efforts of commentators to liberate Qur’anic
commentary from the infiltration of external ideas have
ended in one sharp and important result, namely, the
practical unavoidability of such infiltration, together with its
epistemological inevitability. In other words, it is in practice
unavoidable because it is epistemologically inevitable. 241

In the case of muh}kamat> and mutasha>biha>t (in Surah Al-'lmra>n Verse 70),
Soroush argues that major commentators discussed the issue that the Qur'an contains
such unclear verses which are there in order for the believers to be distinguished
from unbelievers or to enlighten the hearts of the ill-hearted through the study of the
242
Qur’an as a whole. Soroush is not satisfied with this kind of interpretation.
According to him, they are not really dealing with the requirements of textual
interpretation. Therefore, all of them miss the important point of the presence of
mutasha>biha>t in the Qur'an. He says:

The issue of mutasha>biha>t is not restricted to the Qur'an

alone. All texts, especially revealed ones, should be expected
to contain muh}kamat> as well as mutasha>biha>t, whose
existence is the clear cause and effect of the expansion and
contraction of the science of religion. Once one looks
carefully at the process of understanding texts, which is
always subject to presuppositions, the true meaning of and
reason for their presence in the Qur'an becomes evident. 243

Like Esack, Soroush supports the interpreter’s contextual and conjectural position in
the process of understanding of religion, and this remind us again of reader response
and reception theory.

241
Ibid: 247.
242
Ibid: 249.
243
Ibid: 249.

107
Conclusion

The tradition of Qur'anic studies since the first century of Islam has employed
several interpretative methods. Until the 19th century, Arabic grammar, Muslim law
(shari>‘a), as well as traditions of the Prophet and his contemporaries ( Hadith), and
the Prophet's ‘biography’ ( s >ra) were the tools for Qur’anic studies. Modern
th
Qur’anic studies traced back to the 19 century attempt to liberate Qur’anic studies
from Taql >d, which centred on an unquestioned acceptance of the traditional
understanding of Qur’an, and to turn their attention to contemporary world affairs.
However, modern interpretation of the Qur’an since the beginning of nineteenth
century has been under the influence of Western thought. In the light of the new
Western perspective, extra-Qur’anic materials, primitive ideas, stories, magic, fables
and superstition should be removed and the Qur’an must be understood using
Western scientific tools. Modern Qur’anic studies can be understood as a sharp break
in the traditional history of Muslim interpretation.

This fracture has been intensively scrutinised throughout the Islamic world during
the 20 th century. As a result of the academic and intellectual interaction with the
West, a new form of intellectual impact has been triggered in Islamic academia.
Especially since the 1980s, as the second crucial break in the history of Qur’anic
studies, there has been methodological influence from the West. Scholars have
adapted critical theories as new hermeneutical models of understanding the Qur’an.
Their aim is to re-read the Qur’an in the light of modern textual and philosophical
disciplines, such as literary criticism, epistemology, hermeneutics, deconstruction,
structuralism and post-structuralism and to re-read the Qur’an under the question of
not what, but how do we interpret. Muslim intellectuals namely, Fazlur Rahman,
Mohammed Arkoun, Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, Farid Esack, Fatima Mernissi, and
Abdul-Karim Soroush, are pioneering researchers in this process. They begin with an
acceptance of the authority of Western models. Their ambition is to adapt forms of
literary criticism and Biblical experience to the case of the Qur’an.

It has been seen in this chapter that the historical critical method is the most admired
approach in contemporary Qur’anic studies. Fatima Mernissi, for example, looks at

108
the Qur’anic attitudes toward women. The same way of reading emerges from the
writings of Fazlur Rahman, Abu Zayd and Farid Esack. They pay more attention to
the historical development of interpretation of the Qur’an and to the process which
serves to establish how the Qur’an takes meanings in the Islamic context. This then
leads to contemporary context. That is to say historical focus on the Qur’an and the
history of Qur’anic interpretation in contemporary times is in order to demonstrate
the fact that there is a contextual gap between the contemporary reader and the
historical context. According to them, Muslims should read the Qur’an in the light of
today’s necessities with today’s categories. In the case of Arkoun and Soroush, the
necessities and categories are composed of the totality of the human sciences, namely
anthropology, history of religions, semiotics in contemporary philosophy and
epistemology. In the case of Farid Esack, today’s necessities address more
specifically South African readers.

109
PART II: APPLICATIONS IN TURKEY

110
 INTRODUCTION

The aim of this part is to analyse the application of contemporary critical theories to
Qur’anic studies in Turkey as a case of a Muslim country. In the previous part the
general introduction on applying critical theories was explored from two different
perspectives: Biblical and Qur’anic. Here, Turkish scholars will be studied, dealing
with adaptation from Western literary criticism.

In the first chapter, intellectual and institutional backgrounds will be studied.

Secularist, modernist, nationalist, and westernised political and intellectual attitudes
and their reflections in Qur’anic studies will be investigated. In the second chapter
intellectual circles of stanbul and in the third chapter intellectual circles of Ankara
will be explored. In respect of the stanbul circle four eminent scholars have been
selected as representative of theologians and intellectuals of the circle, namely
Süleyman Ate✁, Ali Bulaç, Dücane Cündio✂lu and Ya✁ar Nuri Öztürk. Having
presented their profile, exegetical methodologies and themes in their works will be
analysed and their reflections and reactions to other scholarly works will also be
studied. Similarly, in the third chapter, the Ankara academic circle will also be
analysed around names selected from it: namely Hüseyin Atay, Mehmet Paçac✄,
Salih Akdemir, Yasin Aktay and Hidayet ☎efkatli Tuksal.

In the fourth, fifth and sixth chapters, the process of application of Western literary
criticism to Qur’anic studies in Turkey will be explored. Here, by making special
references to the application of literary critical methods to Qur’anic studies the extent
of recent Western intellectual and academic influences on Qur’anic studies will be
investigated.

111
1. INSTITUTIONAL AND INTELLECTUAL HISTORY

Introduction

This chapter deals with the political background of Turkey in terms of the Qur’an. In
these circumstances, we will undertake a specific scrutiny of Turkish policies and
instruments to disseminate westernisation, secularisation and modernisation in
Turkey and the influences on religious and specifically Qur’anic studies. The aim is
simply to show snapshots of Turkey with regard to each dimension. This is because
of the aim of this study: to investigate Turkish policies and their religious
implementations. Therefore, while a picture of applications is taken, the impact of
Turkish policies will already be in the frame.

1.1. STATE POLICIES AND THE STUDY OF THE QUR’AN

Turkish Qur’anic studies, as will be explained in the course of the work, have come
under Western influences. Westernisation, as the substantial policy, has affected
Turkish academic life and institutions, including religious education and
intellectualism, since the Ottoman period. As a result of the Westernisation policy of
the late Empire and the Republic period, Turkey entirely accepted the modern social
and political system of the West as a model. This process concluded finally with the
adoption of secularism and in turn it has profoundly affected the religious
establishments in Turkish society.

Secularism is a doctrine that makes a strict separation between religion and politics
and advocates a restricted role for religion in society. It represents a Western
religious pattern which is individualistic and intellectualistic. In this kind of
religiosity, faith should not be exposed to the public, but kept private. To initiate this
Western-style religious programme, in the beginning of the Republic, for instance,
the mosque services were set up with new instructions to make them resemble the
Western Protestant type of practices which were considered as modernised. The most

112
common keywords in the discourse of those who supported the state policy of the
new suggested practices against the traditionalist ones were purification,
simplification and intellectualisation of religion and religious rituals. In order to
reach this so called modern goal, Turkish was suggested as the language of worship
and it was proposed to place musical instruments in the mosques.

Political reformations also took place. The closing of religious courts and madrasa
followed the abolition of the Caliphate and the Ministry of Religious Affairs and
Trusts in 1924. The adoption, in 1926, of European systems of Civil, Criminal, and
Commercial Law instituted a legal reformation. Islamic Sufi institutions ( tarika>t),
monasteries ( tekke) and tombs ( türbe) were banned as places of worship in 1925. In
1928, the statement in the constitution that ‘The Religion of the Turkish State is
Islam’ was finally removed. It was also the same year when Latin script was adopted
for the Turkish alphabet after hundreds of years’ use of the Arabic script for
Turkish.

Scholars in the field have drawn attention to the differences between Turkish and
Western secularism. Secularism in Turkey, according to Dankwart A. Rustow, is
distinguished from secularism in the West on the basis of its control-oriented
character. 244 In his discussion of Turkey’s secular politics, Bromley highlights that
the secularism of the state amounted to rigid state control over religious life and a
strict laicism in public affairs rather than the institutional separation of mosque and
state. 245 All these attempts, for Binnaz Toprak, are “to put Islam under control and
246
make it subservient to authority” and for Bernard Lewis, are “to disestablish Islam,
to end the power of religion and its exponents in political, social, and cultural affairs,
247
and to limit it to the matters of belief and worship”.

The establishment and existence of ‘The Directorate of Religious Affairs’ ( Diyanet

244
Rustow, Dankwart, (1957) “Politics and Islam in Turkey 1920-1955”, p. 70.
245
Bromley, Simon, (1994) Rethinking Middle East Politics, pp. 125-6.
246
Toprak, Binnaz, (1988) “The State, Politics and Religion in Turkey”, p. 120.
247
Lewis, Bernard, (1968) The Emergence of Modern Turkey, p. 406.

113
 ✁leri Ba✁kanl✂✄✂ ) which is expressly charged with administrating daily religious
practice in the secular state and designed for the interpretation and execution of an
enlightened version of Islam, which could be termed state-Islam, is seen as the
unique feature of Turkish secularism. The service staff in the Directorate have
usually graduated from state religious schools and serve in the mosques. In Turkish
secularism, Islam has been institutionalised in the form of a government agency.

Nationalism is another feature of Turkey’s state policy that influences Islamic

studies. Nationalism was a very strong policy of the Turkish state at the beginning of
the century, and therefore, we find many attempts to establish the “Turkification of
Islam”. The purpose was to replace “Arabic Islam”, which was viewed as
conservative and backward, with a modern “Turkish Islam”. As a result of the
Turkification of Islam, several reforms were introduced. Although the attempt failed
to survive long, the Turkish language replaced Arabic as the language of religion in
the muezzin’s five daily calls to prayer as well as the sermons in the mosque between
1936 and 1950.

The replacement of Arabic script with the Latin alphabet was perhaps the most
radical reform in a cultural sense in the history of Republic. However the question
here is whether this reform was born out of nationalism or Westernisation of the
state. To get rid of anything Arabic might seem to be a nationalist policy but
adopting Latin was definitely an attempt the Westernisation as the Latin script had
never been used for writing Turkish. Arabic script on the contrary had a long history
in Turkish culture. The effect of this reform was, therefore, immense. “This change”,
as Esposito also observes, “effectively cut off younger generations of Turks from the
religious and literary heritage of their Islamic, Ottoman past, which was preserved in
248
its official, religious, and literary language, Arabic”.

The project of Qur’anic Translation and Exegesis of the Qur’an in Turkish was the
most significant activity of the nation-state influenced Turkification of Islam. The

248
Esposito, John, (1984) Islam and Politics, p. 102.

114
task of translating the Qur'an was given to the great Turkish poet Mehmed Akif
Ersoy, who initially accepted the task and translated most of it. However, towards the
end of his translation, he seemed to be affected by a suspicion that as result of the
249
Turkification of worship policy, like political powers might force his translation
instead of the original to be used in daily worship. This seemed to prevent a
translation by Ersoy who was known for his conservative attitudes. Ersoy did not
overcome the problem of the justification of such religious activity by order of the
secular state, and cut short his work at the brink of its accomplishment for fear that
his translation would be substituted for the original Qur'an. Ersoy moved to Egypt
and gave up the task. Unfortunately, his work is no longer extant.

The second part of the project was to produce a contemporary Turkish exegesis of
the Qur'an. Elmal l Muhammed Hamdi Yazir was given the task. He was a member
of Madrasatu’l Mutehassisin as an instructor in Logic ( Mant✁k) in the years of the
establishment of the Turkish Republic. He accepted the task and began to work on
his Exegesis, Hak Dini Kur'an Dili consisting of nine volumes published in 1935-
1939.250 Elmal l uses a comprehensive language in his exegesis. However, his
translation is a simple, word-by-word style of translation, like a rough copy. This
style and the language of his translation of verses show that Elmal l also shared to
Ersoy’s worry that his translation might forcibly replace the original Arabic
Qur’an. 251

Hak Dini Kur’an Dili is the first interpretation of the Qur’an written in the Turkish
language. Elmal l , despite following a verse-by-verse approach, concentrates on the
first and the last Surahs. He just translates the verses in the middle parts of the
Qur’an. Elmal l follows the classical commentaries. So the numbers, titles, places
(Meccan and Medinan) of the Surahs, the coherence in Surahs and in the Qur’an, and

249
Kara, ✂smail, (1997) Türkiye’de ✄slamc☎l☎k Dü✆üncesi, p. 312.
250
There are two PhD thesis on Elmalili’s Hak Dini Kur’an Dili: Fahri Gokcen Commentaire du
Coran par Elmalili in Paris in 1970 and ✂smet Ersöz Elmalili Muhammed Hamdi Yaz☎r ve Hak
Dini Kur’an Dili in Konya, Turkey, in 1986.
251
Cündio✝lu, Dücane, (1998) Turkce Kur’an ve Cumhuriyet Ideolojisi, p. 65.

115
the different styles of recitation (Q raa>t) are common subjects in every part of the
work. He uses most of the prominent classical sources: Tabar >, Ibn Kath >r, Fakhr
al-D >n al-Raz >, Zamakh{shar >, Baydaw >, Neysabu>r >, Abu> Hayya>n,
Jass{a>s}, Abu> al-Su‘u>d, Alu>s >, and al-Kutub al-Sitteh.

Qur’anic studies, in general, did not produce a Turkish exegesis of the Qur’an until
the 1960s. The second commentary in Turkish is Kur’an✁ Kerim’in Türkçe Meal-i
Alisi ve Tefsiri (‘Translation of the Holy Qur’an and its Exegesis’) produced in 1963
by the head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, Ömer Nasuhi Bilmen. This tafsir
contains eight volumes and follows a verse-by-verse approach. Bilmen uses mostly
Asbab al-Nuzul, and Hadith literature and also the primary tafsir sources in order to
be loyal to authorities. Süleyman Ate✂, head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs in
1974, published his twelve-volume tafsir, Yüce Kur’an✁n Ça✄da☎ Tefsiri
(‘Contemporary Exegesis of the Noble Qur’an’) in 1988.

1.2. TURKISH ISLAMIC MODERNISM

252
Turkey has experienced a kind of religious revival since the begining of the
th
Republic. A number of Turkish scholars, like their 19 century counterparts, were
engaged in re-articulating Islamic discourses in the context of the modern world.
They bypassed traditional interpretive authorities and revised classical methods of
approaching the Qur’an. They blame the internal decline of Muslim societies, their
loss of power and backwardness, and their unquestioned clinging to the past
(taql✁>d) and they stress the dynamism, flexibility, and adaptability of the early
development of Islam, notable for its achievements in law, education and science.
They attempt to reinterpret Islam to meet the changing circumstances of modern life.

252
Some of the most crucial works about Turkish religious modernisation process are Bernard
Lewis, (1952) “Islamic Revival in Turkey” International Affairs 28, pp. 38-48; Lewis V.
Thomas, (1952) “Recent Developments in Turkish Islam” Middle East Journal 6 , pp. 22-40;
Howard A. Reed, (1954) “Revival of Islam in Secular Turkey” Middle East Journal 8 , pp. 227-
282; Uriel Heyd (1968) Revival of Islam in Modern Turkey Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, The
Hebrew University.

116
Legal, educational, and social reforms are aimed at rescuing Muslim society from
their downward spiral and demonstrating the compatibility of Islam with modern,
Western thought and values. They call for internal reform through a process of
reinterpretation “ ijtiha>d” and selective adaptation (Islamisation) of Western ideas
and values. Their themes and interpretative activities are illustrated by key figures:
Süleyman Ate , Hüseyin Atay and Ya ar Nuri Öztürk.

While they focus on the different aspects of the modern Islamic issues, their common
and ideological framework includes the following principles:

- The failure of Muslim societies is due to their departure from the source,
namely the Qur’an.

- The renewal of society requires a return to, or a strict application of, the
Qur’an.

- The assertion of the right of independent analysis ( ijtiha>d) of the Qur’an in

this application, rather than having to rely upon and imitate the opinions of
the classical authorities of Islam.

The approaches of the scholars studied in this chapter have an apologetic nature in
two aspects:

- They are defending Islamic/Qur’anic values against the West.

- Since they are using Western values, rationalism, secularism, modernism etc.
in their defence of Islam they are also apologists in their use of Western
method and theories. They claim these are Qur’anic. In this context they seem
to differentiate modernization from Westernisation.

Their themes are usually the religious, political, social and economic life of modern
Muslims: parliamentary democracy, secularism, liberalism in religious diversity and
also coexistence in pluralism, women’s rights and their political, economical and
cultural contributions, etc.

Turkish revivalism and reformism in Islamic life, relative to other Muslim countries,
is of a more nationalist character. They all insist on the translation of the Qur’an into

117
the Turkish language, and the possibility of prayer with translations. Although they
maintain that the translation of the Qur’an does not involve religious reform the
issue comes from Turkish republican policy of the Turkification of Islam and also
Westernisation in religious life.

In terms of methodology in the first group, it seems that enlightenment, rationalism

and modern natural science are the most useful tools for their commentaries.
Presumably they use them apologetically and want to prove that there is no conflict
between reason/rationality and the Qur’an.

1.3. RELIGIOUS STUDIES UNDER WESTERN INFLUENCE

From the beginning of the Turkish Republic, relations intensified between academia
in Turkey and Europe. Several Turkish students have been sent to Europe,
particularly England and America, to study and to take advanced degree courses in
Religious Studies. These came under the intellectual and cultural influence of the
West and, naturally, brought Western ideas and methodologies to their academic
studies. For instance see the density of students sent to Europe and North America
Table 1. 253 The Table consists of the periods between 1988 and 2002 which is
reported and published in the official web page of HEC. Unfortunately, the early
periods have not been given. Despite contact and asking for them, the authorities of
HEC did not provide the information about the number of students in Religious
studies for reasons of security(!). However, the table can give a general idea about
the accumulation of higher education in Western universities. The table reveals that
North America and England have most of them (88.2%). The number of the students,
in the table, shows a great deal of fluctuation. Their number is changing according to
education politicies of the governments.

253
For further information see the official web page of the Turkish Higher Education Council:
www.yok gov.tr

118
C OUNTRIES 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 TO TAL

USA 138 55 66 67 60 745 64 169 85 40 56 50 47 32 53 1794

GERMANY 17 4 13 13 13 44 2 11 5 5 1 7 2 144
AUSTRALIA 1 14 1 1 1 18
AUSTRIA 2 1 3 3 2 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 22
BELGIUM 2 1 1 1 2 7
DENMARK 1 1 1 3
FINLAND 1 1 1 3
FRANCE 12 7 4 8 3 13 5 9 2 3 9 8 2 1 4 95
HOLLAND 1 2 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 15
ENGLAND 208 112 127 110 74 446 52 93 57 17 21 8 9 10 11 1393
SPAIN 1 1
ISRAIL 3 3 6
SWEDEN 2 2 4
SWITZERLAND 1 2 3 1 1 2 2 18
ITALY 1 1 1 1 4
JAPAN 2 1 1 3 1 1 1 10
N. IRELAND 1 1
C ANADA 17 3 3 2 6 1 4 1 3 3 1 3 1 72
NORWAY 1 1 2
GREEC E 1 1

TO TAL 399 186 226 20 157 1279 131 285 159 76 95 79 62 51 74 3613

Table 1: Number of Turkish PhD students sent by the Turkish Higher Education Council
(HES/YÖK) to carry out postgraduate academic studies in Western universities between 1988 and
2002

Additionally, several institutions have been established as the western model with the
enactment of University Reform and the employment of European-University-
graduated staff in the theology faculties. It would be very interesting to find out how
and to what extent Western academics have influenced Islamic studies.

Regarding Islamic studies, the Darul Fünun Üniversitesi lahiyat Fakültesi (Da>r
al-Funu>n University Theology Faculty), as the first modernised and Western-
inspired institute, was established in 1924. From the curriculum declared in the
regulation it is understood that the Faculty of Theology aimed to teach the
philosophy and sociology of religion, rather than to educate mosque clergy ( imam).
The Islamic sciences were in secondary position compared with philosophy and

119
 254
sociology within the curriculum.

The publication of the journal of the Faculty, Darul Fünun Fakültesi Mecmuas was
one of the significant activities performed by Faculty members. The subjects varied
from historical and sociological investigations of minor groups or sects in Muslim
255
society to current philosophical, theological, mystical, and ethical issues.

In 1933 the Faculty was closed apparently for the same reason that led to the closure
256
of the University of Da>r al-Funu>n. In turn, two institutes were established at
257
✁ stanbul University ✂ arkiyat (Orientalism) and ✄slam Tedkikleri Enstitusü (The
258
Institute of Islamic Studies) in 1953. With a pro-Western approach, the first
director of the Institute of Islamic Studies, Togan, suggested that Islamic studies
should be formulated according to the Western pattern of lectures. Tafsir, for
example, was planned along methodological lines set down by the Hungarian
259 260
scholar, Ignaz Goldziher. The Institute organized the 22nd International

254
The following courses were taught in the Faculty of Theology: Qur'anic Exegesis and its History
(Tefsir ve Tefsir Tarihi), Hadith and its' history (Hadis ve Hadis Tarihi), Islamic Jurisdiction
(Islam F☎kh☎), The History of Islamic Theology (Kelâm Tarihi), The History of Islamic
Mysticism (Tasavvuf Tarihi), The History of Religions (Tarih-i Edyan), Sociology (Ictimâiyyat),
Psychology (Ruhiyat), Ethics (Ahlak), The History of Islamic Philosophy (Islam Felsefesi
Tarihi), Social Psychology (Ictimâî Ruhiyat), The History of Philosophy (Tarih-i Felsefe),
Turkish History of Religion (Türk Tarih-i Dinisi), Islamic Philosophy (Islâm Felsefesi). For
further information see: Aktay, Yasin, Political and Intellectual Disputes on the Academisation
of Religious Knowledge, pp. 10-17.
255
Aktay, Ibid: 18.
256
Reason have been officially stated as the University Reform, which was ordered by the
government to be prepared by Albert Malch. For further information see: Oncu, Ayse, (1993)
“Academics: The West in the Discourse of University Reform”, pp. 142-176.
257
The Institute of Orientalism (✆arkiyat Enstitüsü was established in 1938. The institution seems to
concentrate on the following issues: Arabic, Persian and Urdu philology and literature
particularly elements of Turkish culture and Turkish history in these literatures, works on the
original manuscript collections in the Turkish libraries and publishing a journal called Sarkiyat
(Orientalism). The institute and its library continue under the management of Ahmet Suphi Furat
258
The Institute has contributed to the Islamic studies in modern Turkey. Bilal Gökk☎r suggested
the expression “Turkish Orientalist” in his article to describe the ultimate aim that Institute
initially intended to produce experts in Islamic studies in the western sense. For further
information see: Bilal Gökk☎r, “The Application of Western Comparative Religious and
Linguistic Approaches to the Qur’an in Turkey”, pp. 249-263.
259
Togan, Z. V., (1960) “✝slam Ara✞t☎rmalar☎ Enstitüsü”, p. 273.
260
The institute became a research centre (Islam Arast☎rmalar☎ Merkezi) in 1982 and today
continues under the directorship of Mahmut Kaya in ✝ stanbul University. The Journal of Islamic
Studies (Islam Tetkikleri Dergisi) has been publishing periodically. Muhammed Hamidullah,

120
 261
Congress of Orientalists at stanbul University on 15-22 September 1951. Western
participants also gave papers at the Institute. One of these scholars, Prof. Alfred
Guillaume of London University, gave five lectures on ‘Islamic Studies in the
West’. 262

In order to make the investigation of religious problems conform to scientific

principles, the Senate of Ankara University decided that a Faculty of Divinity should
be opened in accordance with its Western equivalent. Yusuf Ziya Yörükan, formerly
Professor at the Dar al-Funun Theology Faculty, stanbul, then member of the
advisory council of the Directory of Religious Affair, became Professor of the
History of Islamic Schools and Sects ( ✁slam mezhepleri Tarihi ). Hasan Remzi O✂uz
Ar✄k, Director of the Ethnographic Museum in Ankara, was given the chair for the
History of Islamic Art, and Hilmi Ömer Budda, another former Professor in the
Theology Faculty, then member of the Turkish Language Institution, was elected
Professor of the History of Religions. Esat Arsebuk, Professor of Islamic Law,
became the first Dean of the Faculty of Divinity.

We observe that most of the lecturers were from abroad. V. Gordon, a Scottish lady,
taught English, Izzet Hasan from Syria taught Arabic, H. J. Kornrumpf taught
German, and M. J. Roche of France instructed in French. Annemarie Schimmel was
a regular member of the staff between the 1954 and 1955, and has published two
books in Turkish, spoken at ceremonies commemorating the death of the great
mystic Jalal al-Din Rûmî in Konya, and contributed a number of articles to the
Faculty journal. The Albanian Professor Mehmet Tayyip Okiç (a Sorbonne graduate)
263
also taught Tafsir and Hadith. Fazlur Rahman also applied to the Faculty.

This variety of nationalities among the staff was, at first sight, an indication of

Muhammed Tavit Tanci, Fuat Sezgin, and Salih Tu☎ were famous scholars in the institute.
261
For the evaluation of the program see Islam Tetkikleri Enstitusu Dergisi 1954, v. I, p. 142.
262
Guillaume’s conferences were published in Islam Tetkikleri Enstitusu Dergisi 1954, v.I, pp. 119-
145.
263
Ilber Ortayl✆ mentions his intention to be a member of staff at the faculty. See further
information: “Our Mentor Fazlur Rahman”, p. 263.

121
intellectual richness, but it was, as Yasin Aktay notes, in reality a result of the fact
that the Faculty had difficulty in recruiting professors, even though the Directory of
Religious Affairs, Ahmed Hamdi Akseki, in 1949 had offered positions to staff
qualified in Islamic studies. There appears to have been a conscious policy of
keeping the deanship and control in the hands of professors who were not trained in
the traditional madrasa system. As a result, instruction in the Faculty was entirely
theoretical and Western style, particularly in the beginning.

The first of the High Islamic Institutes ( Yüksek slam Enstitüleri), as the other new
institutions of Turkey, appeared in ✁stanbul on November 19 1959. It was followed
by new Institutes in Bursa, Izmir, Konya Erzurum, Kayseri and Samsun. The
Institutes eventually were unified with the Faculties as part of the enormous reforms
made by the Higher Institute of Teaching (HEC/YOK) in 1982. There were almost
the same courses followed during the four years: Arabic, Traditions, Exegesis,
Qur'anic recitation, and theology (Kelam ve Akaid) in all years. As in Islamic and
religious field, the graduates of the Faculty were familiar with Arabic, Persian and a
Western language. Hüseyin Atay, Talat Kocyigit, Süleyman Ate✂ were among the
first graduates from the Faculty who have had an influence on the formation of the
Turkish Islamic modernism and reformism.

The intellectual trends in the theology faculties can be classified according to their
responses to modern Western intellectualism in religious studies. Some scholars are
considered as modernist because of their attempt to reinterpret Islam according to
modern and Western values and perspectives and also because of their clear adoption
of the ideas raised by Fazlur Rahman, Mohammed Arkoun and so on. The same is
true of some scholars, in two faculties: the ✁stanbul (Marmara) and Ankara-based
theology faculties.

Attitudes and ideas in these faculties have varied. However, most of the membership
of the faculties of theology has grown from the same atmosphere of scientific and
academic ethics. The faculties in Ankara, Izmir and Samsun have been generally
classified as having a relatively modernist tendency although they include some
tradionalist members, while the faculties of ✁stanbul, Bursa and Erzurum can be

122
considered traditionalist in this sense, although they, too, include some modernist
members, particularly Ankara and other modernism-dominated theology faculties.

On the other hand, in dealing with Western Qur’anic studies, the Marmara theology
faculty has taken a more negative attitude. The faculty has been known for its pro-
Islamic tradition. What they were doing, however, was simply to apply the basic
principles of Islamic orthodoxy, without rejecting anything from the original
tradition.

Conclusion

In this chapter, it has been observed that Turkish policies on religion and on the
academic and intellectual formulation of religious studies have been influenced by
the ideologies of Westernisation, secularism and nationalism. Westernisation has
affected Turkish life and institutions, including religious education, and
intellectualism. Qur’anic studies in particular have come under Western influences.
Western-inspired institutions are the base for the applications and adaptations of
Western methodologies. Especially in the case of theology faculties, research centres
that have more contact with and direct experience of Western academia introduced
literary criticism with a general outline of Western-originated Qur’anic studies. As a
result of the Westernisation policy of the state, Turkey has entirely accepted
secularism and this in turn has profoundly affected the religious establishment in
Turkish society.

As a result of the nationalist character of state policies, there have been attempts to
‘Turkify of Islam’. The purpose was to replace “Arabic Islam”, which was viewed as
conservative and backward, with a modern “Turkish Islam”. The first official step in
this direction was the project for a Turkish Translation and Turkish Exegeses of the
Qur’an at the beginning of the Republic. This process carried on with Turkification
of worship in the Turkish language.

The academic relationship with Western institutions and intellectuals has also been

123
studied. It has been shown that from the beginning of the Turkish Republic,
academic and intellectual relationships have been intensified between Turkey and the
West. For this reason Turkish students have been sent to Europe to be educated and
to take advanced degree courses involving religious studies. These came under the
intellectual and cultural influence of the West and, naturally, brought Western ideas
and methodologies to their academic studies. The Da>r al-Funu>n University
Theology Faculty, as the first modernised and Western-inspired institute, was
established in 1924. The Institute of Orientalism in 1938 and The Institute of Islamic
Studies in 1953, the High Islamic Institutions in 1959 and finally the Theology
Faculties in 1982 were established as Western models.

There are several questions looking for answers: what kinds of critical theories are
applied to Qur’anic studies by Turkish scholars? What is the reason for their
application that is stated by the applicants? How and to what extent have
contemporary critical theories been applied by Turkish scholars? Moreover, what
kind of contribution is expected from these applications? Succeeding chapters
attempt to answer these questions.

124
2. CONTEMPORARY QUR’ANIC STUDIES IN STANBUL

Introduction

✁stanbul has been the cultural, intellectual, and academic centre of the Ottoman
Empire and also the Turkish republic for centuries. There are two theology faculties:
one at Marmara University (established in 1982) and the other at ✁stanbul University
(established in 1994). There are also two research centres: the Institute of Islamic
Studies ( ✂slam Tetkikleri Enstitüsü) at ✁stanbul University (established in 1955),
which is now called the Centre of Islamic Studies and belongs to Faculty of Arts of
✁stanbul University. The other is the Centre of Islamic Studies (✁slam Ara✄t☎rmalari
Merkezi) (established in1993) and belongs to Türkiye Diyanet Vakf✆ (Turkish Trust
of Religions).

This chapter will explore through the work of Süleyman Ate✄, Ali Bulaç, Dücane
Cündio✝lu and Ya✄ar Nuri Öztürk to what extent Western academic and intellectual
life influences the scholars who live in this circle.

2.1. SÜLEYMAN ATE✞

Süleyman Ate✄ was born in 1933 in Elazig, a city in Eastern Anatolia. He became
hafiz of the Qur’an in his tenth. He started his classical religious education with Hac☎
Muharrem Kösetürkmen Efendi in his hometown. In 1951, he continued his religious
education in Erzurum with Hac☎ Faruk Bey and Solakzade Sad☎k Efendi. In 1953,
while he continued his education in a religious high school (✂mam Hatip), he also
continued his classical Islamic education with Hac☎ Muharrem Efendi.

Having completed religious high school in 1960, he went to the Theology Faculty in
Ankara where he worked as an imam in a mosque during his four years’ faculty
education. In 1964 he graduated from the faculty and started to work in a religious
high school as a teacher. In 1965, he became an assistant of Tayyip Okic in the

125
Department of Qur’anic Studies at Ankara University. Having completed his PhD on
a Sufi Tafsir, Sülemi ve Tasavvufi Tefsiri264 in 1968 he studied in Iraq and Egypt
(1968-1973). Between 1976 and 1978, he became head of the Department of
Religious Affairs.

Since 1979, he has been to Bochum Ruhr University, Germany, as a fellow for
research in his field, and to Imam Muhammad University, Saudi Arabia and Imam
Abd al-Kad >r Islamic Science University, Algeria, as a visiting lecturer in Qur’anic
Studies and Islamic Mysticism.

Ate✁’s Tafsir, Yüce Kur’an✂n Ça✄da☎ Tefsiri (‘Contemporary Exegesis of the Holy
Qur’an’) written between 1973 and 1988, is the second noteworthy exegesis in the
Turkish language after Elmal l ’s Hak Dini Kur’an Dili. Ate✁ republished his work in
a thematic format under the title of Kur’an Ansiklopedisi (‘Encyclopedia of the
Qur’an’) in 2000.

Between 1988 and 1995, he was the head of the Department of Islamic Studies in
Ondokuz Mayis University, Turkey. He continued his works at ✆stanbul University
265
from 1996 until he retired in 2000.

2.2. AL✝ BULAÇ

Ali Bulaç was born in 1951 in Mardin, south-eastern Anatolia. After his education in
primary and high school, he moved to ✆stanbul where he graduated from The High
Islamic Institute in 1975 and from the sociology department of ✆stanbul University in
1980. He also underwent traditional religious education in a madrasa while he was in
Mardin for seven years.

264
Published in 1969 by Yeni Ufuklar publish house.
265
See further information on his biography: Turkiye Ilahiyat Fakulteleri: Yakup Çiçek and
Bünyamin Aç✞kal✞ n (2000) Tefsir Anabilim Dal✟ Ö✠retim Elemanlar✟ Biyografileri (Turkish
Theology Faculties: Biography of the Lectures of Department of Qur’anic Studies), pp. 170-176.

126
As a freelance writer, a Muslim activist and an intellectual, Bulaç has published
articles in periodicals including Haraket, Dü ünce, Giri im, and ✁lim ve Sanat and
daily newspapers including Devir, Milli Gazete and Zaman. He has also published a
number of books which address contemporary issues of Islam. His first book,
Ça✂da Kavramlar ve Düzenler (‘Contemporary Concepts and Regimes’) which was
published in 1978 discusses political ideologies, socialism and capitalism which
began in the West and impacted on the Islamic world. Bulaç does not give any credit
to Western originated concepts and ideas. Instead he argues that Islam is as a religion
and a concept for all times and places. Western notions, values and ideas like
democracy, secularism, socialism, feminism, modernity, liberty, Bulaç argues,
should be systematically examined by Muslim intellectuals from an Islamic
perspective. In so doing, Muslims can cope with the Western challenge. Otherwise,
Bulaç strictly emphasises, Muslims would have contributed to Western culture.

Bulaç offers a joint work combining that of Muslim intellectuals (ayd✄n) and Muslim
scholars (alim) in order to cope with contemporary issues in his ✁slam Dünyas☎nda
Dü ünce Sorunlar☎ (‘Intellectual Problems in the Islamic World’) in 1985. While
Muslim intellectuals analyse contemporary life, the Muslim scholar, he argues, can
bring the essential source of Islam, Qur’an, Hadith and Shari‘a to bear on the issue.

In the discussion, methodological applications from the West, especially in Qur’anic

studies, are especially important for Bulaç. His article, “Kur’an✄ Okuma Biçimi
266
Olarak Hermeneutik” (‘Hermeneutics as a Way of Reading the Qur’an’) and his
conference paper, “Kur’an✄ bir Metin Olarak Antropolojik Gözle Okuma” (‘Reading
267
the Qur’an as a Text from the perspective of Anthropology’) are mostly about this
issue. 268

266
Published in ✆slami Ara✝t✞rmalar v.9, 1999, pp. 115-134.
267
Bulaç, Ali, (2000)“Kur’an✟ bir Metin Olarak Antropolojik Gözle Okuma” (Reading the Qur’an
as a Text from the perspective of Anthropology) in Kur’an✞ Anlamada Tarihsellik Sorunu
Sempozyumu, pp. 125-130.
268
For further information about his intellectual life see: Michael E. Meeker, (1991) “the New
Intellectuals in the Republic of Turkey”, pp. 197-205.

127
2.3. DÜCANE CÜND OGLU

Dücane Cündio✁lu was born in 1962 in ✂stanbul. From the beginning of the 1980s
Cündio✁lu has been active as a freelance writer in connection with academic
journals, newspapers and publishing houses. He has published articles in various
academic journals including ✄slamiyat and ✄slami Ara☎t✆rmalar and has written
columns in a Turkish daily newspaper, Yeni☎afak.

Apart from articles, essays and papers in symposiums, journals and conferences,
Cündio✁lu has published several books. His first editorial work is the translation of
Mawdudi’s Tafsir, Tafh✆>m al-Qur’a>n into Turkish language in 1985. Later he
republished Elmal✝l✝’s Tafsir, Hak Dini Kur’an Dili with some glosses in 1993.

His works, Kur’an✆ Anlaman✆n Anlam ✆: Hermeneutik bir Deneyim-I- (‘The meaning
of Understanding the Qur’an: An Essay in Hermeneutics-I’) in 1995, Anlam ✆n
Buharla☎mas✆ ve Kur’an: Hermeneutik bir Deneyim-II (‘The Evaporation of the
Meaning and the Qur’an: An Essay in Hermeneutics-II’) in 1995, Kur’an, Dil ve
Siyaset Üzerine Söyle☎iler (‘Dialogues on the Qur’an, Language and Politics’) in
1998, Sözün Özü: Kelam✆ ✄lahinin Tabiat✆na Dair (‘Essence of the Word: on the
Nature of Holy Word’) in 1996 are a compound of his serial works which discuss the
issue of methodology in Qur’anic studies.

Cündio✁lu deals not only with methodology but also with Turkish politics in
Qur’anic studies. Translations of the Qur’an and the Turkification of Islam seem to
interest Cündio✁lu intensely. As a result, he published his Turkçe Kur’an ve
Cumhuriyet ✄deolojisi (‘Turkish Qur’an and the Republican Ideology’) in 2000 and
Bir Siyasi Proje Olarak Türkçe ✄badet (‘The Turkification of Prayer as a Political
Project’) in 2000.

128
2.4. YA AR NUR✁ ÖZTÜRK

Ya✂ar Nuri Öztürk was born in 1951 in Bayburt, in the north-east of Turkey.
According to his statements, 269
his grandfather, Allâme Niyazo✄lu Mehmet Ali
Efendi was a Kari’ (a Qur’an reciter in different styles). Although Öztürk started his
religious education with his grandfather, it was his father, Temel Efendi, who passed
this Islamic religious heritage on to him. Öztürk was nine years old when he
memorized the whole Qur’an under his father’s control. He also learned the classical
Arabic and classical Persian languages from his father in a classical madrasa-style
education.

Öztürk continued his education in a religious high school, ☎mam Hatip in the city of
Trabzon, in north-eastern Anatolia. In 1968, he came to ✆stanbul and began to attend
the High Islamic Institute. While at the High Islamic Institute he attended the Faculty
of Law in ✆stanbul University at the same time. He graduated from the Institute in
1972 and then from the Faculty of Law in 1974.

Until 1976, he worked as a lawyer. Then he returned to the University of Marmara as

a research assistant. Öztürk completed his PhD thesis, Ku✝adal✞ ☎brahim Halveti , on
Islamic mysticism in 1980.

In 1982, he went to France and studied in Grenoble University in his field. In 1985
he had an invitation from the Theological Seminary of Barrytown in New York to
give a lecture. He joined the board of a workshop on “world scripture” and he
returned to Turkey in 1986. He worked at the University of Marmara Theology
Faculty as the head of the Department of History of Islamic Mysticism. In 1993 he
was appointed dean to the Theology Faculty at the University of ✆stanbul where he
remained until he was elected as a member of the Turkish Parliament on 3 November
2003.270

269
Dogan, Muhammed Nur, (2000)“Roportaj” (“Interview”) in Kitap Dergisi, pp. 8-10.
270
For further information see: Ay✟ e Esra Özcan, (2000) The New Configurations of Islam in

129
Öztürk has published more than thirty books. Some of them are academic works and
some others are collections of articles he wrote in daily newspapers, such as Son
Havadis (1970-1971), Tercüman (1972-1979), Hürriyet (1980-2000) and Star (2000)
and papers he presented in some of his conferences. Ya ar Nuri Öztürk knows
Arabic, Persian, and English. He uses Turkish in his works. Some works have been
271
translated into English and German 272.

Kur’an’daki ✁slam (‘Islam in the Qur’an’), is the first book within his reconstruction
and return to the Qur’an project and was published in 1992. Regarding this book,
Öztürk states:

So far, what I wrote and spoke is not true unless this book
verifies it, and it should be clarified according to it. I
recommend to my reader that they will be aware of this
explanation when they read my previous works. 273 [my
translation]

Kur’an’✂ Anlamaya Do✄ru (‘Towards Understanding the Qur’an’) is a collection of

articles originally published in Hürriyet in 1990. Kur’an✂n Temel Kavramlar✂ (‘The
Essential Concepts of The Qur’an’) is another book in Qur’anic studies. The title
274
refers to the conceptual analysis of Qur’anic terms. Hurriyet, a Turkish daily
journal, initially published this book under the title of “Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an
and Islamic Concepts” in 1990. However, the contents of the work deal with
terminological studies. Approximately 170 terms were studied. The etymology of
each word was given, and its Islamic usages were described and compared with the
Bible. The writer says in the introduction:

Contemporary Turkey: the Case of Ya☎ar Nuri Öztürk, pp. 27-46; Ibrahim Ethem Ayd✆n,
Modernle☎ me Sürecinde ✝slam Dü☎üncesi ve Ya☎ar Nuri Öztürk (Islamic Thought and Ya☎ar
Nuri Öztürk in Modernization Process), pp. 208-237.
271
Yeniden Yap✞lanma is translated to English by Ali Hayrani Öz under the title, Reconstruction of
Religious Life in Islam: Returning to the Koran in 1999. The Eye of the Heart is translated by
Richard Blakney in 2000.
272
For instance: “Peygamberden Sonraki Donem” Die Zeit 20 Febuary 2003 by Nevfel Cumart.
273
Öztürk, Ya☎ ar Nuri, (2001) Kur’an’daki Islam, p. 10.
274
Regarding this genre, Encyclopedia of Qur’an edited by MacAuliffe (Brill 2002) and Kur’an
Ansiklopedisi by Süleyman Ate☎ (✝stanbul: Yeni Ufuklar, 2000) are crucial works.

130
 This work is a book that has no equal at all with regards to its
contents, methods and size…For example Ragip al-Isfahani
in his Müfradat studies the concepts only philologically. The
late Fazlur Rahman’s crucial work, The Major themes of the
Qur’an may be closer to our method. But since this work
studied just a couple of terms, it bears little resemblance to
our work. 275 [my translation]

Echoing the work of Indian philosopher, Mohammed Iqbal, Reconstruction of

Religious Thought in Islam , he emphasizes religious life. Yeniden Yap lanmak:
Kur’an’a Dönü✁ (‘Reconstruction: Returning to Qur’an’) consists of the definition,
essentials, methods and characters of his reconstruction project. Iqbal devoted
himself to the revival of Islam. He did this both as a poet-philosopher, and as a
politician. Islam and the Muslim community, in Iqbal’s opinion, were in danger: they
remained decadent and in decline, were politically and intellectually powerless,
morally corrupted, and culturally backward. All of this, for Iqbal, stood in sharp
contrast with the inner nature of Islam, which was dynamic and creative. Drawing on
his Islamic heritage and influenced by Western philosophy (Hegel, Bergson,
Nietzsche), he developed his own synthesis and interpretation of Islam. The West’s
experience, for him, can help towards a revival of Islam:

With the reawakening of Islam, therefore, it is necessary to

examine, in an independent spirit, what Europe has taught us
and how far the conclusions reached by her can help us in the
revision, and if necessary, reconstruction of theological
thought in Islam. 276

Ya✂ar Nuri Öztürk, like Iqbal, is influenced by Western philosophy, and he

reinterprets, and adapts Western values and ideas. However, he criticises its
excesses, such as European imperialism and colonialism, the misuses of orientalism,
and the moral bankruptcy of Western culture. Therefore, he turns to the past to
“rediscover” those principles and values that could be employed to reconstruct an
alternative Islamic model from the Qur’an. He denies that the origin of contemporary
values are Western. He claims that they are indeed Qur’anic. He also differentiates

275
Öztürk, Y. Nuri, (1997) Kur’anin Temel Kavramlari, p. 13.
276
Iqbal, (1934) Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, p. 8.

131
modernization from Westernisation.

Öztürk has influenced Turkish academia and also religious life in Turkey. There are
two academic dissertations on Ya ar Nuri Öztürk. The first, Ayse Esra Özcan’s The
New Configurations of Islam in Contemporary Turkey: the Case of Ya✁ar Nuri
Öztürk was completed in the Sociology Department of Bogazici University, ✂stanbul
in 2000. The second, ✂brahim Ethem Ayd✄n’s Modernle✁me Sürecinde ☎slam
Dü✁üncesi ve Ya✁ar Nuri Öztürk (‘Islamic Thought and Ya ar Nuri Öztürk in
Modernization Process’) was completed in the History Department of Celal Bayar
University, Manisa in 2002. The former focuses on the popularity of Ya ar Nuri
Öztürk as a modern theologian in the Turkish secularist context. The latter aims to
link Ya ar Nuri’s ideas, Tajd✄>d, Reconstruction, Revival etc. to Islamic
modernization thought from Ghazali to Fazlur Rahman and to Ottoman Islamic
revivalism from the Tanzimat period to the Republican era.

As an Islamic scholar and a columnist, Ya ar Nuri Öztürk affects the mass of people
through media and publications in Turkey. He synthesizes secular and religious life.
Öztürk shares almost the same theological viewpoint as the Faculty of Theology of
Ankara in his critique of orthodoxy; he was even placed within the Ankara school in
Özcan’s work 277. However, there are methodological distinctions between Öztürk
and the Ankara circle. The technical and purely methodological character of the
Ankara school finds no place in his works. Öztürk, unlike the Ankara school, accepts
the traditional Islamic methodology in Us}u>l al-Tafs✄>r and Us}u>l al-Fiqh, instead
of adapting from the West. In our interview of 01.07.2002 Öztürk said: “I believe
that contemporary Islamic problems are internal problems, not a result of the impact
of the West. So! The methodology should be internal. First of all we can use our own
tools…”

278
As Ethem Ayd✄n pointed out in his thesis, Ya ar Nuri Öztürk is actually in the line

277
Özcan, Ay✆ e Esra, The New Configurations of Islam in Contemporary Turkey, pp. 31-32.
278
Ayd✝n, Ibrahim Ethem, (2002) Modernle✞me Sürecinde Islam Dusuncesi ve Ya✞ar Nuri Öztürk, p.
208.

132
of the Revivalist movement, which began at the end of the Ottoman Empire, has
continued in the Turkish Republic.

Ya ar Nuri Öztürk has gained attention from both the Islamic and Western
intellectual and academic world. Morgan Badran introduces him in al-Ahra>m
Weekly between 1 and 7 February 2001 as a secular alim (religious scientist) of
modern secular Turkey:

The immensely popular theologian Ya✁ar Nuri Öztürk is

taking Turkey by storm. He is ubiquitous. He has written for
Turkish newspapers for nearly four decades... He is dean of
the faculty of theology and author of vast numbers of
scholarly articles and books... Who is this new religious
hero? Öztürk has a glad-tidings approach to Islam. Unlike
followers of political Islam, he does not divide believers into
so-called 'real Muslims' and so-called 'deviant seculars.'
Where did such a figure in modern Turkey come from? ...He
explained that Ataturk, whom he calls 'a real revolutionary',
saved Islam. Ataturk restored another dimension of religion;
he returned to the 'spirit of Islam which has to live in the
people not in the state.' Öztürk is a man highly educated in
Islam. For him, 'the distinction between the secular and the
religious is the product of political Islam. You can be a
Muslim and secular... Öztürk helped people to see that to be
secular and religious is not two coins but two faces of the
same coin...He opens up a space for Muslims with closer
links to traditional Islam to be religious and modern outside
the paradigm of political Islam with its own agenda. 279

Conclusion

In this chapter we focused on the eminent scholars in the ✂stanbul circle who
triggered new intellectual discussions through their work as contemporary
theologians and intellectuals of Turkey: Süleyman Ate , Ali Bulaç, Dücane
Cündio✄lu and Ya ar Nuri Öztürk. The text-based literary criticism that will be
studied in the fourth chapter has usually been applied by those scholars in Istanbul

279
Badran, Morgan, al-Ahram Weekly between 1-7 February 2001.

133
academic circle.

Süleyman Ate by introducing structural semantics is a leading scholar in Turkey.

The outcomes of the translation of Izutsu with critiques of Ali Bulaç and Dücane
Cündio✁lu will be discussed in the fourth chapter.

Ya ar Nuri Öztürk is another most influential scholar. Philosophically he echoes

Muhammad Iqbal and hence the most crucial Western philosophers. However, his
main source is not Western ideas or theories. Öztürk focuses strictly on the renewal
and revival of Islamic religious life. He attempts to reinterpret Islam to meet the
changing circumstances of modern life and aims to rescue Muslim society from their
downward trend.

He always insists on the translation of the Qur’an into the Turkish language, and the
possibility of prayer with the translations. Although he maintains that the translation
of the Qur’an is not to do reform in religion. The issue comes from the Turkish
republican policy of the Turkification of Islam and also Westernisation in religious
life.

Nevertheless, with the writings on his “ Tajd✂>d” project and ideas, which can be
summarised as that Islam must be reconstructed or renewed in order to meet the
needs of modern Muslims, Öztürk influences secular-biased intellectuals and modern
Muslim scholars, especially in the Ankara academic circle, though not in ✄stanbul

134
3. CONTEMPORARY QUR’ANIC STUDIES IN ANKARA

Introduction

Ankara has been the second cultural, intellectual, and academic centre of the Turkish
republic. The first theology faculty at Ankara University (1949) is there. I will try to
explore to what extent Western academic and intellectual thought influences scholars
in this circle.

3.1. HÜSEYIN ATAY

Hüseyin Atay was born in 1930 in Rize, the north-eastern city of Turkey. Atay
started his religious education with his father, Hafiz Ismail and his uncle, Hafiz
Yusuf. Atay continued his classical religious education in stanbul with Mustafa
Gümülcineli. In 1948, Atay went to Baghdad, in order to attend high school. In 1954,
he graduated from Baghdad Theology Faculty.

His academic life in the University started in the Department of Islamic Philosophy
as an assistant at the Ankara Theology Faculty in 1956. He completed his PhD
thesis, “Kur’an’a Göre man Esaslar✁n✁n Tesbiti ve Müdafaas✁” (‘Establishment and
Defence of the Articles of Faith According to Qur’an’) finished in 1960.

Atay went to Israel and studied Hebrew and Jewish Theology in the Jerusalem
University between 1962 and 1964. Meanwhile he studied Islamic philosophy and its
influences on Jewish intellectualism and the transmissions of Islamic theology to the
West through Jewish intellectuals.

Between 1965 and 1967, Atay went to the Chicago University for research on
Islamic Philosophy. He finished his thesis for an associate Professorship: “Farabi ve
Ibn Sina’ya Göre Yaratma” (‘Creation according to Farabi and Ibn Sina’).

In 1974, he became professor and was elected as the head of the department of

135
Islamic Theology (Kelam). In 1974 Atay was awarded a scholarship from Harvard
University. Between 1975 and 1976, he organised seminars in Chicago University on
“The Position of Islam at the Face of Changing Society”. Consequently, he published
his work, Türkiye’de Yüksek Din E itimi (‘Higher Education in Turkey’). Until
retirement in 1997, he taught Islamic theology and philosophy at Ankara University.

According to Atay, there are many concepts and practices that are not in accordance
with the Qur’an. The first practice in historical Islamic life which, to him, has been
totally corrupted is Tas}awwuf.280 Atay acknowledges the concept of Tas}awwuf, the
Su>f✁> way of perception. It is a highly individualised form of conceiving truth
through total intuition. However, it should not be presented as if it were the type of
knowledge that people acquired through reason. Certain experiences, which were
perceived through intuition, might be blissful for one individual, but sometimes
became heresies when expressed in the language of reason and logic.

In his endeavours to purify Islam from influences and extras, Atay is against Bid‘a,
innovation in the religion of Islam. He sees “ bid‘a” and so-called Hadith as a
practice against real Islamic teaching which is not in the Qur’an and not exemplified
by the Prophet, 281 and so-called Hadith as a practice against real Islamic teaching.

Atay claims that Muslims have lost sight of the fact that the Qur’anic condemnation
of taqlid touches all kinds of conservatism and should be upheld by conviction that
always requires constant renewal/tajd✁>d. Atay continues to show how the grip of
“taql✂>d ” affected all aspects of Islamic life. It can be extended for instance to the
realm of qadar (predetermined destiny), which is part of Islamic belief. Belief in
qadar, in fact, for him, is a post-Qur’anic assumption of the Muslims who
misunderstood relevant Qur’anic passages as passive acquiescence and surrender to
the flow of events.

280
Atay, Huseyin, (2001) ✄slami Yeniden Anlama, pp. 43-44.
281
Ibid: 169-198.

136
The most urgent topic dealing with women’s status is the manner of divorce.
According to custom, when a husband has uttered the word “divorce” three times to
his wife, he could not re-marry her except under certain conditions. According to
Atay, the right of divorce is not precisely given to the husband, neither to the wife.
282
Only the court can make them divorced and married.

The solution comes from two principles:

- One is to return to the Qur’an to find the real Islam in it.

- The other is to use reason.

Islam, according to Atay, is pre-eminently a religion of “ ‘aql” (reason). ‘Aql is a gift

from God to humans and they must take care of it. Many verses of the Qur’an
encourage human beings to use their reason to understand religion. The Qur’an has
raised reason to a very important place in determining the matter of happiness, the
distinction between truth and falsehood, and between the harmful and beneficial.
283
This is the first function of reason. The other is judgement and deduction.

The real Islam, Atay elaborates, has a simple doctrinal structure. There is no conflict
between reason and revelation. In the search for religious knowledge one should
284
follow the lead of reason.

Atay affirms that Islam should be purged of the misinterpretations that adhered to it
throughout the centuries and that the Qur’an should be re-interpreted by the modern
mind, namely what he calls (modern) rationalism and sciences. He firmly believes
that the return to the true and real understanding of the Qur’an is the only way out of
the stagnation and decay of the Islamic life and thought.

Atay condemns glorification of the past and traditional approaches. However, Atay
never underestimates the hermeneutical importance of a strong and healthy religious

282
Atay, (1997) Kur’an’a Göre Ara t✁rmalar I-III, pp. 20-25.
283
Atay, ✂slam✁ Yeniden Anlamak, pp. 75-89.
284
Atay, Ibid: 89-93.

137
sentiment. He wrote books and articles introducing new methods and approaches.

These are the sciences that Atay believes assist the Study of the Qur’an: Literary
studies of Arabic languages: Etymology, Semantics, linguistics; Mant k (Logic)
examines the relationships of meanings; Usul al-Fiqh explores the principles of
understanding; and Kelam (Theology) investigates the relationships between God,
the cosmos and humanity. These are the main disciplines. Additionally the related
disciplines like Biology, Sociology, Anthropology, Astronomy, Politics, and Law etc.
are the subordinate sciences. It seems that Atay is not seeking an alternative
methodology, but seeking a solution for the inferiority of the Muslim culture in the
Modern World.

Atay, as presented above, believes that it is not the Qur’an that presents the problem
to modern Muslim societies. He blames the internal decline of Muslim societies,
their loss of power and backwardness, and their unquestioned clinging to the past
(taqlid) and he stresses the characteristics of dynamism, flexibility, and adaptability
of the early development of Islam, notably for its achievements in law, education and
science. He attempts to reinterpret Islam to meet the changing circumstances of
modern life. Legal, educational, and social reforms are aimed at rescuing Muslim
society from its downward spiral and demonstrating the compatibility of Islam with
modern, Western thought and values. Atay therefore calls for internal reform/ tajd >d
through a process of reinterpretation “ Ijtihad” by using classical and modern tools.

As seen, Atay uses etymology and also other methodologies as listed to reinterpret
problematic verses in the name of the modernisation of Islamic discourse.
Additionally, he differentiates the modernisation of Muslim society from
Westernisation. Since he is using Western values of rationalism, secularism,
modernism, women’s rights, etc. in his defence of Islam, he apologetically claims
these are Qur’anic. What he does can be called the Islamification of Western values.

Hüseyin Atay does not simply seek to purify Islam by a return to the Qur’an. Instead,
Atay wishes to chart its future direction through a reinterpretation of Islam in the
light of modern realities. He is one of the pioneers, like Öztürk, who accepts change

138
as a continuing struggle. Atay and Öztürk attempt to establish continuity between
Qur’anic discourse and modern change. On one hand, while they call for the
purification of internal deficiencies, and deviations and call for returning to the
Qur’an, on the other, they borrow and assimilate new ideas and values from the
West.

As noted above, Atay and Öztürk focus on the process of interpretation, “ ijtiha>d”.
They claim that it is necessary to formulate new regulations. Instead of simply
engaging in a restoration of the practice of the early Muslim community, Atay and
Öztürk promote an adaptation of Islam to the changing conditions of modern society.
In effect, this means new ideas and attitudes toward religious and social reforms.
Moreover, their espousal of the process of reinterpretation that adapts Qur’anic
teaching to modern Western values results in a transformation of their meanings to
accommodate and legitimate the new ideas. They talk about parliamentary
democracy, monogamy, bank interest, even secularism as if they were originally
Qur’anic. Additionally, Hüseyin Atay promotes a rationalist point of view on the
issues.

Atay and Öztürk, however, did not seem to provide a systematic, comprehensive
methodology of the reinterpretation of the Qur’an. However, with the writings of
Muslim intellectuals who focus on the flexibility, compatibility and adaptability of
Islam to modern culture, they influence the emergence of many like-minded modern
Muslim scholars, especially in the Ankara academic circle.

3.2. MEHMET PAÇACI

Mehmet Paçac was born in 1959 in Bolu, in the north west of Turkey. Having
completed religious high school ( ✁mam Hatip) in 1977, he began to attend Ankara
University’s Theology Faculty. He graduated from the faculty in 1982. Paçac
received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Qur’anic studies from Ankara University.

In 1985, he went to Saudi Arabia to study Arabic and studied in King Saud
University in his field. Between 1987 and 1988, he was awarded a scholarship by the

139
British Council to enable him to carry out academic studies in Manchester
University’s Department of Religion and Theology. In 1989, he completed his PhD
thesis which is later published as Kur’an’da ve Kitab Mukaddeste Ahiret ✁nanc 285
(‘Eschatological Belief in Qur'an and Bible’).

Paçac✂ gave lectures between 1993 and 1995, at Malaysia International Islamic
University, Kuala Lumpur and in 1998 at Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana and
Pontificio Instittuto Di Studi Arabe E D’Islamistica, Vatican.

He has published ✁slami Bilimde Metodoloji Sorunu (‘The Issue of Methodology in

286
Islamic Science’) and has also published in many academic journals including the
articles “Kur’an- ✂ Kerim I✄☎✂nda Vahiy Gelenegine Bir Bak✂✄”(‘A Consideration on
287
the Tradition of Revelation (Vahy) from the Qur'anic Perspective’) and “Anlama
288
(F✂kh) Usuluna Dair” (‘On the Method of Understanding (Fiqh)’) . Currently in his
position at Ankara University he teaches courses entitled “The Semitic Character of
289
the Qur'an” and “The Qur'an and Judeo-Christian Religious Texts”.

Paçac✂ studies the terms Islam and the Qur’an in a Semitic context. For him Islam is
the name of all Semitic religions, namely Judaism, Christianity and Islam itself, and
the Qur’an, like the Bible, is a part of Semitic revelation. The proof of this fact for
him is narratives on the Semites in the Qur’an. These narratives are also occur in the
Bible. The fact that the Bible and the Qur’an share similar monotheist discourses for
290
Paçac✂ shows that the Qur’an has a Semitic basis.

The fact that Semitic religious tradition was the source of the Qur’an, Paçac✂ asserts,

285
✆stanbul: Nun Yay✝nc✝l✝k 1994.
286
Ankara; Fecr 1992.
287
✞ slami Ara✟t✠ rmalar (Journal of Islamic Research) v.5 n.3 1991, pp. 175-193.
288
✞ slami Ara✟t✠ rmalar v.7 n.2 1995, pp. 85-97.
289
See further information on his biography: Yakup Çicek and Bünyamin Aç✝kal✝n, (2000) Türkiye
✞ lahiyat Fakülteleri Tefsir Anabilim Dal✠ Ö✡retim Elemanlar✠ Biyografileri (Turkish Theology
Faculties: Biography of the Lecturers of Department of Qur’anic Studies) edited by, ✆stanbul, pp.
41-43.
290
See further information: Paçac✝, M., (2000) “Kur’an✝ Kerim I☛✝☞✝nda Vahiy Gelene☞ine Bir
Bak✝☛ ”(A Consideration on the Tradition of Revelation (Wahy) from the Qur'anic Perspective),
pp. 175-193.

140
cannot be overlooked. In his opinion, the Qur’an, in comparison to the Bible, gives
brief information about Semitic materials. In order to get more information and to fill
the gaps that the Qur’an left, Muslim scholars throughout history have used
Israiliyyat, a narrative genre. However, because of discussions on Israiliyyat , the
Semitic studies in Islamic tradition has not been sufficiently developed.

Paçac offers the comparative Semitic and linguistic studies that is produced, he
291
asserts, in Biblical studies to fill the gap in Qur’an. In his article, In order to
explore the monotheist faith in all Semitic religions through studying certain
Qur’anic terms, Paçac takes the Surah Ikhlas as a case and applies etymology, and
comparative Semitic and linguistic studies. Paçac presents the key terms, ah}ad,
s}amad, walad, yalid in surah ikhlas.

Ah}ad for instance, is the term that means one and unique both in Arabic and other
Semitic languages:

Ahad is a common term that is used in all Semitic languages

including Arabic. The term is in the same sense in Assyrian,
Mandaic, Ethiopic, Hebrew, and Aramaic. The first letter, A
(hamza) is removed in Aramaic and is pronounced as
had.292[my translation]

As a word found in all semitic languages, the term ahad is used in Semitic religious
293
texts, the Old and New Testament, in the same meaning is in the Qur’an. S}amad
294
also is a common term in the Semitic languages.

As a matter of fact, when etymology and comparative Semitic studies are used by
295
orientalists with regard to the Qur’an, as in Jeffery’s work , it is believed that the

291
This article firstly published in Islamiyat v. 1 n.3 1998, pp. 49-71; republished in Kur’an ve ben
Ne Kadar Tarihseliz, pp. 155-184 with the title of “Deki Allah ‘BIR’ dir: Sami Dini Gelenegi
Perspectifinden Ihlas Suresinin Bir Tefsiri Denemesi” ( Say Allah is ONE: An Introduction to
Sura Ihlas from a Semitic Religious Tradition Perspective).
292
Pacaci, M., “Deki Allah ‘BIR’ dir”, p. 159.
293
Ibid: 160.
294
Ibid: 163.
295
Jeffery, A., (1938) Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur’an, p. 1.

141
 296
Qur’an as a book was produced under Judaeo-Christian influence. Paçac says, on
the contrary, these kinds of similarities come from having the same tradition.

3.3. SAL✁H AKDEMIR

Salih Akdemir was born in 1950 in Elaz ✂, in eastern Turkey. Having completed his
high school, he began Islamic education at Ankara University Theology Faculty in
1968. He graduated from the faculty in 1972. Having been awarded a scholarship by
the Minister of National Education (MNE/MEB) to enable him to carry out
postgraduate academic studies in France, in Islamic Law at Sorbonne University in
1972. He accomplished his Doctorate by his L’homicide volontaire et L’homicide
preterintentionnel en droit Penal musulman et en Droit Penal Romain-etude
compare in 1977.

Salih Akdemir also shows an intense interest in the study of Semitic languages.
Under his supervision students have been studying Semitic languages at postgraduate
level in Qur’anic studies.

It seems to be in the circle of scholars in Ankara that Semitic Studies and

Comparative Semitic Linguistics are promoted. Before Paçac and Akdemir, Hilmi
Ömer Budda wrote a series of articles on the worship of sacrifice in Semitic
297
religions. Zeki Velidi Togan in Istanbul also encourages Semitic studies.

3.4. YAS✁N AKTAY

Aktay was born at Siirt, south-eastern Anatolia, in 1966. He received his elementary
and secondary education at Siirt. Then he registered in the Department of Sociology

296
For further information see: Gökk✄r, Bilal, (2002) Western Attitudes to the Origins of the Qur’an:
Twentieth Century English Speaking World Theological and Linguistic Approaches from William
Muir to W. Montgomary Watt, Manchester University, Unpublished PhD thesis, p. 137.
297
For further information see: Gökk✄r, Bilal “The Application”, p. 255.

142
in the Middle East Technical University (METU) in 1985. After completing the
undergraduate level in 1990, he continued studying in METU at graduate level,
which resulted in a thesis entitled Intellectual and Political Disputes on the
Academisation of Religious Knowledge, in which he studied the intellectual and
institutional development of the higher religious institutions, particularly the faculty
of divinity in Turkey, with his Supervisor Prof. Dr. Bahattin Aksit in 1993.

At the same time he edited books published by Vadi Yay nlar , as sociology,
philosophy and political science. In this process he translated Bryan S. Turner's
Weber and Islam into Turkish (1991).

In 1993 he began studying for his PhD programme, which ended in 1997 with the
thesis entitled Body, Text, Identity: The Islamist Discourse of Authenticity in Modern
Turkey. In the PhD thesis he tried to formulate the Turkish Islamist discourse of
authenticity and identity, with the analysis of some texts and figures of Turkish
Islamism.

He joined Selcuk University (Konya) as an assistant researcher in 1992. Since then

he has been working in the Faculty of Sciences and Arts, Department of Sociology.
He gave lectures on Contemporary Sociological Theories , Ottoman Social Structure,
Turkish Sociologists, History of Philosophy, Sociology of Mass Communication, and
New Trends in Sociological Theory, Economical Sociology and Sociology of Law.

He has published articles in Turkish and English on several issues, mainly

sociological and philosophical-religious ones. His more recently book in Turkish
appeared under the title: Türk Dininin Sosyolojik Imkani (‘The Possibility of a
298
Turkish Religion’) . This includes a sociological discourse analysis of the Turkish
state policies of religion. His recent article, “75 Years of Higher Religious Education
in Modern Turkey" was published in The Muslim World jointly with Mehmet
Paçac .

298
✁stanbul: Iletisim Yay✂nlar✂, 1999 and 2000.

143
Aktay also promotes the application of hermeneutics to Islamic religious texts. This
attempt has brought together several studies on related issues. For example he edited
a book on Hermeneutics titled as Önce Söz Vard : Yorumsamac l k Üzerine Bir
299
Deneme (‘In the Beginning was the Word: An Introduction to Hermeneutics’) and
“Kuran Yorumlar✁n✁n Hermenötik Ba✂lam✁” (‘Hermeneutical Context of Qur’anic
300
Interpretation’).

For Aktay hermeneutics in general exists in Islamic literature. However as a Western

discipline it developed in the last 2-3 centuries. Hermeneutics in the Western sense
does not exist in Islamic literature. In the last couple of years, Muslim scholars seem
to have developed an interest in hermeneutics and this for Aktay necessitates their
involvement in modern hermeneutical circles. Aktay believes that Muslims should
take an active part of the hermeneutical tradition:

As Muslims because involved in the process of

understanding and interpreting [in Western sense] their
activities would become a part of hermeneutics... This
neither obliges us to depend on the rules, assumed for the
discipline nor to see the knowledge, developed under this
discipline, as impure. 301 [my translation]

For him, contemporary hermeneutics can be selectively applied to Qur’anic studies.

He has also translated several articles and books from Arabic into Turkish, from
Mohammed Arkoun and Ali Harp. In November 1999, he received the degree of
Associate Professorship.

3.5. H✄DAYET ☎EVKATL✄ TUKSAL

Although one of the leading figures of the feminist movement in Turkey Hidayet
✆ efkatli Tuksal is unknown in Western academia. Tuksal was born in 1963 in
Ankara. She studied at the University of Ankara Theology Faculty where she gained

299
Ankara: Vadi Yayinlari, in companion with Erol Goka and Abdullah Topcuoglu, 1996.
300
✝ slami Ara✞t✟ rmalar, pp. 78-102.
301
Aktay, Y. “Kuran Yorumlar✠n✠n Hermenötik Ba✡ lam✠”, p. 81.

144
first her BA (1985) then her postgraduate degree (1988). Tuksal received a PhD from
the Hadith department with her Kad n Aleyhtar Rivayetler Üzerinde Ataerkil
Gelene✁in Tesirleri (‘The Influences of the Patriarchal Tradition on the Misogynist
Narratives’)

From 1995, Hidayet Sevkatli Tuksal has been an active member of Ba✂kent Kad✄n
Platformu ( Capital Women Platform)302. She has attended many international
conferences 303 as the representative of the Platform. Hidayet Sevkatli knows English
and Arabic, and uses Turkish in her works.

Besides several articles in the Journal, ☎slamiyat, Tuksal published a book, Kad n
Kar✆ t Söylemin ☎slam Gelene✁indeki ☎zdü✆ümleri, (‘The Projections of Misogynist
Discourse in the Islamic Tradition’) in 2000.

Before attending the theology faculty in Ankara, Tuksal grew up in a no-

304
discriminating environment and was educated at a co-educational state school.
Having entered the Faculty of Theology she faced a different environment. The male
population of the faculty overwhelmed the female students, and as a general
impression it was, she says, not desirable for female students to speak in the class or
305
even to attend the course.

For the first year she tried to accept and live with this viewpoint but in the second
year devoted herself to the study of the Qur’an. Having started to read Islam from its
main sources, Qur’an and Hadith, she tended to question everything she was told and
taught before. From the third year onwards she started to feel freedom. She did not
need anyone to teach her Islam. During this period she also encountered Fazlur
Rahman’s writings and found the philosophical bases of her thought in his treatises.

302
This platform consists of women groups of some trusts and unions in Ankara.
303
Such as: “The Conference of World Religious Parliament” in South Africa (1999); “Women
2000” by UN in New York (2000).
304
Ru✝ en Çak✞r published an interview with Tuksal about her ideological development in feminism;
Ru✝en Çak✞r, (2000) Direni✟ ve ✠taat: ✠ki Iktidar Aras✡ nda ✠ slamc✡ Kad✡n, ☛stanbul: Metis
Yay✞ nlar✞.
305
Ibid: 18.

145
After graduation, Tuksal started to teach in a religious high school in Ankara.
Meanwhile she attended a post-graduate programme in the Theology Faculty.
Initially, she aimed to study methodology, but because the male teachers in the high
school always humiliated her with Islamic traditions against women, Tuksal decided
to study the authenticity of this kind of tradition. At the beginning of her study,
Tuksal believed that this kind of Hadith documents was not authentic and was
produced by political debates. However, Tuksal finally came to the conclusion that
they are authentic, and surprisingly, the Qur’an has the same misogynist character.

Conclusion

In this chapter we focused on the influential scholars in the Ankara circle who played
a crucial role in adapting Western literary criticism and hermeneutics: Mehmet
Paçac , Yasin Aktay, and Hidayet ✁efkatli. As the master and pioneer of Turkish
religious studies, Hüseyin Atay was also studied in this chapter.

Atay stresses the adaptability of Islam to modern life and its values. Atay, however,
failed to provide a systematic, comprehensive methodology of reinterpretation of the
Qur’an. However, Muslim intellectuals who focus on the flexibility, compatibility
and adaptability of Islam to modern culture and who use historical criticism with this
aim are influenced by Atay’s ideas especially in the Ankara academic circle.

The other scholars, Mehmet Paçac , Yasin Aktay and Hidayet ✁efkatli Tuksal have
come under the intellectual and cultural influence of the West and, naturally, brought
Western intellectualism to religious studies. They have more contact with and direct
experience of Western hermeneutics and focus more on Western literary criticism
and also a general outline of Western-originated Qur’anic studies.

146
4. HISTORICAL CRITICISM AND THE STUDY OF THE QUR’AN IN
TURKEY

Introduction

This chapter deals with the application of historical criticism to Qur’anic studies in
Turkey. So far, however, far too little attention has been paid to the application
process. In addition, no research has been found that surveyed who among Turkish
scholars has applied it, and how. This chapter will give an account of the way
historical criticism has been applied in Turkey.

4.1. AN OVERVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF HISTORICAL CRITICISM

IN TURKEY

Having previously adapted Western positivism and the philosophy of enlightenment

to underpin modernisation and reformation, Turkey encountered the Western
hermeneutical tradition in the later part of the twentieth century, initially through
Turkish social scientists. The first writings on Hermeneutics belong to Kamuran
Birand in the 1950s. In his Dilthey ve Rickert’te Manevi limlerin Temellendirilmesi ,
and Manevi limler Metodu Olarak Anlama 306, Birand aims to introduce the Western
tradition to the Turkish intellectualism. The second eminent scholar is Dogan
Özlem 307. Promoting different theories, Özlem contributes to extending the
hermeneutical tradition in Turkish social sciences.

Turkish intellectuals have initially introduced the terms historicism and historicity as
ideological theory. These are usually translated as tarihselcilik and tarihsicilik in

306
Birand, K, (1954) Dilthey ve Rickert’te Manevi Ilimlerin Temellendirilmesi Ankara: Ilahiyat
Fakultesi yayini (this work is his Ph.D. theisis) and (1998) Manevi Ilimler Metodu Olarak
Anlama (republished) ✁stanbul: Akcag Yayinevi.
307
Özlem, D., (1995) Metinlerle Hermeneutik Dersleri (Lectures on Hermeneutics with text)
Prospero 1994; Hermeneutik uzerine Yazilar (On Hermeneutics) Ankara.

147
Turkish. However, until the 1980s Turkish Qur’anic scholars had not used to such
terms. By translating the works of pioneer scholars in religious studies, especially
Rahman, Arkoun and Abu Zayd, the last two decades have seen an increasing
interest in the application of historical criticism. Fazlur Rahman was the first scholar
to be introduced. The issue of the application of historical criticism after that became
a controversial and much disputed subject within the field of Qur’anic studies.

308
Since then a number of symposiums on Qur’anic studies have taken place. These
have comprised official and unofficial platforms with contributions from scholars
from Qur’anic studies as well as from other Islamic and social science backgrounds.
The main issue in these academic platforms has been historicism and the Qur’an. The
application of historical criticism has been discussed many times. One of the
conferences was organised by Kur’an Ara t✁rmalar✁ Vakf✁ (Foundation of Qur’anic
Studies) in Bursa in 7-8 May 1994 with the title of Kur’an✁ Nas✁l Anlamal✁y✁z?
309
(‘How must we Understand the Qur’an?’). In the conference the flexibility of
Qur’anic teachings, the historicity of the Qur’an, and the stable, fixed and eternal
elements of the Qur’an were discussed.

The second symposium took place in 1996 following the intensive discussions that
had made the issue of historical criticism problematic for Turkish scholars who had
met at the first conference. Therefore, the organiser of the conference selected the
title “ Symposium on the Problem of Historicity in Understanding The Qur’an”. In the
opening speech, the following point was emphasised:

We wish the issue to be discussed without any prejudice in

all its breadth and depth and that in the end a conclusion will

308
Symposium of the Qur’an I, 1-3 April 1994, organised by Bilgi Vakfi, published Ankara 1996;
Symposium of the Qur’an II, 4-5 November 1995, organised by Bilgi Vakf✂, published Ankara
1996; The Week of the Qur’an, Symposium of the Qur’an I, 3-5 February 1995, organised by
Fecr Yay✂nevi, published Ankara 1995; The Week of the Qur’an, Symposium of the Qur’an II, 2-
4 February 1996, organised by Fecr Yay✂nevi, published Ankara 1996; Symposium on the
Problem of Historicity in Understanding the Qur’an 8-10 November 1996, published ✄ stanbul
2000.
309
The papers given in the conference published with the title of Kur’ani Nasil Anlamal☎y☎z?
✄stanbul: Ragbet yay ✂nevi 2002.

148
 be reached that is clear, understandable to everyone and
utilised. In other words, by discussing only, do not drive us
in chaos and preoccupy our mind. Let our scholars and
intellectuals present us at a reasonable point, understandable
prescriptions and results.310 [my translation, my italic]

In this meeting, Paçac was the keynote speaker with his paper, “Kur’an ve
Tarihsellik Tart ✁mas ” (‘Discussion on the Qur’an and Historicity’) Yasin Aktay
who was another speaker prefers to give the genealogy of historical criticism in the
West. As far as Western literary criticism is concerned, Ali Bulaç as another speaker,
is always on the opposite side, against the adoption of historical criticism in Qur’anic
studies.

Historicism in the West, for Paçac , led to a preference for a diachronic as against a
dogmatic reading. Interestingly, he argues that the emergence and development of
historical criticism in the West owe their existence to Muslim influence, textual and
source criticism having been applied to the Bible by Muslim critics such as Ibn
Hazm and Ibn Taymiyya. Moreover, for Paçac , early theories of Us}u>l al-Tafs >r,
such as asba>b al-nuzu>l, historical classifications of verses such as makk ✂> and
madan✂>, na>sikh and mansu>kh indicate that from the historical and progressive
perspective of Muslim literature it has always existed.

Paçac asserted that The Qur'an should be read in its historical context:

This [historical] characteristic of the Qur'an comes from its

being revealed thorough a human messenger and being
words that address humans. In other words, the fact that the
divine word comes into existence in human borders is the
main reason for this assumption [i.e. historical character of
the Qur'an].311 [my translation]

Another participant in the symposium, Yasin Aktay, gave the genealogy of historical
criticism. Pioneer Muslim applicants, especially Fazlur Rahman, Aktay claims, have
tended to ignore Gadamerian hermeneutics, insisting on old-fashion historicism.

310
Kur’an✄ Anlamada Tarihsellik Sorunu Sempozyumu, p. 10.
311
Pacaci, Mehmet, “Kur’an ve Tarihsellik Tart☎✆mas☎”, p. 22.

149
Ignoring Gadamer’s caution on ‘historical consciousness’, Aktay claims, their so-
called objective readings are, in fact, very subjective processes of textual aquisitions.
Gadamer states that an objective reading of any text is impossible because an
historical text can always be read from different historical point of views. Therefore,
when exegetes such as Rahman claim to have read the Qur’an objectively, they can,
in fact, be charged with having produced their own "effective history", i.e. having
312
done a projection of their own history into the Qur’an.

Apart from these symposiums, discussion has continued in PhD theses, journals and
books, attempting to evaluate historical criticism. These include evket Kotan’s PhD
thesis, Kur’an ve Tarihsellik (Qur’an and Historicity) at Ankara University Theology
Faculty (2001), ✁shak Özgel’s PhD thesis, Tarihselcilik Dü✂üncesi Ba✄lam☎nda
Kur’an☎n Tarihsel Yorumu (‘Historical Reading of the Qur’an in the Context of
Historicity’) at Suleyman Demirel University Theology Faculty (2002). The
structures of these studies have almost the same presentation. They usually attempt to
describe the terms historicism, and historicity, and to discuss its applicability to the
Qur’an.

Özgel, for example, talks about the historical development of historicity in the West
and also the Islamic version of historical reading in Qur’anic teachings and Islamic
thought. In this regard, in the first chapter, he introduces Western philosophers. In
the second chapter, Özgel examines Historicism from the line of the modern Islamic
thought of Mohammed Arkoun, Hasan Hanafi, Abu Zayd and Fazlur Rahman.
However, he claims that the idea of historicity has been correspondingly used in
Qur’anic studies. These two traditions are what he attempts to combine in his
application in the last chapter.

The author summaries several analytical stages of research in applying historicity to

the Qur’an:

312
For further information see: Aktay, Yasin, “Kur’an tarihselciligine bir Soykütü✆ ü (Genealogy)
Denemesi” Kur’an✝ Anlamada Tarihsellik Sorunu Sempozyumu, pp. 30-36.

150
 - The reader’s attitude to the Qur’an in light of his/her present concerns
- The historical rootedness of Qur’anic verses
- The historical meaning of the verses
- The flexibility of meaning
- The possibility to move this flexible meaning into the contemperorary time.
Özgel affirms that all stages have a certain interpretative application and follow this
order.

1- The first stage promotes the readers’ position in the process. Like Gadamer, he
asserts, Özgel puts the reader in the dialogue with the text. Özgel remind us here of
Fazlur Rahman’s attitude towards the reader’s own effective history. On the contrary,
Özgel advocates Gadamer’s perspective for giving a role to the reader. This role is,
for him, inadequate. In this regard, Özgel cannot decide whether the reader or the
Qur’anic text is important. The reader is important as a historical figure that brings
historical meaning to his own time. On the other hand, the reader is a historical figure
who reads the Qur’an according to his context and conjecture:

On the one hand, we accept historicity, on the other hand, we

suggest this historicity should be in the textuality of the
Qur’an. In fact we believe that this can be possible through
good intention and attempts at understanding the text [by the
reader]. In the statements of surah ‘A<li Imra>n which says
that there are Muh}kam and Mutasha>bih verses, “so as for
those in whose hearts there is a deviation they follow that
which is not entirely clear thereof, seeking al-fitna and
seeking for its mutashabihat”, the position of the readers of
the Qur’an is illustrated and it is said not to be in evil
intention. 313 [my translation]

2- The second stage advocates studying the Qur’anic text in order to determine which
are the flexible and which are the eternal characteristics. The Qur’an, he claims, is
flexible and changeable when it talks about local Arabic traditions, customs, and
social structures.

While the first stage promotes the reader and the text of the Qur’an this second stage

313
Özgel, Ishak Tarihselcilik Dü üncesi Ba✁ lam✂ nda Kur’an✂n Tarihsel Yorumu, p. 258.

151
focuses on the character of the text. This is the stage that the previous Muslim
scholars have already applied.

3- The third stage deals with the meaning of the verses that have been found to be
flexible and changeable in the second stage. How does he understand and give
meaning to the historical verses? The answer is that he utilises scientific historical
inquiry.

4- By seeking historical meaning, he arrives at the fact that the meaning is always
changing and is in a process of development. He coins a new term, tarihsel
alternativsizlik [historical choicelessness].

5- What is the new meaning? That is the task in the last stage. The reader should try
to make the flexible and optional meaning relevant to his own time.

4.2. THE INFLUENCE OF FAZLUR RAHMAN, M. ARKOUN AND N. H.

ABU ZAYD

As we have said, Turkish Qur’anic studies were primarily introduced to historical

criticism through translations of the most influential scholars who were pioneer
applicants of Western methods and theories. The translation of Islam by Mehmet
Ayd n and Mehmet Dag in 1980, The Major Themes of the Qur’an by Alpaslan
Acikgenc in 1987, and Islam and Modernity in 1990 has been followed by academic
and intellectual debates, conferences and publications on Fazlur Rahman and his new
314
way of reading the Qur’an . Abdul-Karim Soroush, Mohammed Arkoun, Hasan
Hanafi, and Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd have also contributed to the intellectual and
academic debate.

Among the transmitters, Fazlur Rahman has had a crucial place in Turkish Islamic
academia. Before his works were translated into Turkish, he had contact with the

314
✁ slamiAra✂t✄rmalar: Fazlurrahman Özel Say✄s✄ (Journal Of Islamic research: Fazlur Rahman
Specific Issue) v.4 n.4 October 1990.

152
Ankara Theology Faculty. He gave a couple of conference papers and initiated
lectures in Islamic studies in 1977. He also had postgraduate students from Turkey,
315 316
Alpaslan Aç kgenç , and ✁lber Oltayl for example, when he was at Chicago
University. These two scholars have played a crucial role in introducing Rahman and
his methodology to Turkish religious academia.

Other participants have usually influenced Turkish academia through translation. The
first translation of Arkoun, for example, was his article in Turkish “Kur’an-
th
Kerim’in 18. suresinin Okunmasi” (‘Reading the 18 surah of the Qur’an’) by Cemal
Baki Akal and Osman Sadettin in an edited book, Dün ve Bugün Felsefe
(‘Philosophy Yesterday and Today’) in 1985. However, until 1994 Arkoun attracted
no attention from scholars in religious studies. Some of his articles translated in
Turkish are “✁slam Tarih Yaz m nda Yöntem Sorunu” by Yasin Aktay and
Cemalettin Erdemci in a Turkish journal, Tezkire317, and “Kur’an Nas l Okumal ?”
by Ahmet Zeki Ünal in slami Ara✄t☎rmalar 318. Eventually, Arkoun’s Lectures du
✂

Coran was translated as Kur’an Okumalar☎ 319 by Ahmet Zeki Unal in 1995. Arkoun
also gave a conference in ✁stanbul with Serif Mardin in 1995. This conference is
published under the title of Avrupa’da Etik, Din ve Laiklik320 (‘Ethic, Religion and
Secularism in Europe’).

A recent and most crucial development in translation might be said to be that of Abu
321
Zayd’s Mafhu>m al-Nas{s{ by Mehmet Emin Ma✆al in 2001 and Naqd al-
322
Kh}ita>b al-D☎>n☎> by Fethi Ahmet Polat in 2002. Abu Zayd also has had
academic contact with Turkish scholars. His article, “Ishkaliyya>t al-Ta’w >l
Qad >men wa Had >sen” (‘The issues of Hermeneutics: Past and Present’) was

315
Professor at Fatih University.
316
Professor at Ankara University .
317
Tezkire 6/1994, pp. 49-70.
318
✝ slami Ara✞t✟ rmalar 3-4/1994, pp. 247-259.
319
Arkoun, Muhammed, (1995) Kur’an Okumalar✟ tr. Ahmet Zeki Unal ✠stanbul: ✠nsan Yayinlari.
320
Abel, Arkoun, Mardin, (1995) Avrupa’da Etik, Din ve Laiklik , ✠stanbul: Metis.
321
Abu Zayd, Nasr Hamid, (2001) ✝lahi Hitabin Tabiat✟: Metin Anlay✟✞✟m✟z ve Kur’an Ilimleri
Üzerine, tr. Mehmet Emin Ma✡al☛ Ankara: Kitabiyat.
322
Ankara: Kitabiyat 2002 .

153
 323
published with a Turkish translation in slami Ara✁t ✂rmalar in 1996 and “Kur’an
Hermeneuti✄ine Do✄ru: Humanist Yorum Anlay☎✆☎” was published only in
Turkish. 324

4.3. MAJOR THEMES AND ISSUES

Having been influenced by pioneer applicants, Turkish scholars first began with a
critique of traditional Islamic discourse, (or orthodoxy in Arkoun’s term) on the
revelation of the Qur’an. They argued that the Qur’an is a book given to the Prophet
over a 22-year period, reflecting the socio-historical context of the community to
which it was initially addressed. They assert that the concerns, interests and context
in the Qur’an are organically related to the linguistic, cultural, political, economic
and religious life of seventh century people of Mecca and Madina. This close
connection between the process of revelation and its social context is the main point
that differentiates applicants of historical criticism from the traditionalist discourse of
revelation. In so doing they are insisting on historicity and its human dimensions in
the content and the structure of the Qur’an, as in the case of Rahman and Abu Zayd.
Secondly, they primarily adopted the double-movement theory which has been
advanced by Rahman and Farid Esack in order to connect past and present.

Eventually, the application of historical criticism is thanks to the pioneer applicants’

vast contribution, widely used in Turkish Qur’anic studies. Their influences and
importance still remain in academia.

The historical critical approach, as discussed before, has been adopted by Turkish
scholars in order to adapt Islam to the modern world. With this aim in mind, Hayri
K☎rba✆o✄lu and Salih Akdemir participated in a classical debate on Islamic legal
methodology, “the flexibility or stability of the Qur’anic sentences in legal cases”,

323
Abu Zayd, Nasr Hamid, (1996) “Tarihte ve Gunümüzde ‘Kur’an Te’vili’ Sorunsal✝” tr. Ömer
Özsoy ✞slami Ara✟t✠ rmalar 9, pp. 1-45.
324
Abu Zayd, Nasr Hamid, (2004) “Kur’an Hermeneuti✡ine Do✡ru: Humanist Yorum Anlay✝☛✝” in
✞slamiyat 7 , pp. 39-60.

154
which is discussed by Hüseyin Atay. They both spoke in the first conference
organised by Kur’an Ara t ✁rmalar✁ Vakfi (Foundation of Qur’anic Studies) in Bursa
in 7-8 May 1994. Both scholars advocated the flexibility of Qur’anic teachings which
belong to the Muhammadan period of the Arabian Peninsula; that is to say that the
Qur’an has local and historical aspects. They also discussed whether there are stable,
fixed and eternal elements in the Qur’an. K✂rba✄o☎lu in his paper, “Kur’an’da
325
Mahalli ve Evrensel Degerler” (Local and Eternal Values in the Qur’an) illustrates
the stable and flexible elements of the Qur’an as in the diagram:

Metaphysics

Moral

Ibadat

Legal

Table 2: Hierarchy of Qur’anic teachings

In this diagram, every element stands in accurate hierarchy. The three higher
elements are within the stable, fixed and eternal aspects of Qur’anic teachings; the
legal element, on the bottom is the only flexible and historical dimension of the
Qur’an.

The legal judgments in the Qur’an, for instance on women’s rights, modern financial
establishments, even the punishments of some crimes like adultery, and robbery

325
K✆rba✝o✞lu, Hayri, (2002) “Kur’an’da Mahalli ve Evrensel Degerler” , Kur’an✟ Nas✟l
Anlamal✟ y✟ z?, pp. 69-78.

155
which reflects Arabic local and medieval custom, can, for him, be adapted to modern
cultures. According to K rba✁o✂lu, Muslim legislative history shows a similar pattern
of adaptation, in which the sentences for crimes were modified according to
conditions. The second Caliph, Omar, is the most famous figure in this regard.

Another delegate to the conference, Salih Akdemir, followed on from K rba✁o✂lu in

his paper, “Kur’ani Anlamada Tarihsellik ve Butunsellik Sorunu” (‘The Problem of
326
Historicism and the Totality in Understanding the Qur’an’) . Akdemir rediscussed
the controversial problem of adapting Islam to non-Islamic (foreign/Western)
culture. In his conference paper he gives the following statement:

Before, it was said that we have been making the agenda

under the influences of the West and not that we had to seek
out solutions from the Qur’an… This [idea] is completely
correct, of course, we are discussing these issues because of
Western impacts and influences. Otherwise it is impractical
to work on them… Today the sentences applied to the human
body, like amputation of hand and arm and decapitation with
a sword, both women and men to be pelted with stones, all
are understood as horrible and vicious things… If you cut the
hand of a thief you cannot make the West happy. You may
say that the West is not our concern. Well, you may think
that the West is not our concern, because we are fully
independent and completely self-sufficient. In this regard,
you may say that we have no need for any verification from
the West, however, life continues despite everything. 327 [my
translation]

Akdemir, in fact, does not accept that the West is the solution of modern problems;
on the contrary, the West itself is the problem for modern Muslims. Western values
and perspectives cause Muslims to seek solutions. For Akdemir, the solution is the
new method, historical criticism .

Turkish scholars have encountered certain problems from the beginning of the
application process. The main issue is the problem of source. What is the source of
historicism: the West or Islam? Akdemir replies:

326
Ibid: 107-116.
327
Ibid: 107-108.

156
 The poor and humiliated are all Muslims. In this regard, the
main reason of our concern about the historicity is the West.
But for the West we would not study it. In fact, the terms of
historicity or historicité are produced by Muslim modernist
thinkers… Some scholars, especially living in the West, in
order to present Islam as an option for Western people, assert
that these kinds of punishment are related to the revelation
period and they are not in use any more. By doing so, they
put historicity on the agenda.328 [my translation]

As seen in the above passage, it is evident that the idea of historicity is originally
produced and applied to the Qur’an by Muslims themselves. Akdemir clearly claims
that “the historicity was first used by Mu’tazila in the subject of creation of the
Qur’an.”329

It can be asked, if Islamic culture has ideas and perspectives on the flexibility and
adaptability of the Qur’anic verses, and this helps Muslims to adapt Islam in modern
time, why do they use the Western terms, historicism, and historicity; and why do
they discuss an Islamic subject using foreign words. Is it just a matter of fashion to
talk in English or French?

Perhaps, at the beginning of the 1990s, Turkish religious academia did not have
sufficient knowledge of Western literary and Biblical criticism. Therefore, they
relied on translations. This translation process has led to the transformation of
language and the subject of religious studies in Turkey. Because of the lack of
theoretical background and terminological uncertainties in Turkish religious
academia, Islamic classical interpretative subjects were discussed using new terms.

In the application process, Turkish scholars have always faced the problem of
justification. The applicants therefore claim that historical criticism emerged and
developed in Islamic culture and that Muslims have been familiar with this
330
perspective. “In Qur’anic studies and Usul al-Fiqh,”, Paçac for instance says ,
“historical criticism has been used”.

328
Ibid: 108.
329
Ibid: 111.
330
Pacaci, Mehmet, “Kur’an ve Tarihsellik Tart✁✂mas✁”, p. 18.

157
However, Ömer Özsoy, while advocating the legacy of the historical perspective
within Islam, does not deny the Western origin of historical crticism applied to the
Qur’an by the Muslim pioneers Fazlur Rahman and Abu Zayd. According to Ozsoy,
Islam and the West have always influenced each other throughout history. For him it
is impossible for Islam to be an isolated culture. Seemingly a traditional issue, the
creation of the Qur’an, ( Kh{alq al-Qur’a>n) for example, indeed, was originally a
Christian-influenced phenomenon.

According to Özsoy, whether the historicity of the Qur’an is Western or Islamic in

origin is not the important issue. Özsoy, therefore, does not highlight the problem of
the legitimacy of adaptation from outside Islamic culture. Instead, he focuses only on
the Qur’an in its historical character and its adaptability to the modern world.

Moreover, with respect to the sincerity and consistency of opposing scholars, Özsoy
noties a paradox in their arguments:

It is a pity to see that in all the articles an impression was

given that the theory of the historicity of the Qur’an was
adapted from the West. On the other hand the arguments
which are used to object to the theories of the historicity of
the Qur’an are also borrowed from foreign culture. In the
end, by objecting to a view because it is foreign will
undermine their own arguments that deserve similar
accusation. 331

However, blaming Muslim scholars for using Western terms that bring their own
paradigms, Ali Bulaç criticises the adaptations from the West as an
accommodationism that permits un-Islamic, Western Christian practices to infiltrate
Islam. Adaptation, for him, is condemned because it deviates from Islamic
paradigms. Bulaç has become worried about Western Christian paradigms, if they are
used in legal or any other aspect of Islam. Almost in the fashion of Grunebaum’s
system theory, he is concerned about the fact that changes in one aspect of Islam will
change all other parts of Islamic thought and practices in the Muslim world, which
will eventually lead to a gradual loss of Islam’s identity. He already assesses current

331
Özsoy, Ömer, (2004) “Kur’an ve Tarihsellik Tart ✁malar nda Gözden Kaç( r l)anlar“, p. 69.

158
streams of Islamic reform as adaptations of the European model of Christian
Protestantism, which he condemns, because it is alien to a true Islamic identity, as
becomes clear from the following quotation:

There are interesting resemblances between the fundamental

arguments of the people we mentioned and the movement
called Protestantism. If I understand it correctly it means
that we are facing a new protestant movement in Islam. So
can we call this event protestantization of Islam in the
context of modernization? 332

4.4. EVALUATION OF THE APPLICATION PROCESS

The issue of application has been discussed especially in Ankara academic circles.
Hüseyin Atay, Salih Akdemir, Mehmet Paçac , and Ömer Özsoy are the most
recognised, but not the only, scholars of the Ankara Theology Faculty in the
discussion. This result may be explained by the dominant character of the faculty.
They attempt to reinterpret Islam according to modern and Western values and
perspectives. Another reason is their intensive academic connection with the West
and most significantly with pioneer applicants especially with Rahman and Abu
Zayd.

As the result of having also systematically discussed the issue on many academic
platforms and in the media, they established a group, Ankara Ekolu333 which houses
publications, Kitabiyat 334, and Ankara Okulu335, and academic journals, ✁slami
Ara✂t✄rmalar336 and ✁slamiyat 337. In contrast to individual activities in other Muslim
countries, the application of historical criticism, therefore, has been embodied in
institutions.

332
Bulaç, Ali, (2000) “Kur’an’☎ Bir Metin Olarak Antroplojik Gözle Okuma”, pp. 125-130.
333
This name was coined by themselves to distinguish them from Islamic orthodoxy embodied in
the ✆stanbul (Marmara) Theology Faculty.
334
Based in Ankara.
335
Based in Ankara.
336
This journal which was first published in 1987 is known for its modernist approach towards
religious issues.
337
This journal has been published since 1998.

159
Turkish scholars have applied the idea of historicity to the Qur’an for religious
modernisation purposes. As a supportive idea, classical disciplines, like Asba>b al-
Nuzu>l have been introduced to historical reading. However, in Us}u>l al-Tafs >r,
these kind of disciplines and literatures as chronological evidence have been used
primarily to understand when a particular verse or text was revealed and to determine
which text abrogated the other.

In the West, by contrast, historical critical investigation of the Qur’an has been
applied differently. While Western scholars, such as Richard Bell in his Introduction
to the Qur’an and The Origin of Islam in its Christian Environment and W. M Watt
in his Bell’s Introduction to The Qur’an and Muhammad at Mecca, and History in
the Qur’an in general try to reconstruct the events which happened in the seventh
century, Turkish scholars want to adapt the historical context to their context. This
aim is congruent with that of the pioneer applicants, especially with that of Fazlur
Rahman. This is quite normal because Turkish applicants introduced the term and the
way of using historical criticism through Muslim transmitters not Western sources.

Fazlur Rahman’s double movement approach has also been adapted by Turkish
scholars in order to connect past and present on the basis of a historical reading of
the Qur’an. Historical criticism, indeed, requires historical reconstruction and
investigation through determining to find motivations behind the text, its time and its
place of revelation and to seek original meaning (the true meaning) of the text and
“what really happened” at the time of revelation. Instead, Turkish applicants, like
their transmitters, simply rely on the text in terms of the historical investigation.
Their way of reading in fact, on the one hand is related to the investigation of the
socio-historical content of the Qur’an. On the other hand, their subjectivity is indeed
associated with their evaluation. This is because, relying only on the text and
recognising the broader linguistic context of the Qur’an, they provide a wider
contextual basis for investigation. By doing so Turkish scholars have more in
common with text-based literary theories than with historical criticism.

160
Conclusion

This chapter has given an account of the application of the historical critical
approach to the Qur’an. This study has shown that Turkish intellectuals introduced
the term historical criticism first into the Ankara academic circle with the translation
of the works of Fazlur Rahman. From the above it can be concluded that Salih
Akdemir, Mehmet Paçac , and Ömer Özsoy give much importance to the task of
recovering the meaning of the Qur’an as understood at the time of the Prophet and
look upon the Qur’an in its historical context. According to them, the traditional
perception of the Qur’an as a universal scripture resulted in scholars ignoring the
different historical socio-political contexts and eventually destroyed historical
thinking (historicism) as an analytical tool for understanding the Qur’an.

The results of this study indicate that the application of historical criticism has been
discussed many times. In these debates, as a professor of Qur’anic Studies in the
theology Faculty of Ankara University, Mehmet Paçac ’s declaration was very
characteristic in offering historical criticism as a solution to modern problems.
According to Paçac , although historical criticism emerged and developed in the
West, the Muslims are not unfamiliar with this approach. In Qur’anic studies and in
Usul al-Fiqh, Muslims are using almost the same approach in traditional exegesis.
According to Paçaci, that is how the historical approach, as developed in Western
thought and applied to Muslim sources by Western orientalists, found plenty of
material ready and available in Muslim literature that had been produced in the
heyday of Islam.

The most obvious finding to emerge from this study is that the second main problem
is the legitimacy of the source: the West. As seen in the discussion, that is why they
adapted from Muslim mediators rather than from the Western originators.

Contrary to expectation, they do not follow the method of historical reading in

genetic questions about Qur’anic text. They are not even interested in the original
sources of the books rather than the final product, mus{haf. The original meaning
(the true meaning) of the text and “what really happened” at the time of revelation is

161
not really important for understanding the Qur’an. But the true meaning is what fits
the reader’s social and intellectual context.

These results are inconsistent with those of other studies by Western scholars which
aim to establish a historical-critical reading of the Qur’an for the discovery of the
original meaning. Turkish scholars investigate the historical context of the revelation
in order to adapt it to modern issues. That is why Turkish scholars apply the idea of
“historicity” to the Qur’an.

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5. TEXT-BASED CRITICAL APPROACHES AND QUR’ANIC STUDIES IN
TURKEY

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to review recent applications of text-based approaches,

especially New Criticism and Structural Semantics in Qur’anic studies in Turkey.
The characteristics of Turkish applications and discussions in academic and
intellectual circles will be examined. Finally, an evaluation of a Turkish application
will be undertaken with some concluding remarks.

5.1. FORMALISM AND NEW CRITICISM

Formalism and the New Criticism are not explicitly used in Qur’anic studies in
Turkey. However, the works which promote historicism and “historical inquiry” are,
in reality, interested in the text-based reading of the Mush}af. Like canonical
criticism in Biblical studies and New criticism in literary criticism, which rely on the
final corpus of the text not on the historical sources, Turkish scholars have more in
common with text-based literary theories.

There is also a movement among Turkish scholars who treat the Qur’an as a self-
contained, self-referential source in reference to this new development. They perform
a close reading, concentrating on the language, the text and the relationships within
the text that give it its own distinctive character or form. By focusing on the Qur’an,
“an epistemological course”, in Angelika Neuwirth’s words, “has been set” and “the
338
literary image of the Qur’an reflects a text still in progress, indeed...” .

338
Neuwirth, Angelika, (2000) “Referentiality and Textuality in Surat al-Hijr. Some Observations
on the “Canonical Process” and the emergence of a Community” in Literary Structures of
Religious Meaning in the Qur’an, ed. By Issa J. Boullata, p. 143.

163
Öztürk, for instance, emphasises the project of “Reconstruction: Returning to
Qur’an” (Yeniden Yap lanmak: Kur’an’a Dönü✁ ). 339 The method of returning to the
Qur’an would seem to eliminate any reference to tradition in the formation of Islamic
sectarian doctrine. In fact, however, Öztürk is concerned with the elimination of
human additions to reinterpretation of the Qur’an, provided that this traditional
interpretation can be justified.

The idea of Öztürk’s reconstruction suggests that the authority of theologians and
sectarians is subordinate to that of the Qur’an. This is not necessarily to say that they
have no authority at all. As we saw, Öztürk allows certain Hadith and theologians. It
is to say, however, that such authority is derived from the Qur’an and thus it is
subordinate to the Qur’an.

Öztürk turns to the past to “rediscover” Qur’anic principles and values that could be
employed to reconstruct an alternative Islamic model for modern Muslim society in
the Qur’an. One of the most important examples of returning to the Qur’an is that of
the Islamic state model, according to Özturk. He believes that true Islamic belief and
practice as in the Qur’an was corrupted during the Umayyad period. The system of
government was changed to a monarchy in this period. He says there is no specific
model of government advocated by the Qur’an. For Öztürk, a theocratic state is not
suggested in the Qur’an because only the prophet can govern this kind of state. The
only principle stated in the Qur’an is the shura> which is equal to democracy in

339
Echoing the work of Iqbal, Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam Ya✂ar Nuri Öztürk
emphasises Reconstruction. Iqbal devoted himself to the revival of Islam. He did this both as a
poet-philosopher, and as a politician. Islam and the Muslim community, in Iqbal’s opinion, were
in danger: they remained in decay and decline, were politically and intellectually powerless,
morally corrupted, and culturally backward. All of this, for Iqbal, stood in sharp contrast with the
inner nature of Islam, which was dynamic and creative. Drawing on his Islamic heritage and
influenced by Western Philosophy (Hegel, Bergson, Nietzsche), he developed his own synthesis
and interpretation of Islam. The West’s experience, for him, can help to revive Islam. Ya✂ ar Nuri
Öztürk, like Iqbal, is influenced by Western Philosophy (Hegel, Bergson, Nietzsche), and
reinterprets, and adapts Western values and ideas. However, he criticises its excesses, such as
European imperialism and colonialism, misuses by orientalism, moral bankruptcy of Western
culture.

164
 340
modern terms.

Another most important work which promotes a text-based approach to the Qur’an
and insists on the literal meanings is Contemporary Exegesis of the Noble Qur’an by
Süleyman Ate . The commentary starts with the first surah al-Fatiha, in which the
Qur’anic discourse is intensified and encapsulated. The Qur’anic discourse, for him,
is summarized by the following five elements:

- Belief in the Unity of God ( Tawh✁>d)

- Belief in the Hereafter, in which good will be rewarded and evil punished

- Worship ( Ibada>t) of Allah

- To show the way of peace/salvation

- To give an admonishing lesson through the stories of religious rebellion

against God

These are the articles that God, he asserts, wants to give in peace to believers in this
life and in the hereafter. The surah Fatiha summarises all of them. Therefore, the rest
341
of the Qur’an is the commentary of the surah Fatiha.

In discussing the first revealed surah, Ate , contrary to classical opinion which
depends on historical evidence, accepts the final corpus of the Qur’an and suggests
that the surah Fatiha is the first revealed surah. The reason for his emphasis on this
view is that the Qur’an, for him, from the beginning to the end of the revelation
displays a gradual development in terms of detail.

According to Süleyman Ate , the term Islam, for example, in the Qur’an is the
common name for all religions, namely Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which share
the same source and discourse.

340
Öztürk, Y. Nuri, Yeniden Yap✂lanma, pp. 97-188.
341
Ate✄, Suleyman, (1988) Yüce Kur’an✂n Ça☎da✆ Tefsiri (Contemporary Exegesis of the Noble
Qur’an), pp. 62-63.

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Süleyman Ate favours the idea that Islam is a term covering the previous religious
traditions of the prophets from Adam to Abraham, Moses and Jesus as well as of
Muhammad. The differences between Judaism, Christianity and Islam come from
details not from essentials. Hence, to him, all followers are obliged to return to Islam,
which is not only in the Qur’an but also in other Scriptures, including the Torah and
Gospel. This is what Ate means by “returning to Islam” which has been a prominent
342
theme in his works.

Ate also adopts this broader approach to other religious terminologies like kita>b
and tahr✁>f. Regarding al-kita>b in the Qur’an, contrary to the classical exegeses,
he asserts that al-kita>b referred to in the Qur’an is the Torah not the Qur’an itself.
This is because the Torah was ‘given’ (= u>tiya>>) to Moses, as the Qur’an
witnesses, in the written tablets. But the Qur’an was “sent down” (= nazala) to
Muhammad. Therefore, the sending of al-kita>b refers to the revelation to Moses.

Torah The Qur’an al-Kitab / The Book

u>tiya

u>tiya
nazala

Moses Mohammad Moses

Table 3: Qur’anic verbal form dealing with Scriptures

In the Qur’an, wherever the Torah’s presentation to Moses is mentioned, the verb
ata> (to give) is always used with the term al-Kita>b: as in wa a>tayna> Musa al-
Kitaba343 (we gave the book to Moses). Ate eventually aims to prove beyond doubt
that the Qur’anic verse indicating that “ al-kitab is guidance to those who are al-

342
Published in two volumes in ✂stanbul: Kur’an Okulu Yay✄nc✄l✄k, 1997.
343
Surat al-Isra> 17/2, and also see: Kas{as{ 28/43, Hud 11/110, Fus{s{ilat, 41/45, Muminu>n
23/49, Sajda 32/49, Baqarah 2/53, 87. En’a>m 6/154, S{affa>t 37/117 and Anbiya> 21/48.

166
muttaq >n’344 is referring to the Torah not the Qur’an.

Ate✁’s terminological departure from the mainstream understanding of the above

terms consequently leads to theological dissent and controversial matters such as the
issue of corruption of previous scriptures (= tahr✂>f) and the exclusion of others from
heaven. Is the Torah corrupted or altered as the Qur’an seemingly implies? For Ate✁
the answer is negative. Instead of the earlier Scriptures being corrupt, the Qur’an
actually confirms (= mus}addiq) what they say. 345

At this point, the question “what is the position of the followers of these scriptures?”
will follow. Ate✁ eagerly responds, “Heaven is not Under the Monopoly of
Anybody” 346. He means that the Christians and the Jews will also enter Heaven as
long as they do good deeds. This idea was new in the theological environment and
caused various reactions. Talat Koçyigit, for example, responded to him by repeating
part of the classical view as a slogan “Heaven is Under the Monopoly of the
Believers” 347. Ate✁ replies again to his answer:

Is it so easy for one who was born in Brazil or Mexico and

brought up in a Christian circumstance, and who was also
conditioned with that culture to give his religion up? One
should put yourself in their place and think: really, if a
Muslim, who became a Muslim because he was brought up
in a Muslim society, was born there, could he give his
religion up and become Muslim? Now will the Lord of the
worlds throw all of them into the hell without any
distinction? If the Qur’an has not been told to them how
could they understand? Unfortunately the universal message
of the Qur'an has been narrowed and monopolized. It seems
that it was always in the same way: Good ideals, universal
thoughts, become narrowed, nationalized and degenerated in
the hands of the practitioners.348

344
Surat al-Baqarah 2/2.
345
Ate✄, S., (1997) Yeniden ☎slama I, pp. 29-39.
346
Ate✄, S., (1989) “Cennet Kimsenin Tekeli Alt✆nda Degildir” (The Heaven is not Under the
Monopoly of Anybody) ☎slami Ara✝t✞rmalar, 3.
347
Koçyigit, Talat, (1989) “Cennet Müminlerin Tekelindedir” (The Heaven is Under the Monopoly
of the Believers ) ☎slami Ara✝t✞ rmalar, 4.
348
Ate✄, Süleyman, (1990) “Cennet Tekelcisi mi?” ☎slami Ara✝t ✞rmalar 4, January as translated by
Yasin Aktay, Political and Intellectual Disputes on the Academisation of Religious Knowledge

167
As we have seen Ate depends on the text of the Qur’an alone. In focusing upon the
text, Süleyman Ate and Ya ar Nuri Öztürk, unlike their Western counterparts, have
not been, in fact, using text-based approaches as against historical criticism. Their
attention to the text has aimed to clean out the extra-Qur’anic materials from Islamic
thought.

5.2. STRUCTURALISM

5.2.1. Structural Linguistics and Semantics in Qur’anic Studies

Semantics came to the scene of Qur’anic studies in 1975 with Süleyman Ate ’
translations of Izutsu’s work, God and Man in the Koran Semantics of the Koranic
Weltanschaung (1964). This translation was to be very influential on succeeding
relevant works in Qur’anic studies.

Izutsu specifically describes semantics as dealing with the problem of how the
world–view is structured, what the major elements of the world are, and how they are
349
related to each other. This elaboration of the idea of semantics, as he admits,
comes from Humboldtian philosophy, which is known in the English-speaking world
under the name of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

Izutsu in his application picks up certain vocabulary used in the Qur’an like Allah,
Islam, Nabiy, Ima>n, and Kufr etc. and examines what they mean in the Qur’anic
context. According to Izutsu, these words are not simply there in the Qur’an, each
standing in isolation from the others, but in the entire system of relations.

The words themselves were in current use in the 7 th century,

if not within the narrow confines of the mercantile society of
Mecca, at least in some religious circle or other in Arabia:

MA thesis, p. 48 [Some sentences are modified and corrected].

349
Izutsu, (1964) God and Man in the Koran, p. 12.

168
 only, they belonged in different conceptual systems. Islam
brought them together, combined them all into an entirely
350
new, hitherto unknown conceptual network.

Izutsu explicitly talks about how the structure of the Qur’anic language affects
Islamic perceptions of patterns and worldviews and thus the relationship between
thought and language.

Was Turkish religious scholarship of the time ready to grasp these Western ideas?
For some, in this phase, the technical vocabulary and concepts of Semantics do not
yet exist in an academic environment. So as Cündio lu puts it, translating Izutsu’s
work is as if “while there was no electricity, Süleyman Ate✁ brought the Television
351
to Turkey” (bringing TV to where there is no electricity) . This might be correct for
religious studies. But outside of religious academia, Western theories and methods
were already on the agenda. For instance, Berna Moran’s Edebiyat Kuramlar✂ ve
Ele✄tirileri (‘Literary Theories and Criticisms’) was published in 1972, and Saussure
was translated in 1976. To read however about the theories in original Western
sources, more time would be necessary to understand them. There are two reasons
for this: first because of the nature of the translations, the relevant terms were not
fixed in the Turkish language, and secondly, the language used in the translations and
the publications is a ‘fabricated-language’ and therefore not easily understood.

It is true that the theoretical background was not sufficiently developed and the
terminologies were not fixed yet and consequently, this caused some problems in the
work of succeeding generations. One of the major problems was the terminology
used in translations and this caused confusion. It seems that because of the lack of
theoretical background and terminological uncertainties in Turkish scholarship,
Islamic classical interpretative terms and phrases were modified to express these new
theories.

We will observe this fact in the preface of the book, which Ate✁ describes as follows:

350
Ibid: 13.
351
Cündio☎lu, D., (1998) Kur’an, Dil ve Siyaset Üzerine Söyle✆iler, p. 16.

169
 In the West and in the East, studies of the Qur’an continue,
and therefore, new aspects of it appear. This book that we
translated into our language is an investigation of the study
of the historical development of meaning within the field of
Semantics. As a new work in its genre, published by the Keio
Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies in 1964, the book
investigates the Qur’anic vocabulary in terms of historical
changing of meaning and new meanings within the nine
chapters. The author calls the first meaning as an essential
meaning and the new meaning which is in the siyaq and
352 353
sibaq (context) as zafi (relative). [my translation]

In translation, the phrase “ Semantics of the Qur’an” is interpreted in the parenthesis

as the “ Kelimelerin kazandiklari anlam dereceleri” (degrees of meaning that the
354
words gain), which does not exist in the original text. However, Izutsu will explain
the meaning of Semantics:

Semantics as I understand it is an analytic study of the key-

terms of a language with a view to arriving eventually at a
conceptual grasp of the Weltanschaung or world-view of the
people who use that language as a tool not only of speaking
and thinking, but, more important still, of conceptualising
and interpreting the world that surrounds them. Semantics,
thus understood, is a kind of Weltanschaungslehre, a study of
the nature and structure of the world-view of a nation at this
or that significant period of its history, conducted by means
of a methodological analysis of the major cultural concepts
the nation has produced for itself and crystallized into the
key-words of its language.

From this stage, Izutsu tries to introduce two linguistic terms: basic meaning and
relational meaning. Basic meaning is the meaning of the words whether in the text or
outside of the text. Relational meaning is the new meaning in the structure of the
Qur’an. However, Ate✁ translates the term relational into Turkish as ✂zafi and göreli,
that is in English as relative. ✄zafi (relative) is used in Humboldt’s and Sapir’s
semiotic theory, linguistic relativity, to explain the relation of thought and language.
According to Sapir and his student Whorf, people who speak different languages

352
☎ zafishould have been “ili✆kisel” (relational). ☎ zafi means in Turkish language “relative” not
“relational”. In the original book, it is relational. I will explain the consequences of the
mistranslation of the term.
353
Izutsu, Kur’an’da Allah ve ☎ nsan, p. 5.
354
Ibid: 13.

170
perceive and think about the world quite differently. Culture influences the structure
and functions of a group's language, which in turn influences the individual's
interpretations of reality. However, Izutsu does not imply this relativist perception of
the language. He simply focuses on the meaning within the relational system.

Ate ’s translation has been influential in the publications of following generations.

The word relational explicitly means a structural reading of the Qur’an. In contrast,
the term ✁zafi (relative) does not imply the same thing. The emphasis on relational
and structural reading in Izutsu’s book is therefore lost in the translation. Even the
scholars who have worked on the semantic analysis of the Qur’an after 1995 use the
same word, ✁zafi (relative), for relational meaning.

It is very important to mention that although Saussure was translated into the Turkish
language in 1985, and in the social sciences of universities Semantics and linguistic
theories have been studied, the scholars in Qur’anic studies, who applied semantic
analysis, do not go to the Western sources, e.g. Saussure, Levi Strauss, or to
applications in other fields, such as Biblical studies. They just copied Izutsu’s
(mis)translated book and ignored the aspect of Structuralism.

Semantics, in all works, has been presented as a particular methodology rather than a
discipline that consists of different methodologies. Moreover Semantics has been
eclectically understood as being part of classical linguistic theories and Western
etymology. The terms have only been analysed historically and diachronically.
Synchronic, syntagmatic and paradigmatic reading has not been mentioned in any
applications.

Exceptionally, Dücane Cündio✂lu’s works are based on a direct structural reading of

the Qur’an. However, since he entitles his works Hermeneutics, his methodological
attempts have not been accurately understood by others.

171
5.2.2. Critical Voices against the Application of Semantics

The background of Western scholarship has been a concern for Turkish intellectuals.
While Ali Bulaç emphasises the background of Western scholars in their intentions
and aims, there are others who are more concerned with the intellectual and scholarly
background of the theories. Dücane Cündio lu is one of these intellectuals who is
interested in the question of which Western scholars applied these methods and how.

Cündio lu notes that Turkish intellectuals in Qur’anic studies came across

Semantics in the 1970s and met with post structuralism in the 1990s. Not having the
same philosophical experience as the West, Turkish academia started to use the
theories of structuralism and post-structuralism without thinking sufficiently of the
historical and philosophical background. As he writes in a sarcastic way, nobody
355
knows whether they are structuralist or post structuralist.

Although Ferdinand De Saussure’s work, which is the Bible

of modern linguistics, was published in 1916 after his death
Course de Linguistique Generale was translated to Arabic
and Turkish 70 years later in 1985. 356 But its translation into
Japanese was made in 1928… therefore as long as so-called
increasing interest that we observe in the circle of
theologians maintains this level I am not in favour of taking
357
them seriously… [my translation]

According to him, semantics became popular in Turkey because of the translation of

Izutsu’s works. However, Cündio lu does not agree with other Turkish scholars who
used and copied from the translations. He says:

So what happened? Like other works, this book [Izutsu’s

work] has not received the place that it deserved. Because,
first of all, its language was not understood. It is not useful to
bring a TV to a house, which has no electricity. Neither the

355
Cündio✁lu, Dücane, Kur’an, Dil ve Siyaset Üzerine Söyle✂iler, p. 15.
356
Saussure was, in fact, translated into Turkish language in 1976 not 1985 by Berke Vardar, in
Ankara: Turk Dil Kurumu Yay✄nlar✄.
357
Cündio✁lu, Kur’an, Dil ve Siyaset Üzerine Söyle✂iler, p. 16.

172
 process of development of linguistics nor the terminology
was sufficiently understood. So the new functions in
Qur’anic studies did not generate interest. The results, which
Izutsu has already reached were just copied and nobody, in
fact, can demonstrate how he had investigated it. As a result
nobody can criticise it. 358 [my translation]
359
For him, the post-modern perspective immediately became more fashionable when
logo-centrism was criticized and pluralism, liberalism and relativism came onto the
intellectual scene. Cündio lu claims that all this kind of adaptation and imitation of
the West were happening without a thorough understanding of the theoretical
background of the West. This is, for him, because Turkish intellectualism could not
produce without assistance from the West for a long time. “Although Turkish
intellectuals are trying to adapt to Western-centred intellectual life”, he says, “they
360
are actually 30 years behind”.

In his discussion of methodology, Cündio lu starts with the nature of the Qur’an.
According to him, the Qur’an consists of two natures: language/sign ( lisa>n) and
word/parole ( Kala>m). These dual aspects of the Qur’an, “ Arabic language” and
“Kala>m Allah” only give the meaning of the Qur’an. The meaning of the verses, on
one hand, should be available in the Arabic language; on the other hand, since Allah
has given the meaning to the verses, it should be available in the Kast al-
Mutakallim/author intention.

According to him, the Qur’an is a lexicographical / philological book ( Nas}s} al-

Lugav ✁>). While the classical philological approach employs these methods: luga>t,
ishtik{a>k{, s{arf, nah{v, ma‘a>n✁>, beya>n, bedi‘✁> and qira‘a>t in Qur’anic
studies, Cündio lu seems to prefer a different way of understanding the Qur’an.
Beside the traditional philological approach, intratextual reading of the verses, for
him, is very important. For example, in Shu‘ara> 19, the sentence of “ Anta min al-
kafir✁>n” is not understood correctly without textul analysis. The meaning of the

358
Ibid: 16.
359
He uses the term, moda (fashionable) for this kind of adaptations. For further information see:
Cündio✂ lu, Kur’an, Dil ve Siyaset Üzerine Söyle✄iler, p. 15.
360
Ibid: 17.

173
term, kufr, etymologically is “not to believe” or “being a heretic”. If we ask some
questions, he claims, we will find the true meaning of the term:

- Who speaks? – Pharaoh

- To whom did he speak? – to Moses
- Where and when did he speak? – When Moses was a prophet
and stood in front of the Pharaoh.
- Why did he speak? – Because Moses had killed a man
.
= Consequently, the meaning of the term, ‘ kufr’ in this sentence is
not the opposite of ‘to believe’ but the opposite of ‘ to thank’.361
Cündio lu accuses some scholars of the “subjectification of the meanings” ( anlam✁n
öznelle✂tirilmesi ). According to these scholars, the Qur’an is a book that consists of
almost everything. Modern scholars also evaluate the Qur’anic verses according to
their present-day sciences, which would have been meaningless to the first people
addressed (sahaba). He has indicated that the political intention of these scholars
influences their approaches to the Qur’an. In contrast, the reader should find
“maqa>s}id”, the true meaning in the text.

5.2.3. Evaluation of the Application of Mehmet Soysald✄

Mehmet Soysald☎ in his “Kur’an☎ Dogru Anlamada Semantik Metodun Önemi (‘The
362
Importance of Semantic Method in Accurate Understanding of the Qur’an’)
attempts to describe the semantic approach and its applicability to the Qur’an. The
author’s PhD thesis at Ondokuz Mayis University Theology Faculty, Samsun, under
the supervision of Süleyman Ate✆ in 1994 deals with semantics and its application to
the Qur’an: Kur’an Semanti✝i Aç✁s✁ndan ✞nançla ✞lgili Kavramlar (Concepts of

361
Cündio✟lu, D., (1998) Kur’an✠ Anlaman✠n Anlam✠, p. 24.
362
Published in Kur’an ve Dil: Dilbilim ve Hermenötik Sempozyumu, Yüzüncu Y✠ l Üniversitesi
✡lahiyat Fakültesi 17-18 Mayis 2001 (Qur’an and the Language: Linguistics and Hermeneutics,
Yuzuncü Y☛l University Theology Faculty 17-18 May 2001) Erzurum: Bakanlar Matba (year not
given), pp. 31-50.

174
 363
Belief in the Perspectives of the Semantics of the Qur’an).

Soysald talks about the historical development of semantics in the West rather than
in the Islamic world. Nonetheless he claims that ‘semantic analysis is precisely
Qur’anic method’. This is an obvious paradox. Moreover, semantics is treated as a
method rather than a discipline, which consists of various methods and theories.

The author also continues with the mistranslation of the term, relational, by saying
✁zafi means relative. However, when he explains the term, the author relies on
Izutsu’s definition.

A historical/diachronical reading of the Qur’anic vocabulary, for him, is important

for accurate translation and an understanding of the Qur’an. So he promotes
historical inquiry into the prophet’s time. The author suggests:

Semantics is the [detailed] analysis of key-words in a

language, I mean, the investigation of vocabulary in its
historical development. From the beginning of Semantics,
the scholars have usually studied the individual words. Later
on, beginning with words they have shifted their attention to
the context and the historical roots of this context. We will
investigate to what extent we can apply Semantics here… 364
[my translation]

The author, then, composes seven analytical stages in applying semantics to the
Qur’an:

1. Etymological analysis of the words. At this stage, the

scholar can look at the early sources of the Arabic
language, like Lisan al-Arab by Ibn Manzur, and al-
Mufradat by Isfahani.
2. Searching for the basic meaning of the words.
3. Searching for the development and changing meaning of
the words throughout history.
4. Searching for the pre-Islamic meaning in Jahiliyya
poetry.

363
Published in ✂zmir: Ça✄layan Yay☎nevi, 1997.
364
Soysald☎, Mehmet, (2001) “Kur’an☎ Dogru Anlamada Semantik Metodun Önemi”, p. 41.

175
 5. Searching for the meaning in the Qur’an. When and
where are the words used in the Qur’an.
6. Searching for the meaning in siyaq and sibaq of the
Qur’an.
7. Finally, the so-called post-Qur’anic meaning should be
365
investigated. [my summary, my translation]
As seen in the passages above, Islamic classical methodology and semantics, and the
diachronic and synchronic reading, are mixed up, and finally Soysald has created his
own methodology.

In his application, the author gives the term al-Kita>b as an example. It is not clear
in his analysis whether he accepts the origin of the term from Arabic or from other
Semitic languages, such as Syriac or Aramaic. He says “The term Kitab is a noun
which comes from Arabic from the root K-T-B. Plural is kutubun or kutbun” and at
the same time, he refers to Arthur Jeffery’s statement “this term which is used in the
Qur’an transferred from Aramaic.” Which language is used for the etymological
analysis: Arabic or Aramaic, or both languages? According to Sapir’s Semiotic
theory, which Izutsu’s theory depends on, the elements of the culture cannot be
transferable.

The author’s idea in etymological analysis therefore is not clear. If he accepts

transfer among the cultures, it is not known which semantic theory is the basis for his
application. Furthermore, he seems to accept that many Qur’anic terms, in fact, are
366
not Arabic but were transferred from Jews and Christians as Arthur Jeffery claims.
In this case, he should have investigated the etymology of the words only in their
languages.

It seems that he not only lacks a theoretical basis for his above-mentioned principles
of analysis, but also he is not consistent in his application as he does not follow the
rules that he establishes in his application in the beginning.

365
Ibid: 42-43.
366
See for debates: Bilal Gökk✁r, Western Attitude to the Origins of the Qur’an, pp. 125-157.

176
Conclusion

This chapter has focused on the application of text-based critical approaches to the
Qur’an. This study has found that Formalism or New Criticism has been used in
Qur’anic studies in Turkey but not explicitly. We found some corresponding Turkish
scholars who treat the Qur’an as a self-contained, self-referential source with
reference to certain issues. As a parallel to their Western counterparts, we have seen
Süleyman Ate and Ya ar Nuri Öztürk depend on the text of the Qur’an alone and
perform a close reading, concentrating on the language, the text and the relationships
within the text that give it its own distinctive character or form. In focusing upon the
text, their attention upon the text is in order to clean the extra Qur’anic sources from
Islamic thought, as Western counterparts do with historical criticism.

In this chapter, it was also shown that Structural Semantics came onto the scene of
Qur’anic studies in 1975 via Süleyman Ate ’ translation of Izutsu’s work, God and
Man in the Koran: Semantics of the Koranic Weltanschaung. What is surprising is
that although this book deals with the structural reading of the Qur’an, semantics and
structuralism somehow do not gain the attention of Turkish scholars until the 1990’s.

Despite the fact that Saussure was translated into the Turkish language in 1985 and
has been taught in the social sciences at Turkish universities, we have found that
Turkish scholars who seemingly apply structural semantics, in fact do not directly
apply this method from Western sources, e.g. Saussure, Levi Strauss, or from
applications in Biblical studies. Instead, they have been coping from Izutsu’s (mis)-
translated book.

Another interesting finding was that semantics, in all works, has been presented as a
particular methodology rather than a discipline that consists of different
methodologies. Moreover, semantics has been eclectically used with classical
linguistics and etymology. The Qur’anic verses and terms have been only analysed
historically and etymologically. Synchronic, syntagmatic and paradigmatic readings
have not been mentioned at all in any cases of this study.

The reasons for the lateness and misapplication of structuralism might be as follows:

177
1- There are many mistranslations of key terms which led to quite serious
misunderstandings of structuralism/semantics.

2- In the 1970s, as Dücane Cündio lu indicates, Qur’anic studies in Turkey

had still not been exposed to Western critical theories. Because of this lack of
theoretical inspirations, the translator, Süleyman Ate✁, used terms that were
recognizable only to him but not to the original discipline of Semantics.

4- The scholars of a more conservative orientation were not used to Western

literary studies at all, even less to Social studies. They, therefore, had to rely
on translations which were, as shown, not always the most authentic
documents.

5- Qur’anic studies have not been in contact with other disciplines in which
semantics and linguistic theories play an important part (art history, language
studies, linguistics, cultural studies).

6- Therefore, they somehow introduced a curious mixture between Western

literary criticism, which were unknown to them, and classical concepts of
language and texts from traditional Islamic studies, which were familiar to
them. The outcome of this can be classified as a peculiar hybrid form of
structuralism/semantics which apparently fits very well into the Turkish
context of application.

178
6. READER-CENTRED CRITICAL THEORIES AND THE STUDY OF
THE QUR’AN IN TURKEY

Introduction

This chapter deals with the process of applying reader-centred critical theories to
Qur’anic studies in Turkey. The characteristics of Turkish applications, and
discussions in academic and intellectual circles will be studied. The evaluation of an
application in all different modes of criticism will be examined, with some
concluding remarks.

6.1. POST-STRUCTURALISM

In Turkey, intellectual debates in Qur’anic studies which move away from

structuralism towards post-structuralism have taken place frequently and these reflect
the plurality and diversity of interpretations in the current social and political reality
of Turkey. Succeeding approaches usually promote plurality in their interpretation.
They accept that the text needs to be interpreted interactively with a reader’s
religious knowledge and context in order to re-express Qur’anic discourse for
present-day needs. Cündio lu , however, is against individualistic interpretations and
against the idea that the text needs to be interpreted differently according to the
context of the reader. He thinks that the meaning of the Qur’an is unchangeable in
different contexts. The meaning of the Qur’an depends on certain fixed rules.

6.2. THE APPLICATION OF READER RESPONSE CRITICISM

6.2.1. Text or Context?

Turkish intellectuals, such as Ya✁ar Nuri Öztürk, Hüseyin Atay, Salih Akdemir etc.,

179
usually promote a contextual reading of the Qur’an. According to them, the Qur’anic
revelation and its traditional understanding is historical not universal. Moreover,
traditional sources are unreliable in promising to give us an account of “what really
happened”; rather, their discourses are ideological in nature. In other words, they not
only accept the historicity of the Qur’anic text and traditional Islamic discourse but
also acknowledge that the textuality of social and political activities is inevitable in
Islamic history.

However, in reality, they are not interested in the genetic questions about the
Qur’anic text or original meaning (the true meaning) of the text and “what really
happened” at the time of revelation. They give historical attention to the Qur’an in
their writings in order to demonstrate the fact that there is a contextual gap between
historical and contemporary contexts. Qur’anic text and Islamic literary productions
reflect their historical periods and an individual’s intellectual and ideological
conclusions but they have no practical value in respect of suiting today’s situation or
the reader’s needs. The true meaning is what fits the reader’s social and intellectual
context. This is to contextualise the Qur’anic discourses according to the reader’s
culture and society.

Ya ar Nuri Öztürk, for example, argues that Islam must be reconstructed or renewed
in order to meet the needs of modern Muslims and society. Having accepted
flexibility in the manifestation of the divine, he reinterprets the revelation according
to the reader’s own social, cultural and intellectual background. Öztürk reinterprets
the Qur’an, and contextualises it according to Turkish concerns. Öztürk, as a first
step, turns to the past to “rediscover” Qur’anic principles and values that could be
employed in contextuality as an alternative Islamic model for modern
Muslim/Turkish society. This results in the discovery of Islamic versions of
democracy, parliamentary government, and secularism through reinterpretation, so
that Islamic belief could be used to develop an Islamic equivalent to contemporary
concepts and institutions. Thus, for example, Öztürk concludes that because of the
centrality of such beliefs as the equality and brotherhood of believers, democracy and
even secularism is the most important political ideal of Islam.

180
In terms of the reconstruction/ tajd >d project, Öztürk’s article, “Yeniden Yapilanma
Ustune” 367 (‘On Reconstruction’) which connects the understanding of the Qur’an to
the development of human consciousness and knowledge, is a very interesting one.

In Muslim literature, the thought pioneer of the

reconstruction is called müceddid. The Müceddid is not a
reformer or reformist. Having evaluated the flexibilities in
the manifestations of divinity, he, as a man of faith who,
based on the firm facts of the Qur’an, reinterprets the data of
the revelation according to new dimensions that human
beings have reached. In other words he performs the
reconstruction that is the command of revelation itself under
the light of general and fundamental acceptances of
revelation. [my translation, my emphasis]

The task of a müceddid according to the above paragraph is to reinterpret the Qur’an
according to new dimensions. What are the new dimensions? Are they what Abdul-
Karim Sourush talks about as the philosophical, political, economical and
sociological context of the modern reader?

While he emphasises the centrality of the reader in the above paragraph, in the
following paragraph Öztürk seems to advance the text of the Qur’an:

Another name of reconstruction in religion is returning to the

Qur’an. This return starts with a re-evaluation of the heritage
that consists of all interpretation of the Qur’an. In order to
get the expected result assumptions and especially sectarian
obsessions should be eliminated. [my translation, my
emphasis]

In this paragraph Öztürk describes reconstruction as a ‘returning the Qur’an’ and the
first step is to question the heritage of traditional interpretation in succeeding
paragraphs. Nevertheless, he acknowledges that useful parts of the sectarian heritage
and also the traditions of the Prophet can be used in understanding the Qur’an.

Having considered the above theories all together, we can classify them as follows:

367
Öztürk, Y. N., (2003) “Yeniden Yapilanma Ustune” (On Reconstruction) Star Gazetesi, 19
January.

181
 1- Reading the Qur’an from the readers’ viewpoint

2- Reading and understanding the Qur’an from the text only

3- Using sectarian and other Islamic heritage and traditions in reading the
Qur’an

If we are saying that reconstruction is related to the reader’s context as in the first
suggestion, this means that a reader’s individual and social assumptions, as extra to
the Qur’anic data, can be used in the interpretative process. This also means that a
readers’ own historical conditions, social issues and political and social
developments, innovations and problems can play a crucial role in understanding the
Qur’an. As a matter of fact, Öztürk’s discussions on human rights, democracy and
secularism in the Qur’an prove the point that he has been applying about the reader’s
contextual reading.

In the second suggestion Öztürk apparently promotes a text-based reading. In this

case extra-Qur’anic data, the reader’s context, and traditional heritage should not be
involved. (Compare the above paragraph.) In fact, he suggests that living Islam is a
product of the traditional heritage and is not pure. Therefore the task of interpreters is
to clean Islam of extra-Qur’anic materials according to the Qur’anic text itself. In
this case what will the methodological tools be? Will they come from Islamic
heritage or outside the Islamic culture? We understand from the third suggestion it
comes from inside.

In the third suggestion he seems to highlight sectarian and other Islamic heritage and
traditions in reading the Qur’an. How can a modern reader be unaffected by the
sectarian context of the earlier readers in the Muslim history? So can we really return
to the Qur’an? There is an apparent contradiction between all three approaches as the
first one gives priority to the reader him/herself while the second considers only the
text itself and the last one promotes a constructive part of Islamic heritage. Which
one here does Öztürk really highlight: text or context? Certainly, it is context.

182
6.2.2. Understanding the Qur’an in the Context of Turkey

Öztürk, in fact, turns away from Qur’an/text-based reading to the direction of

modern Turkish culture, history, politics, society and institutions as the social context
of readers of the text. In his interpretation of the surat al-Fatiha, he usually
underlines Turkish contexts which are introduced in the first chapter. Westernised
values, i.e. democracy, human and women’s rights, Turkish national considerations,
i.e. Turkish language in prayer, and finally the secular mode of Turkey are the
subjects of his and also other Turkish scholars in Qur’anic studies .

Ya ar Nuri Öztürk advocates, for example, the view that the Qur’an must be
translated into every language in order to be understood by all non-Arab Muslim
readers. To understand this is more important than to recite the prayers or to engage
in any rituals. Öztürk also insists on the point that it is the right of every Muslim to
pray in his/her own native language. Allah wants believers to understand what they
are reciting when they are praying.

According to orthodoxy, the formalistic character of prayer is one of the debatable

subjects. Muslims are in consensus when it comes to reciting parts of the Qur’an and
participating in rituals. There is discussion, however, on whether the original text or
translations might be read. Ritual prayer, according to Öztürk, is performed in Arabic
in the Mosque. However, in personal prayers, the recitation from translation is
possible for those whose native language is not Arabic and who have difficulty with
its pronunciation or memorisation. However his idea has started a new discussion in
Turkey; this concerns use of the Turkish call to Prayer and the purification of the
Turkish language from Arabic and Persian. This trend, according to Ayse Esra
Özcan, has been organised by nationalist and secularist elites. The importance given
to the Turkish language and its purification from Arabic and Persian words was one
of the important components of Turkish nationalism. The efforts to create a “pure”
Turkish, according to Ay e Esra Özcan, went parallel to the Turkification of

183
 368
religious language as exemplified in the Turkification of the call to prayer.
According to Dücane, this ambitious process of the Turkification of all religious
elements bears a similar relationship to the reformation movement in Turkey as did
369
Lutheranism in the West.

In Fatiha Suresi Tefsiri 370 (‘Exegesis of Surah al-Fatiha’), which is the first and the
only volume of the tafsir project, Öztürk gives an example of his tafsir methodology,
371
which is based on his Turkish context.

When he explains the meaning of the term, Fatiha, Öztürk says “Fatiha means
introduction according to the exegeses; however, it also means in the Turkish
language, ‘to conquer somewhere’. Therefore,” he says, “it has a double meaning:
introduction and conclusion” That is to say, in his view, Surat al-Fatiha is the
beginning, as it is the first surah of the Qur’an; and also the end, as it contains the
372
summary of all verses of the Qur’an. Öztürk apparently uses Turkish etymology to
explain an Arabic word in an Arabic text.

Regarding the recitation of the Surat al-Fatiha in prayer, he disagrees with classical
scholarship. For him, the Qur’an did not command the recitation of the Surat al-
Fatiha in prayer. The command in the Qur’an is ‘to recite whatever is easy from the
Qur’an’. Today’s recitation style was specified as including Surat al-Fatiha by the
Sunnah of the Prophet.

Öztürk also differs from classical scholars about religious ceremonies. While the
authorities discuss explicit/implicit recitation and compulsory recitation in prayer,
Öztürk merely discusses the language of the religious ceremony: the possibility of
reciting the translation of the surah rather than the original Arabic (which is a long-
term discussion starting from the beginning of the Republic until today as a result of

368
Özcan, Esra Ayse, The New Configurations, p. 7.
369
Cündio lu, D., (1998) Turkce Kur’an ve Cumhuriyet Ideolojisi,p. 39.
370
✁stanbul: Yeni Boyut 1996.
371
Öztürk, Y. Nuri, (1997) Fatiha Suresi Tefsiri, p. 5.
372
Ibid: 8.

184
nationalism and attempts to Turkify Islam.) According to Öztürk who has always
kept this discussion on his agenda, a Muslim, even if he/she knows Arabic, can recite
373
the translation of the Surah.

In terms of the magnificence of the surah, Öztürk refers to classical opinion.

However, he is pessimistic about the so-called Hadith literature. Despite being
negative towards the Hadiths, Öztürk is much more positive when he writes about
the basmala. Is basmala a part of the surah? The answer of the author to this classical
question is affirmative. He holds the view that basmala is a part of the surah for the
sake of the “19 miracle theory” which is one of the most debatable issues in
Turkey. 374

Regarding hamd, the author, like Arkoun, emphasises the importance of the
expression. He draws our attention to the fact that it is not “I praise Allah” but rather
“hamd for Allah”. This, to the author, has universal and ontological value. In this
expression, hamd, he argues, has been freed from the subjective ties of humans and
made into an intrinsic attribute of Allah. This attribute, he asserts, does not depend
375
on human will.

A critique of Muslim society is never lacking in Öztürk’s writings and he criticizes

the Muslim society/community in his interpretation of Surat al-Fatiha too. To
Öztürk, although the verse says “we worship only you” today people are in “ shirk”.
Shafa‘a>t, to deify the s}ah}aba and the religious masters are the examples he uses
to explain his views and these are very important for his reconstruction project.
Öztürk wants to see a Muslim community which lives according to Islam in the
Qur’an, which is purified from “ shirk” and thus he almost always deals with these
376
issues in each treatise he writes.

Öztürk’s concept of the purification of Islam deals with the eradication of the vices

373
Ibid: 11-12.
374
Ibid: 23-31.
375
Ibid: 40.
376
Ibid: 59-80.

185
and distortions that have permeated religious life throughout history. According to
Öztürk, somewhere something wrong happened and things are not going, as they
should. There are many concepts and practices that are not in accordance with
Qur’an.

Öztürk also fights against unfair practices and customs among Muslims concerning
the rights and status of women. He asserts that Islam gave men and women an equal
status. But men have abused women, for instance in the practice of divorce. Muslims
throughout history have ignored the Qur’an, and relied on the reproduction of
tradition. Öztürk sees this as the main factor in the corruption of religious life.
Öztürk expresses this situation with the term “ taqlid”; that is, the passive acceptance
of religious dogma from religious authorities without asking for reason or proof and
without thinking of the right of free examination.

Contrary to Arkoun, for example, who chose the Surat al-Fatiha as a methodological
case, by studying the surah, Öztürk does not insist on one particular methodology but
intends to establish a model for a Turkish Muslim society, which lives according to
the Qur’an.

6.3. NEW HISTORICISM

6.3.1. Critique of the Islamic Traditional Discourse in Turkey

The criticism of traditional Islamic discourses is the dominant issue of contemporary

Turkish intellectuals, especially Ya ar Nuri Öztürk, Süleyman Ate , Hüseyin Atay,
Salih Akdemir, etc. They emphasise the contradiction between Qur’anic discourse
which is sometimes known as real Islam (gerçek ✁slam), or Qur’anic Islam
(Kur’an’daki ✁slam) and traditional Islamist discourse which is called fabricated
Islam (uydurma ✁slam) or traditional Islam (geleneksel ✁slam). They criticise the
irrational, dogmatic and unquestioning character of Islamic tradition, the apologetic
and fanatical ideology of political Islamism and the contemporary Muslims’

186
unconstructive attitude to social reality and religious flexibility and adaptability.
Atay, for instance, sees irrationality, dogmatism, fanaticism as an epistemological
crisis that needs an immediate solution, which is to reconstruct the intellectual and
philosophical character of Islam.

Turkish intellectuals, as do Fazlur Rahman, Abu Zayd, and Arkoun, discover that
contemporary Islamic thought must be rethought in the light of contemporary social
and intellectual realities. For this aim, the first step is to accept that the Qur’anic
revelation and its traditional understanding is historical not universal. According to
them, the traditional perception of the Qur’an as a universal scripture caused scholars
to ignore different historical socio-political contexts and eventually destroyed
historical thinking (historicism) as an analytical tool for understanding the Qur’an.
However, they do not, as concluded in the third chapter, follow the method of
historical reading on genetic questions about the Qur’anic text. They are not
interested in the original sources of the books but rather the final product, mus{haf.

Ya ar Nuri Öztürk, for example, believes that true Islamic belief and the practice of
the Qur’an was corrupted during the Umayyad period, by Persian, Turkish Shaman
and Indian Mystical culture, and because of the Hellenistic culture of Greece during
the translation period. Also, during political debates in the early Islamic states,
Hadith production and social corruption also affected the formation of new (but not
377
authentic) religious discourse. Consequently, it became a conflict between true
Islam (gerçek ✁slam) and fake Islam, revealed Islam (vahyedilmi ✁slam) and
fabricated Islam (uydurulmu ✁slam) . Therefore, the task of interpreters, according to
Öztürk, is to clean out the extra Qur’anic materials from intellectual life. Ya ar Nuri
Öztürk called his project “Yeniden Yapilanma” (Reconstruction). The only tool of
the project is the return to the Qur’an, not to Hadith or the previous religious
discourses. This return starts with revising all exegetical heritages up to now
378
according to the Qur’an. The second step is to approach the Qur’anic discourses

377
Öztürk, (2000) Yeniden Yapilanma, pp. 17-40.
378
Ibid: 41-45.

187
according to modern culture, history, politics, society and institutions which
constitute the social context of the reader.

6.3.2. A Comparison between John Wansbrough and Salih Akdemir

Using new historicism in his two eminent books, Qur’anic Studies: Sources and
Methods of Scriptural Interpretation379 and The Sectarian Milieu: Content and
Composition of Islamic Salvation History 380, John Wansbrough 381 initiated the debate
about the final canonisation of the text of the Qur’an and has influenced the works of
historical revisionist scholars in Western Islamic studies. Wansbrough suggests that
Islam in its completed form emerged as the end-product of social and cultural
changes which had been taking place in the Middle East. But Wansbrough’s theory is
382
obviously not the same as other Western theories which seek Islamic origins in the
first century. Western scholars have brought to Islamic materials, namely Qur’an,
Hadith, the biography of Muhammad etc., source critical methods. Their aim is
confidently to find out “what really happened”. Nevertheless, the Qur’an and the
others are treated by Western scholars in a manner not significantly different from
that of Muslim scholars and theologians. Wansbrough’s methodology, however,
directly challenges the assumptions of the dominant tradition in early Islamic history
in two respects:

- Reconstruction of the canonization process of the Qur’an/Sira/Arabic

language and the history of Qur’anic exegesis.

- Literary analysis of the Qur’an.

On the basis of an analysis of the Qur’anic text and the themes it has in common with

379
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.
380
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978.
381
John Wansbrough was born in Illinois. He studied languages at Harvard, and spent his entire
academic career teaching at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies.
382
For example see John Burton, (1977) The Collection of the Qur’an, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

188
Judaeo-Christian traditions, Wansbrough has demonstrated both that the text is a
product of a ‘sectarian milieu’ where Judaeo-Christian traditions were prominent and
the text is not a product of the life of the Prophet in the seventh century Hijaz; on the
contrary, it is more likely to be a product of the ninth century. According to
Wansbrough, very little and limited material is available for the study of early Islam
and also it is all of questionable historical authenticity and more importantly, all is
based in polemic. The other sources consist of a limited mass of literature originating
over two or three centuries. These internal sources are intended to document the
basis of faith and the validity of the sacred book, and to record salvation history.
Wansbrough therefore should not trust these Muslim sources.

For Wansbrough, salvation history is not a historical account of events open to the
study of the historian. Salvation history did not happen; it is a literary form which
has its own historical context. Its study is, thus, not historical, but literary analysis .
Wansbrough’s literary analysis was first introduced in his Qur’anic Studies. Its main
concern is salvation history in Islamic developments. Wansbrough provides four
chapters entitled as follows:

- Revelation and Canon

- Emblems of Prophethood

- Origin of classical Arabic

- Principles of exegesis.

In the first chapter Wansbrough demonstrates that the themes of retribution, sign,
exile, and covenant compose a major portion of the Qur’anic message. The literary
forms of these themes are narrative and rhetoric. Wansbrough suggests that:

Taken together, the quantity of reference, the mechanically

repetitious employment of rhetorical convention, and the
stridently polemical style, all suggests a strongly sectarian

189
 atmosphere… 383

Wansbrough’s chapter on Islamic Prophetology focuses on the Qur’anic material and

the biographical material ( sira>). In the third chapter Wansbrough examines the
development of the Islamic lingua sacra and argues that it is wrong to see classical
Arabic as standing at the beginning. Classical Arabic is traditionally thought of as
being embodied within the Qur’an and pre-Islamic poetry. In fact all materials were
canonised after the process of Arabisation. In the fourth and the main chapter of
Qur’anic studies, Wansbrough classifies the tafs >r tradition based on the formal
literary features which distinguish the text from the different periods. The first,
haggadic exegesis (narrative) is typified by the use of prophetic tradition. The
second, halakhic (legal) uses analogy, abrogation, and circumstances of revelation.
The third, masoretic exegesis employs the variant reading of the Qur’an, poetic
exemplifications, lexical and grammatical explanations. The fourth and fifth are
rhetorical and allegorical exegesis. These types of exegesis emerged chronologically.

Because his conclusions contradict the traditional Muslim discourses of these issues,
some Muslim scholars assume that Wansbrough’s reading of Islam is negative and
offensive. Fazlur Rahman, for example, despite the same critique of some traditional
Islamic discourses, apologetically sees in Wansbrough’s theory of the canonisation
of the Qur’an in a Judaeo-Christian sectarian milieu that he stands at the “logical end
384
of the line for Jewish apologists”.

However, in Turkey, there is a parallel reading of the dominant Islamic discourse on

the process of the canonisation of the Qur’an. Salih Akdemir in his conference paper,
385
“Kur’an’✁n Toplanmas✁ ve K ✁raat✁ Meselesi” (‘Issue of Qur’anic Canonisation and
Different Recitations’) criticises the dominant Islamic discourse as apologetic and
also fabricated in order to justify different types of recitation, and therefore as open

383
Wansbrough, John, (1997) Qur’anic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation,
p. 20.
384
Rahman, Fazlur, Major Themes of the Qur’an , p. xiii.
385
Akdemir, Salih, “Kur’an✂n Toplanmas✂ ve K✂raat✂ Meselesi” 1. Kur’an Sempozyumu 1-3 Nisan
1994 (1. Symposium of the Qur’an 1-3 April 1994) Ankara: Bilgi Vakf✂ 1994, pp. 25-29.

190
to lots of problems.

According to dominant Islamic discourse the authoritative version of the Qur’an was
finalised by a committee in the time of the third caliph, Uthman b. Affan. Akdemir
sees that all traditional sayings are of questionable historical authenticity and, more
importantly, all are apologetic. The condition of needing two witnesses to
authenticate a verse as traditional Islamic discourse claims, for Akdemir makes, if it
is right, accurate canonisation of the Qur’an impossible. Where are the verses, he
truly asks, for someone who died before the canonisation process? Akdemir claims
that the canonisation process of the Qur’an should not have been done after the life
of the prophet; on the contrary, it should has been done in the time of the Prophet.

If the Qur’an did not rely on the copies that were dictated by
the Prophet, it would have been inaccurate. Some people
bring some copies with two witnesses and say: “this is what
the Prophet dictated to me”. What if there did exist someone
who had copies but died prematurely? It means that copies
disappeared and could not be put into the Canon… 386 [my
translation]

His hypothesis initially corresponded to Wansbrough’s views on the issue. However,

Wansbrough and Akdemir reach different conclusions. Although both scholars
criticise the dominant discourse in the name of historical revisionism, whereas
Wansbrough claims that the Qur’an is a production after the life of the Prophet,
Akdemir maintains that it was written in the time of the Prophet. As seen, they come
to different conclusions. What is the reason for these different outcomes? It might be
that they cannot think outside of their orientalist and Islamically-centric discourses
respectively and, therefore, remain polemical and/or apologetic. Another
reminder/illustration of the fact that Turkish scholars, even though they are familiar
with Western approaches cannot fully overcome their own ideological/cultural
barriers as their approaches do show considerable deviations from the sources of
their inspiration.

386
Akdemir, Salih, Ibid: 26.

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6.4. FEMINIST CRITICISM

6.4.1. A Short History of Feminism in Turkey

The publication of two newspapers in Ottoman Turkey could well be regarded as the
start of the Turkish women’s intellectual movement: Terakki (1868) and Muhaderat
(1888). These two newspapers dealt with women’s issues at the end of the Ottoman
387
era. The basic themes of these newspapers, as Ömer Caha reports, are the
importance of women’s education, polygamy and equality between men and women,
which are an integral part of modernisation and Westernisation.

After the 1908 revolution, permission for women to found and organize different
associations triggered the first feminist movement in the Ottoman Empire. The most
outstanding of these was the "Osmanl Müdaafa-i Hukuk-u Nisvan Cemiyeti"
(Ottoman Association for the Defence of Women's Rights) in 1913 and it published
the magazine "Kad nlar Dünyas " (Women's World) which circulated until 1921.
Kad nlar Dünyas sought to reform existing family law with the aim of creating an
388
egalitarian family and civilised/westernised population.

The second stage of Turkish feminism starts with the new Turkish republic and is
called state feminism.389 This emphasized the importance of secular education and
the equality of women not in order to create only a westernised but also an
independent Turkish nation. In order to enable women to participate in public life as
the equals of men, a new civil code was introduced in 1926. Polygamy was outlawed
and women were given rights in divorce and in the custody of children under this
code. However, as we will discuss in the issue of “women’s liberation”, both the
national and religious agenda ultimately kept women within the boundaries
prescribed by male politicians and leaders. The most suitable term which describes

387
Caha, Ömer, (1993) “The Role of Women in the Formation of Civil Society in Turkey”, p. 2.
388
Ibid: 4.
389
Erol, Sibel, (1992) “Feminism in Turkey”, p. 110.

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the first and the second stage is the “male-controlled” or, as Sibel Erol coins, male-
formulated feminism. The Turkish Women’s Federation (Türk Kad nlar Birli✁i), for
example, struggled from 1926 to 1934 to get the vote. But after women gained the
right to vote in 1935, this activist group was banned by the government for the
reason that Turkish women had gained equality and thus no longer needed the work
390
of a women’s group.

The 1980s witnessed the rise of feminism which stimulated debate over women’s
issues and rights to be independent from men, who manipulated the female image for
their political or religious agenda in Turkey.

The late half of the 1980s is the period of a new women’s movement within the
religious spere. In this period, women’s journals, which dealt with women’s issues
and concerns, significantly increased. Kad✂n ve Aile (Women and Family), Bizim Aile
(Our Family) and Mektup (Letter) are the Islamist women’s journals. Their message
is directed to women for whom family life at the home is the undisputed centre of
life. They commonly encourage women to stay at home. Kad✂n ve Aile, for instance,
gives a strong religious message that particularly stresses the necessity of women
leading an ‘Islamic way of life’, that is, being obedient wives, good mothers and
391
pious Muslims who conform to Islam’s many rules and regulations.

In the Islamist women’s journal, in the view of Feride Acar, few pages are reserved
for topics such as women’s education, employment, and their place in social and
392
political life outside the family. Moreover, Islamist discourse on the notion of
gender equality is largely covered by all the women’s journals. They argue that men
and women are naturally different in terms of the body and personalities, therefore
equality between such different beings is a meaningless concept. In Islam, they
claim, it is justice which is important, rather than equality. Justice, it is claimed, can

390
Ibid: 111.
391
See further information: Yesim Arat, (1995) “Feminism and Islam: Considerations on the
Journal Kadin ve Aile” in Women in the Modern Turkish Society. A Reader, ed. by Sirin Tekeli
London: Zed, 1995, pp. 66-78.
392
Acar, Feride, (1995) “Women and Islam in Turkey”, p. 50.

193
 393
protect women better and provide them with broader and more appropriate rights.

After the 1980s, the feminist groups founded a library in stanbul with the name
Kad✁n Eserleri Kütüphanesi ve Bilgi Merkezi (Library of Women’s Works and
Information Centre), which collects only women’s works or works related to female
issues.

In Islamic intellectualism, feminism, as a term, appears in a debate which took place

394
between Ali Bulaç and some women. Ali Bulaç in his first article, “Feminist
Bayanlar✂n K✂sa Akl✂” (‘The Short Intellect of Feminist Women’) ironically accuses
feminism of ethical deviation. Bulaç finishes his article with a provocative sentence:
395
“Feminist women! Your intellects are short and also arrogant…”

Two feminists, Mualla Gulnaz and Tuba Tuncer immediately wrote a response. They
maintained that patriarchal oppression is a phenomenon that exists in all societies,
including Islamic society. They rejected the role assigned to them as “mother and
wife in the house” and demanded “a private life” independent of a husband and
children. These women, as Nilufer Gole pointed out, discover the source of
396
misogyny at the level of Muslim men not at the level of Islam.

During the post 1990 period the issue of feminism has become widespread among
religious groups in Turkey. Ba✄kent Kad✁n Platformu (The Capital City Women’s
Platform) and one of the members of this platform, Hidayet ☎evkatli Tuksal, were
introduced in the third chapter. Women who adopted this platform struggle against
the patriarchal oppression of Turkish and Islamic culture. They call for an end to the
economic, legal, and cultural barriers prohibiting them from participation in the
public sphere.

The women’s issue in Turkey, from the beginning, has been formulated within a

393
Ibid: 53.
394
A series of article published by the daily Turkish newspaper, Zaman, in 1987.
395
Zaman 17 March 1987.
396
Gole, Nilufer, (1998) “Islamism, Feminism and Post-Modernism: Women’s movements in
Islamic Countries”, p. 65.

194
religious boundary. Its earliest form is a right-centred movement. Muslims, who do
not like to use the Western term, feminism, are apologetically saying that Islam gave
women and men equal rights before Europe discovered the idea of equality. They
point out that the Qur’an gives them rights that are being denied them in practice. In
this early stage of women’s rights, Ya ar Nuri Öztürk and Hüseyin Atay, for
example, argue against practices which constrain the rights and status of women.
They also call for women’s religious rights, such as access to mosque worship,
attendance to weekly prayers, etc. Of course, they do not promote feminism and its
demands.

The first Muslim woman explicitly to link feminism and the Qur’an, Hidayet ✁efkatli
Tuksal, is a member of the Baskent Kad✂n Platformu who demands full equal rights
for women in the public sphere and a reduction of inequalities in the private or
family spheres. With Tuksal’s attempts, there is a paradigm shift towards a liberal
feminism. The new feminism, departing from the earlier women’s right-centred
trend, focuses on new demands for gender equality and social justice as basic and
intersecting principles in the Qur’an. Her new feminist hermeneutics renders
compelling confirmation of gender equality that is typically obscured by the classical
doctrine of male superiority, which reflects the way of thinking of the prevailing
patriarchal culture. In her works, Tuksal points out that certain practices in the
society into which the revelation was sent were allowed in the formulation of the
text. Since the Qur'an was revealed into an existing patriarchy and has been
interpreted by adherents of patriarchies ever since, Muslim women have a stake in
challenging its patriarchal exegesis.

6.4.2. Evaluation of Feminist Criticism by Hidayet ✄efkatli Tuksal

397
Hidayet ✁efkatli Tuksal published her Ph.D thesis under the title of “ Kad☎n Kar✆☎t☎

397
Tuksal, Hidayet S., (2000) Kad✝n Kar✞✝t✝ Söylemin ✟slam Gelene✠indeki ✟ zdü✞ümleri(Projections
of Misogynist Discourse in the Islamic Tradition), Ankara: Kitabiyat.

195
Söylemin slam Gelene✁indeki zdü✂ümleri ” (‘Projections of Misogynist Discourse in
the Islamic Tradition’) in 2000. Tuksal has “corrected” the widely-circulated but
erroneous narratives in the Islamic sources and also in Biblical materials. One
narrative, for example, insists that woman was created out of man’s crooked rib and
thus woman was a secondary or derivative creature. Tuksal points to verses of the
Qur’an declaring that women and men were created out of a single self or soul ( nafs).
Nafs was understood to be the same patriarchal starting point as Adam.

Tuksal admits that having started to read Islam from its main sources – the Qur’an
and the Hadiths – she has tended to interrogate everything she had been told and
thought before. During her faculty years she came across Fazlur Rahman’s writings
and found the philosophical basis of her thought in his treatises. Tuksal decided to
study the authenticity of misogynist tradition in her PhD project. At the beginning of
her study, Tuksal believed, as did Mernissi, that many Hadith documents were not
authentic and were derived from political debates. However, Tuksal eventually,
concluded they were historically authentic, and surprisingly, that the Qur’an has a
similar patriarchal character.

Finally, following Rahman’s historical perspective, Tuksal came to believe that the
formation of the text of the Qur’an and Hadith were influenced by the patriarchal
tradition in the Arab world. That is to say that the Qur'an is patriarchal especially
when dealing with polygamy and "wife beating", and it is patriarchal in the way that
it recognises men as the locus of power and authority. However, recognizing the
existence of a patriarchy, or addressing it, is not the same as advocating it. Moreover,
the Qur'an's provisions about polygamy, "wife beating," and so forth are in the nature
of restrictions , and not licences. However, we can only address these types of issues
if, in addition to questioning the textual strategies Muslims have used to read the
Qur'an, we also keep in mind the historical context of its revelation in a seventh-
century (Arab) tribal patriarchy.

Tuksal’s book essentially focuses on the narratives in the Hadith literature, which is

196
the production of four centuries of Islam. The main sources are the collections of
Sah >fa398 of Hammam ibn Munabbih, the Musnad of Ahmed ibn Hanbal, the
Muwatta' of Malik ibn Anas, and the Ja>mi‘ of Buha>r✁> and Muslim. Tuksal also
uses some secondary sources, the Sharh} (explanation) genre of Hadith literature for
finding out about patriarchal elements and women’s social situation in the first
centuries of Islam. Ibn Hajar’s Fath} al-Ba>r >, al-‘Ayn✁>’s Umdah al-Ka>r >, and
Nawawi’s Minh}a>c are also within her sources.

Tuksal, despite her frequent use of Hadith sources, says that the methodology of
history and anthropology can be employed in the Hadiths, since the Hadiths already
399
constitute a historical text and also deal with history itself. According to her , they
should not be read objectively, as Fazlur Rahman claims, and should not be read as
scientifically as Arkoun advocates. She argues that personal perspective and
acceptance (feminist discourse) can contribute in this interpretative activity.

Her book contains four chapters. In the first chapter, Tuksal discusses the influences
of the patriarchal tradition on the Qur’anic contents. She believes that pre-Islamic
Arabic concepts of women and traditions of marriage and divorce, etc. were used in
400
the Qur’an. Having carried out a literary analysis on the verses, Tuksal found
crucial and remarkable evidence about women’s social positions, patriarchal and
misogynist perceptions, which led to the formulation of Qur’anic attitudes towards
women. For her, the Qur’anic discourse that man has authority ( qawwa>m) over
women is just the indicator of historical phenomenon.

This misogynistic character of Islam, for her, derives not only from the Qur'anic
discourse, but also from the traditional Islamic discourse. If we need to keep in mind
the historical contexts of the Qur'an's revelation in order to understand its teachings,
she claims, we also need to keep in mind the historical contexts of its interpreters in
order to understand its conservative and patriarchal exegesis. In other words, it was

398
“Sahifa” chronologically is the first genre of Hadith literature.
399
Tuksal, Hidayet ✂evkatli, Kad✄ n Kar☎✄t✄ Söylem, pp. 28-29.
400
Ibid: 41-63.

197
the primary and also secondary religious texts that enabled the “textualization of
misogyny” in Islam.

Since the reader of the Qur'an is a woman, we can certainly hear female voices and
feminist biases in her exegesis. Tuksal apparently accepts this point:

The works on “human perception” and “hermeneutics”

makes the claim of the objectivity of scientific works, studies
and ideas debatable. Thus, the subjectivity of researchers –
which derives from their human character –, must now be
more acceptable to us.401 [my translation]

Tuksal focuses not only on what Islamic sources say but also on what the previous
scriptures, the Old and New Testaments, say about women. This is important because
the misogynist tradition is not specifically inherent in certain religions or in certain
communities.

In the second chapter, Tuksal discusses some Hadith records that deal with ‘ the
creation of women from rib of man’ which metaphorically imply that women are
corrupted and cannot be straightened. In the third chapter, Tuksal investigates certain
Hadith’s literatures that make reference to the shortage of religious faith and wisdom
(aql) of women. In the final chapter, Tuksal evaluates sayings about women bringing
bad luck. Tuksal believes that these kinds of Hadith literatures that humiliate women
are common themes of patriarchal discourses of Islam and were influenced by the
misogynist character of pre-Islamic Arabic culture.

6.5. THE APPLICATION OF LIBERATION THEOLOGY

Turkey is the only country in the Middle East and the whole Muslim world that has
practiced liberal democracy for a long time, especially after 1980s. It is also the only

401
Ibid: 28.

198
country in the Middle East where secularism which based on positivist thought of the
nineteenth century and on the individualistic religious piety became the official
ideology of the state. The secularist project, can be seen, was successful on the
official level, not in the public sphere. The practical implementations therefore have
always encountered resistance and opposition.

During last two decades, the power of political Islam has increased dramatically.
This period has also been marked by the rise to conflict between official secularism
and Islamic political movements when religious piety emerged from academicians,
and students. 402

In this conflict, the women’s liberation is the most controversial issue. Excluding
women who wear the headscarf from education undercuts a fundamental aspect of
women’s rights In Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper 403, women’s stiations
summurised as follows:

The ban on the headscarf within universities excludes

thousands of women from higher education each year. In
accordance with a 1997 military ultimatum delivered to the
government of the day, the HEC forbids any woman who
wears the closefitting headscarf from studying or teaching in
higher education. This restriction of women’s choice of dress
is discriminatory and violates their right to education, their
right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and
their right to privacy.

Women’s liberation has been challenged from different discourses, namely Secular,
Islamist, and Liberal Feminism and Islamic Modernism etc.

402 For further information about conflict between state and political Islam especially on women
issues in Turkey in post-1980s see: Ayse Kadioglu, “Women’s subordination in Turkey: is
Islam Really the Villain?” The Middle East Journal 48 I 1994 pp. 645-660; Umit Cizre
Sakallioglu, “Parameters and Strategies of Islam-State Interaction in Republican Turkey”
International Journal of Middle East Studies 28 1996 pp.231-251, Aynur Ilyasoglu, “Islamist
Women in Turkey: Their Identity and Self-Image” in Deconstructing Images of Turkish
Woman ed. by Zehra F. Arat London: Macmillan Press Ltd. 1998 pp. 241-261.
403 Human Rights Watch “Memorandum to the Turkish Government on Human Rights Watch’s
Concerns with Regard to Academic Freedom in Higher Education, and Access to Higher
Education for Women who Wear the Headscarf” New York: Human Rights Watch June 29,
2004 p.3

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6.5.1. Feminist Ways for Women’s Liberation

6.5.1.1. State Secular Feminism

Secular feminism emphasizes the importance of secular education, equality of

genders and women’s liberation from the restrictions of religion. In secular
feminism, Islam is described as responsible for the backwardness of the Muslim
world and seen as the biggest barrier for the liberation of women because Islam
makes women passive and restricted. Women which oppressed by a traditional
backward religious system can be liberated only with secularisation process.

In the discourse of Turkish secular feminism , veiling of women, for example,

indicates the backward to tradition and being a member of a religious tradition which
has imposed certain rules on women who are passive, guarded and controlled by the
male. Veiling is therefore an expression of the fact that a woman agrees to play that
role which was given her by male. The liberty of women can be only with refusing to
be veiled. In so doing, they have shifted the feminist argument away from universal
feminist claims regarding any kind of authoritarianism including state oppression on
women in public sphere.

6.5.1.2. Islamist Feminism

Islamist feminism emphasizes the importance the Islamic society. In contrast to

secular feminism that claims that liberation is only possible if Islam is put aside,
Islamist Feminism declares that Islam is not restriction for women and forces them to
passivity, but drives them to activity and claims that only through the full
implementation of Islam, women’s liberation can be achieved.

In the discourse of Islamist feminism, veiling, if we give the same example, does not
illustrate the passivity and oppression as a way of obedience to male oppress, rather a
commitment, and chosen act. In this discourse unveiled face indicates the willingness
of women to be subject of sexual material and sexual immorality. Therefore, veiling

200
is real symbol of the liberation of women.

6.5.1.3. Muslim Liberal Feminism

Muslim feminism regards that Islamist feminism is a return to the patriarchal system
of traditional Islam, a return to the oppressive system in which women should stay at
home, have no education, no work outside the home, and are isolated from man‘s
spheres.

Unlike Secular feminism, Muslim feminism also argues on the basis of Islamic
sources Qur’an and Hadith. This kind of feminism stays within the Islamic discourse
in order to prove that the Qur‘an and Muhammad‘s message is a message to liberate
women, whereas Islamic tradition is against the message of the Qur‘an and
Muhammad‘s example for the situation of women.

In terms of the influence of Islamic tradition on the life of women Muslim feminism
argues like secular feminism: Islamic tradition is a patriarchal interpretation of
Islamic authoritative sources: the Qur’an and Hadith. However, Muslim feminism
has a more positive view on Islam and differentiates between the message of Qur’an
and the practices of Islamic tradition.

As we introduced in the third chapter, Hidayet Sefkatli Tuksal, for example,

introduced a new form of the interpretation of the Qur‘an and the examination of the
Hadith-sayings to re-construct Islamic discourse as a backwardness to misogynist
attitudes of pre-Islamic Arabian period, and pre-Qur’anic religious scriptures, i.e.
male discrimination against women in terms of personal status, and religious, social
and political rights.

In the discourse of Muslim feminism, veiling means a symbol of patriarchy,

oppression, and misogyny, it was created by men and it only serves the purposes of
men and it is a symbol of giving up women‘s right of free choice of what to wear and
how to dress. According to Tuksal, the veil is an innovation not of Islam, but by later
generations of misogynist scholars who wants to control the women. However, in the

201
context of Turkey, forbidding of veiling in the public sphere by male-law-makers is
also a symbol of misogynist oppression against women in their rights of free choice
of what to wear and how to dress. Protesting this kind of oppression and secular
authoritarianism is the real liberation of women. Tuksal asserts that regarding with
Islam, the dominant feminist movement (state secular feminism) in Turkey has not
objective point of view. They always discriminate Muslim women and ignore Islam
and Islamic intellectualism even in the women issues. Therefore, Tuksal established
the Capital women Platform with some Islamist feminist writers who share the same
discrimination. This reveals that the concept of liberation in Muslim liberal feminism
lies in ability to protect women from both religious and state dominations. Having
not claiming to be or not be religious at any stage, Muslim liberal feminism has, in
fact, essential character of secularism.

6.5.2. Women’s Liberation in Islamic Modernisation Project

In above paragraphs, three different Turkish feminist discourses to fight for their
rights, and liberation have briefly been presented. But, what does male-dominant
discourse, for example Islamic Modernism think about women’s liberation in
Turkey?

Throughout this study the term Turkish Islamic modernism will be used to refer to a
movement that stresses the dynamism, flexibility, and adaptability characters of
Islam. While a variety of definitions of the term Islamic modernism have been
suggested, this paper will use the definition first suggested by Esposito who saw it as
intellectual, legal, educational, and social reforms aimed to rescue Muslim society
from their downward spiral and demonstrating the compatibility of Islam with
modern, western thought and values. This kind of intellectualism has been activated
in Turkey by very effective names: Suleyman Ates, Huseyin Ates and Yasar Nuri
Ozturk.

202
While they focus on the different aspects of the modern Islamic issues, their common
and ideological framework includes the following principles:

1. The failure of Muslim societies is due to their departure from the source: the
Qur’an.

2. The renewal of society requires a return to, or a strict application of, the
Qur’an.

3. The assertion of the right of independent analysis (Ijtihad) of the Qur’an in

this application, rather than having to rely upon and imitate the opinions of
the classical authorities of Islam.

Their themes are usually in religious, political, social and economic life of Modern
Muslims: Parliamentary democracy, Secularism, Liberalism in Religious diversity
and women rights and their political, economical and cultural contributions.

In terms of women’s liberation, they usually claim that Islam gave women and men
equal rights before Europe discovered the idea of equality. They point out that the
Qur’an gives them rights that are being suspended from them in practice. In this early
stage of women rights trends, the Islamic Modernism argues against practices and
limitations of rights and status of women. They promote also public demand for
women’s religious rights, such as access to mosque worship, attendance to weekly
prayer etc. It is apparently there is a friendly relationship between Muslim feminism
and Islamic modernism.

However, as far as real issues of women’s liberation concern, is Islamic modernism

still open-handed as it was? To what extend Islamic Modernism support women’s
liberation? Are they really support women’s right? Even, more radically, is there any
manifesto for women’s liberation in their agenda?

6.5.2.1. Case 1: Authority of Man

One of the significant examples that show their approach to the Qur’an regarding

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with women is surah Nisa, verse 34. According to this verse, men are (qawwa>m) in
charge of women and they can hit them (wa-adribu>hunna) in certain conditions.

Qawwam is the vital term in the discussion. Classical Turkish scholars have usually
translated the term, as “ hakim, otorite sahibi, ustun” (sovereign, power, authority,
and supremacy) to correspond it. Elmalili Muhammed Hamdi Yazir, for example,
says:

Men have authority over women, because, first of all, Allah

has created one (men) outclass of the other (women)…404
[my translation]

From Muslim liberal feminist point of view, the term conveys the notion of
“providing for” and the term is used to signify that men ought to provide for women
in the context of child-bearing and rearing but does not signify that all man have
unconditionally authority over all women all the time, as traditional interpreters have
claim.

Having slightly reduced the tough and unsuitable sense to modern values, Huseyin
Atay and Suleyman Ates, one hand, have translated the same word as “ yonetici”
(governor) in the meaning of “serve” not “authority”. Yasar Nuri Ozturk, on the
other hand, translated as “ gozetip kollamak” (to look after, to protect).

In the Current Religious Issues Consultation Meeting- I 405 the term was investigated
according to modern context. The decision was:

The word “qawwa>mu>n” which is mentioned in the 34 th

verse of Sura Nisa gives rights and responsibilities to men.
Although there are different opinions on the literal meaning
of the verse in question, it cannot be considered as basis for
violence within family which is widespread today. On the
contrary, the practices of the Prophet should be taken as a
role model in determining how to treat women.

404 “Er olanlar kadinlar uzerinde hakim dururlar, cunku bir kere Allah birini digerine ustun
yaratmis...“ Elmalili Muhammed Hamdi Yazir, Hak Dini Kur’an Dili,
405 Istanbul on May 18, 2002

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By doing so, they have re-modified the relationship of men and women in the Qur’an
according to new and modern perspective. Men and the women are not in a
hierarchical and misogynist classification that men in charge of women. On the
contrary, they are equal and men have more responsibilities any more.

6.5.2.2. Case 2: Violence against Women

They, can be apparently seen above, manipulated the issue of men’s being
“qawwa>m” and diverted the subject to the violence within family. In this context, as
conference delegates do, they never take the verse that talks about ‘beating women’
in consideration. Classical exegeses dealing with “beating women” in the same verse,
Nisa 34 took the plain meaning of ‘ daraba=beating’. Contrary to the traditional
meaning, Huseyin Atay, for instance, asserts that daraba here means ‘having sexual
406
intercourse’. For him this meaning has been in the metaphoric use of the word
daraba. This has been criticised by a number of writers. Omer Ozsoy, for example, labels
this effort as ‘producing of Modern Qur’an’ (modern Kur’an’lar olusturmak) and this
407
is for him is to alter the Qur’an.

The latter point has been devastatingly critiqued by Bilal Gokkir. Gokkir finds this
approach not only problematic for the Qur’anic discourse but also not acceptable for
the western and modern values. Gokkir points out that Atay’s effort in interpreting
the word daraba was to give the Qur’anic discourse more modern meaning than
‘beating’ that he finds not appropriate for modern world. However, by giving the
meaning of ‘sexual intercourse’ to the word ‘ daraba’ in the verse, Gokkir puts, one
might seem to solve one problem but cause another more problem. Because, having
considered the circumstances between the couples that the verse describes, the
preferred meaning indicates ‘unwilling, involuntary sexual intercourse’. This is

406 Atay, Huseyin, Kur’an: Turkce Ceviri Yurt Istanbul: Bilimsel Arastirmalari ve Yayincilik
1998.
407 Ozsoy, Omer, “Cagdas Kur’an’lar Uretimi Uzerine- Kari Dovme Olgusu Baglaminda 4. Nisa,
34 Ornegi” Islamiyat pp.111-124

205
 408
obviously not an acceptable or better solution either. In sum up, his way of
interpretation is conjectural that, in fact, has not limits to give meaning and flexible
to circumstances, and therefore open to make new problems.

6.5.2.3. Case 3: Veiling

So far, we observe that as far as women equality and treatment to women concern in
the example of “men’s being of qawwa>m” and “men’s beating women” in surah
Nisa verse 34 contemporary Turkish scholars act in favour of women as a parallel to
other applications of the Qur’an to the modern concerns.

However, as far as women’s liberation, as in Turkish context that is patriarchal

oppressions on women’s social and religious demands particularly free choice of
what to wear and how to dress concerns, are they still supporting women’s
liberation?

The issue of veiling or covering head has been discussed by several Turkish scholars.
Yasar Nuri Ozturk, for instance, does not see traditional discourse about veiling as in
harmony with Qur’anic discourse rather a pre-Islamic-Arabic cultural pattern that
became a tradition in Muslim societies.

The veiling order of the Qur’an does not include of the

wudu‘ organs [arms, face, head, and foods]. Head covering
signifies a social position; it is not a religious order. In the
past, free-people was identified by the word of “ serbest”
(free). Serbest which is a joint term with ser (head) and best
(covered) etiologically means head-covered. Uncovered
people were that who are slaves, and workers; covered
people were who free and high class people are. [my
translation] 409

In the case of “men’s being of qawwa>m” and “men’s beating women” in surah

408 Gokkir, Bilal, ‘Western Influences on Islamic Studies in Turkey’, unpublished Conference
Paper, BRISMES Conference, Exeter, 2003
409 Ozturk, Yasar Nuri, Islam Nasil Yozlastirildi, p.357

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Nisa verse 34, essentially, having eliminated the traditional sources, and having
promoting Qur’an/text-based approach, they find a solution from Pre-Islamic Arabic
lexicographic treasure for the sake of liberation of women. But what happened in the
case of “veiling of head” in spite of women’s willing to wear it and they turn away to
the social historical investigation. It is apparent that they do not really give rights and
real liberation to women in terms of free choice that liberal feminism promotes. By
doing so, Ozturk and other contemporary Turkish scholars justify the state official
attitude towards the issue of women’s covering head in public sphere. They are seen
in favour of women as long as Turkish main stream policy supports. In this meaning,
Islamic modernism, as a matter of fact, has a friendly relationship with state policies
about women and with modern conjectures not with women rights at all in reality.

Having justifying secular state policies and its implementations, Turkish

intellectuals, Yasar Nuri Ozturk, Huseyin Atay, and Suleyman Ates in reality
highlight Turkish policies, culture, history, society and establishments as the social
context of reader. Contrary to expectations, their manifesto which was to read the
text only, to return to Qur’an and strictly application of the Qur’an are not consistent
with this conclusion. Returning to the question posed at the beginning of this study, it
is now possible to state that Islamic modernism in Turkey, because of being state-
controlled, are not really in favour of women.

Conclusion

This chapter has given an account of reader-centred critical readings of the Qur’an.
This study has found that generally Turkish intellectuals turn away from historical
criticism and text-based reading to the reader-centred reading of the Qur’an with the
culture, politics, society and social context of the modern reader functioning as the
background for interpretation.

The most interesting finding is that having accepted the flexibility in the divine
manifesto, Turkish intellectuals Ya ar Nuri Öztürk, Hüseyin Atay, and Salih
Akdemir in reality highlight Turkish culture, history, politics, society and institutions

207
as the social context of the reader instead of text and author-based readings. This
result is consistent with those of Fazlur Rahman, Abu Zayd, and Arkoun who
discover that contemporary Islamic thought must be rethought in the light of
contemporary social and intellectual realities. Turkish scholars accept that the
Qur’anic text needs to be interpreted interactively with the reader’s religious
knowledge and context in order to re-express the Qur’anic discourse in a way
appropriate to the present needs. Another obvious finding from this study was that
the individual role of the reader has been exemplified in feminism, new historicism,
and reader response criticism.

In this chapter, it has been shown that Turkish feminism came onto the scene of
Qur’anic studies after 1980. As expected, the issue of women in Turkey, from the
beginning, was formulated within religious boundaries and partly as an apologetic
against the Western challenge.

The current study found that in this early stage of women’s rights, Ya ar Nuri Öztürk
and Hüseyin Atay, for example, argue against practices which constrain the rights
and status of women. They also openly call for women’s religious rights, such as
access to mosque worship, attendance at weekly prayer, etc. It seems that there is a
sympathetic association with feminist demands. It is somewhat surprising that as far
as real issues of women’s liberation are concerned, however, they are not open-
handed, as it were. Instead, they do not, in reality, give rights and liberation to
women in terms of the free choice that liberal feminism promotes. In so doing, it can
thus be suggested that Öztürk and other contemporary Turkish scholars justify the
official state attitude towards these issues. Indeed, they are seen to be in favour of
women as long as Turkish mainstream policy supports this and as a matter of fact,
they have a friendly relationship with state policies concerning women within
modern ideas and contexts, not in reality with women’s rights at all.

It is interesting to note that all three different Turkish feminist discourses which are
concerned with fighting for equal rights, and liberation, contrary to expectations,
have disagreements. In the case of veiling, state secular feminism supports the state
oppression of women, in contrast to universal and Western feminism that is against

208
any kind of authoritarianism. This is difficult to explain, but it might be related to the
strict ideologies behind secularism and political Islam. It is suggested that the issue
of covering or veiling the head should be reconsidered in future studies of feminist
and also liberation theology within the Turkish context.

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 GENERAL CONCLUSION

This study has attempted to evaluate the application of contemporary Western critical
methods to the study of the Qur’an, using Turkey as a case study. To do this, we
have first taken into consideration the theoretical definitions, types and substance of
contemporary critical theories and their applications in both Biblical and Qur’anic
studies, and then carried out a detailed historical investigation of applications by
individuals and institutions in Turkey.

The starting point was to present twentieth century critical theories with a special
focus on literary studies. It has been concluded that literary criticism in the twentieth
century has become more text-based and reader-centred and less author-based that it
was in the 19 th century. Then, Biblical and Qur’anic studies were discussed in the
light of this contemporary literary criticism. Both areas of textual studies were
clearly affected by a new approach to the sacred text through new paradigms of
literary studies. Also, a number of theological discourses were culturally interwoven
with literary criticism in Christian and Muslim debates in particular during the
second half of the twentieth century. We would like to briefly restate our findings in
the first part with the following points:

1- Literary criticism in the twentieth century did indeed influence the reading of
sacred texts in Christianity and Islam.

2- The major debates in the twentieth century concerning interpretation and

literary critical theories have centred upon matters of language and have been
mostly text and reader-centred in character, rather than author-based, in all
three study areas: literary criticism, Biblical studies and Qur’anic studies.

3- Due to many factors, the application of Western literary criticism to Qur’anic

studies has produced different outcomes from those in Biblical studies.
Accordingly, it is impossible for Muslim thinkers to think in parallel to the
principles developed in the West. These factors are as follows:

a) The first striking difference between the two religious disciplines as

210
 far as interpretation is concerned lies in their cultural position in the
application. In Chapter Two of Part One, our analysis has clearly shown
that Biblical studies have shifted the attention from author intentional
reading to text and reader-centred readings in parallel to literary
criticism because these distinct fields of study are culturally intertwined.
Theoretical production and its application were naturally processed by
Western scholars. But in Qur’anic studies, applicants, despite their
Western education, mostly came from the Islamic hermeneutical
tradition and could not easily abandon the latter.

b) Indeed pioneer Muslim applicants, in contrast to their counterparts in

Biblical studies, were, therefore, mostly selective in their methods.
Muslim applicants clearly use these methods for different purposes.
Whereas in Biblical studies, the secular, scientific and critical mind is
dominant, in Qur’anic studies applicants attempt to overcome
contemporary problems of modern times for the sake of religious
modernisation. In so doing, it is obvious that they have more theological
concerns and are not purely guided by scientific/literary objectives.

The specific Turkish case has shown that contemporary Qur’anic studies in Turkey
were indeed influenced by Western literary criticism. Corresponding to political,
intellectual, and institutional westernisation and the modernisation process in Turkey,
Turkish scholars came under the methodological influences of the West.
Furthermore, post-1980, Turkey experienced the application of Western literary
criticism in Qur’anic studies. Western-inspired institutions became the base for
applications and adaptations of Western methodologies. In particular, theology
faculties and research centres that have more contact with and direct experience of
Western academia first introduced literary criticism to academia with a general
outline of Western-originated Qur’anic studies.

In the first chapter, therefore, the aim was to assess Turkish policies, namely
westernisation, secularism and nationalism, which affected Turkish academic and
intellectual life. As a result of the westernisation policy of the state, it was found that

211
Turkey accepted secularism entirely and in turn this profoundly affected the religious
establishment in Turkish society.

The academic relationship with Western institutions and intellectualism was also
studied in the first chapter. The purpose of the chapter was to show first the intensity
of academic and intellectual relationships between Turkey and the West and then the
intellectual impact of the West. This study shown that the Da>r al-Funu>n Theology
Faculty, established in 1924, was the first modernised and Western-inspired institute.
The Institute of Orientalism in 1938 and The Institute of Islamic Studies in 1953,
High Islamic Institutions in 1959 and finally Theology Faculties in 1982 were all
established according to the structure of Western counterparts.

One of the most obvious findings to emerge from the first chapter is that the
intellectual trends in the theology faculties were classified according to their
responses to modern Western intellectualism in religious studies. It was found that
Ankara was thought to be relatively Western-dominated while stanbul was
considered traditionalist. This result may be explained by the fact that Ankara in
particular and other modernism-dominated theology faculties had more contact with
and direct experience of Western academia. It can thus be suggested that Western
literary criticism was mostly used within the Ankara academic circle.

In spite of these notable advantages, compared to the rest of the Islamic world, it can
be claimed that changes came into academia belatedly and took a long time to arrive.
Because attention has been wholly focused on religious modernisation in the course
of the application process in Turkey, Western intellectual development was
overlooked. While the institutional and intellectual framework was established, full
and direct academic relations with the West still remained weak. Instead, despite the
well-organized institutions and religious academia in Turkey, the issue of
legitimising the adaptation from the West was always entailed in the application
process. Therefore, the task of the adaptation was to be carried out through
translations of the works by Muslim pioneers. Academia in Turkey still seem to be
far from fulfilling Western-style secular and scientific progress in religious and
Qur’anic studies.

212
The weakness of an accurate adaptation caused the misapplication of many methods,
and as a consequence of incomplete adaptation, those adaptations, at times, led to
some new and, sometimes, unique outcomes. This was possible because there was no
common academic language, that combined social and religious studies in Turkey,
and translations were not underpinned by accurate theoretical or conceptual
discussions (e.g. Isutzu’s semantical exegesis was accepted before any serious
discussion of structuralism had taken place at Turkish universities).

In the second and third chapters, representative scholars who stimulated new
intellectual discussions through their work in the circle of stanbul and Ankara were
introduced. The result of this research supports the idea that Ate✁ and Öztürk
explicitly promote a text-based approach which corresponds to new criticism by
insisting on “returning to the Qur’an” as a self-contained and self-referential book.
They do not use extra Qur’anic materials, even Hadith or traditional sources in their
works. Ate✁ has also contributed by translating one of the significant examples in the
application of structural semantics by Toshiko Izutsu into Turkish in 1975.

This study finds that Öztürk focuses strictly on the renewal and revival of Islamic
religious life. He attempted to reinterpret Islam to meet the changing circumstances
of the necessities of the modern world and to rescue Muslim society from its decline.
Therefore, Öztürk’s themes in his works usually concerned the religious, political,
social and economic life of modern societies: Parliamentary democracy, secularism,
women’s rights and their political, economical and cultural contributions, etc.
Despite using Western values in his defence of Islam, Öztürk claims that they are all
originally Qur’anic, defending Islamic/Qur’anic values against the West. Moreover,
despite his arguments about text-based reading, Öztürk’s methodology, in reality,
was reader-centred and contextual, giving more attention to modern Turkish issues.
He always insisted on the translation of the Qur’an into Turkish, and the possibility
of prayer with these translations. Although he maintains that the issue of “translation
of the Qur’an” is not dealing with the reformation of the religion, it comes from the
Turkish republican policy of the Turkification of Islam and also Westernisation in
religious life. These findings enhance our understanding of Öztürk’s tools for his

213
way of interpretation. Nevertheless, Öztürk had considerable influence on Turkish
intellectuals and modern Muslim scholars, especially in the Ankara academic circle.

Hüseyin Atay is another key scholar in Turkey. His work emphasises the dynamism,
flexibility, and adaptability of the early development of Islam, notable for its
achievements in Islamic law, education and science. This study confirmd that Atay
was associated with Öztürk’s attempts to rescue Muslim society from its downward
spiral and to demonstrate the compatibility of Islam with modern, Western thought
and values. Atay therefore called for internal reform, “ tajd >d” through a process of
reinterpretation “ Ijtihad”. Another point associating Atay with Öztürk was that both
failed to provide a systematic, comprehensive methodology of reinterpretation of the
Qur’an.

Returning to the question posed at the beginning of this study, it is now possible to
state that Salih Akdemir, Mehmet Paçac✁, Yasin Aktay and Hidayet ✂efkatli Tuksal
were clearly under the intellectual and cultural influence of the West and, naturally,
brought Western intellectualism into religious studies. This study confirms that they
were associated with Western literary criticism and they have accommodated it as a
new way of understanding the religious text. Their main objectives were to re-think
Islam and to re-interpret the Qur’an through contemporary literary criticism and
hermeneutics, rather than to confine themselves to traditional methodologies and
discourses.

The results of this study indicate that in the course of the last two decades the most
controversial approach to the Qur’an was historical criticism. Turkish religious
academia primarily encountered the term historical criticism through the translation
of the works of Fazlur Rahman around the 1980s. The application of historical
criticism was questioned many times. The main issue in the discussions of Turkish
scholars was to legitimise the adoption of this from the West. That is why they use
Muslim transmitters rather than those of Western origin.

Contrary to expectations, there is no parallel effort by Western scholars to establish a

historical-critical reading of the Qur’an for the discovery of the original meaning.

214
Their aim is to adapt Qur’anic values to modern values. That is how the idea of
“historicity” has been applied to the Qur’an.

In terms of the text-based approaches, the fifth chapter focused on the application of
Formalism, New Criticism and Structuralism to the Qur’an. As mentioned in the
chapter, Formalism or New Criticism were not used explicitly in Qur’anic studies in
Turkey. Nevertheless some corresponding approaches could be find in Turkish
Qur’anic studies that treat the Qur’an as a self-contained, self-referential text.
Süleyman Ate and Ya ar Nuri Öztürk depended on the text of the Qur’an alone and
performed a close reading, concentrating on the language, the text and relationships
within the text that give it its own distinctive character or form. In focusing upon the
text, this study confirms that their attention upon the text was in order to clean the
extra-Qur’anic sources out of Islamic thought.

In the fifth chapter, it was also found that as a text-based approach Structural
Semantics came on the scene of Qur’anic studies in 1975 following Süleyman Ate ’
translation of Izutsu’s work, God and Man in the Koran Semantics of the Koranic
Weltanschaung. Contrary to expectations, this study did not find a significant
application of structural reading of the Qur’an until the 1990s. The most interesting
finding was that the Semantic method has been used eclectically as a mixture of
classical linguistics and etymology.

In the sixth chapter, which has given an account of reader-centred critical reading of
the Qur’an, it was found that in general Turkish intellectuals turned away from
historical criticism and text-based reading to reader-centred readings of the Qur’an
with the culture, politics, society and social context of the modern reader. The most
interesting finding was that Ya ar Nuri Öztürk, Hüseyin Atay, and Salih Akdemir in
reality highlight the social context of the reader rather than the text or author.

The most obvious finding to emerge from this study is that Cündio✁lu was against
individualistic interpretations and against the idea that the text needs to be interpreted
differently according to the context of the reader. He thinks that the meaning of the
Qur’an is unchangeable in accordance with different contexts and the meaning of the

215
Qur’an is certain and fixed on the text. It is surprising that Cündio lu, unlike
Western counterparts, did not adopt a structuralist approach because of his
opposition to historical criticism but, in contrast, to post-structuralism.

As far as the transmission of literary criticism is concerned, it was seen that Turkish
applicants were initially referring to the pioneers. By doing so it was easy to justify
their application. However, this caused much “mis-application” of those theories.
This transmission was not simultaneously coordinated in the light of theoretical
debates in the West. Therefore one can, for instance, see that etymology and
structuralism, that are essentially in opposition, were used in the same (Turkish)
application.

There is another crucial characteristic of this application process in Turkey. That is

that working as departments and institutions, Turkish scholars have not only
individually but also institutionally adapted Western literary criticism. The Ankara
Theology Faculty, the Department of Religious Affairs, and certain academic circles
have at times collectively organised a conference or a symposium to discuss
specifically new ways of reading the Qur’an.

Muslim scholars who attempted to adopt such Western perspectives have received
unpleasant responses from the authorities in their countries; such as censorship as in
the case of the Syrian professor, Muhammed Shahrour. A similar thing happened to
an Egyptian professor of Islamic studies and Arabic literature, Nasr Hamid Abu
Zayd, who was forced to divorce, deported from his country and fired from his post
at the University. Similarly Fazlur Rahman had to live outside Pakistan after 1968.
But in Turkey, because of the tendency towards Western values, and the secularist
character, the relevant debates seem to have been tolerated, at least in academic
circles. Ali Bulaç, for instance, is one of those who stand against applications of
Western literary criticism. His main argument is that the rules of Biblical criticism or
Western literary criticism cannot be applied to the Qur’an as God’s revelation. Bulaç
classifies every approach as an anthropological method produced by orientalists in
order to show that the Qur’an is a human-hand-written (not revealed) text belonging
to a certain historical time.

216
However, those negative reactions against applications of Western literary criticism
in Turkey happened only and exclusively in academic circles. It shows that Turkey is
well prepared to discuss and debate new ideas with tolerance and academic leniency
and does not take recourse to legal or militant measures to prevent a free exchange of
ideas. However, the future will show to what extent Qur’anic Studies in Turkey can
take up the pace of an ever more relativistic and post-modernist pluralism as it is
developed in the most recent literary and hermeneutical concepts in the West.

217
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237
 INTERVIEWS
Ya ar Nuri Öztürk (Prof, retired from ✁stanbul University, and since 2002 a
Member of Turkish Parliament)
15th of July 2002 in ✁stanbul
1st of Agust 2002 in ✁stanbul
4th of Agust 2002 in ✁stanbul

Mehmet Paçac✂ (Prof. Ankara University)

30th of July 2002 in Ankara

Hidayet ✄efkatli Tuksal (Dr. Feminist Activist)

31st of July 2002 in Ankara

Süleyman Ate (Prof., retired from ✁stanbul University)

2nd of Agust 2002 in ✁stanbul

Mehmet Görmez (Assistant Prof. Ankara Univesity)

18th of July 2002 in Ankara
27th of July 2002 in Ankara

Ömer Özsoy (Prof. Ankara University)

14th of July 2002 in Ankara

Sadreddin Gümü (Prof. Marmara University)

2nd of Agust 2002 in ✁stanbul

Suat Y✂ld✂r✂m (Prof. Marmara University)

2nd of Agust 2002 in ✁stanbul

Abdulaziz Bay✂nd✂r (Prof. ✁stanbul University)

3rd of Agust in ✁stanbul

238
 APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Süleyman Ate “Al-Kitab mentioned in the Qur’an”

in, Yeniden ✁slama (to Islam Again) ✂stanbul: Kur’an Okulu Yay✄nc✄l✄k 1997 p.20-21

A specific and a defined-word, al-Kitab mentioned in the Qur’an signifies the Torah given to
Moses. Because of that the Qur’an was not revealed in the form of a book. But Torah,
according to Qur’an’s own statement, was revealed upon the tablets: “And We wrote for
him, upon the tablets, the lesson to be drawn from all things and the explanation of all things,
then (bade him): Hold it fast…” (Sura ‘Ara>f: 145)

We have evaluated verses which the word of Kitab has been used and then we found that the
meanings of to give the book and to send it down are essentially different. To give the book
is to give it in a straight line to the Prophet. However, to send it down is a kind of revelation
in words that the Prophet can easily understand. Because of the Holy Book [in the Qur’an]
was given upon the tablets, it is [referred to] Moses’ Book:

- Wa atayna> Mu>sa al-Kita>ba: We gave unto Moses the Book (Sura Isra>: 2)

- Wa laqad atayna> Mu>sa al-Kitaba: And We verity gave the Book unto Moses
(Suras Qas}as}: 43; Hu>d: 110; Fus}s}let: 45)

- Thumma atayna> Musa al-Kitaba: Again We gave unto Moses the Book (Sura
An‘am: 148)…

It is worth mentioning that whereas the scripture given to Moses was called the Book, the
revelation to Mohammed was also called as the Book too…

239
 Appendix 2: Mehmet Paçac “The Qur’an and me, what extent are we
historical?”
in ✁slami Ara✂t ✄rmalar 9 1996 p.119-121.

First of all, we must point out that we would have been talking about an alien cultural
perspective when we are referring to such terms historicity and historicism. Western-
Christian thought essentially has had a dogmatic perspective towards Scripture since the
beginning. Exegesis of the Bible aimed to confirm that Jesus (peace be upon him) had the
character of the Messiah. His death, resurrection and salvation of human-beings are essences
of this dogma. The exegetical permission only belonged to Church authority. Grammatical,
allegoric, and typological methods were developed in order to prove this dogma. In this
sense, exegetical attempts have been continued in a close-circle and out of history and
historical context. In fact, it should be mentioned here that dogmatic Christians had worries
about history… This dogmatic pattern in Christianity, we observe, started to be broken by
the reform movement that emerged in sixteenth century. First, the authority of church over
exegesis was eliminated. Having applied Cartesian thought to theology, some theological
movements started to emerge. Rationalism and various disciplines related to developments
led to criticism of the Bible. The first attempt was by Richard Simon, a French priest.
(Schweitzer, Albert, T he Quest of the Historical Jesus, London: SCM 1954. p.3 ) The seventeenth
and eighteenth century witnessed developments in rationalist and historical critical
methods…

… Having applied this historical critical method to their religious Book, Christian
theologians and interpreters developed Hermeneutics and Biblical Criticism. However, the
Muslim factor behind this approach developed in Christian world should not be ignored.
Researches reveal that recent studies in Biblical criticism were influenced by Muslim critical
tools developed in the Middle age. Muslim critics (Ibn Hazm, Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn Qayyim al-
Jawziyya etc.) brought up chronological contradictions, and geographical mistakes in the
Bible, using textual and source criticism.( For further information see: “Some Neglected Aspects
of Medieval Muslim Polemics against Christianity” Harvard Theological Review, 89:1 1996 pp.61-
84) In reality, Muslims have always had a historical approach. The main reason for it is that
in the Qur’an it is emphasised that Muhammad was fully human. He is a human being who
lived in a certain historical period, in a certain place and died as a human being. We face
Muhammad in the Qur’an as a historical figure. In this regard, the disciplines of Hadith and
Prophetic Biography (Siyar) have a significant place in recording history. Moreover, such

240
terms as sabab al-nuzu>l (occasion of revelation), such terms, Meccan and Medinan, sabab
al-vuru>d in Hadith (occasion of saying) signify a consensus that revelation and prophethood
accured in history. The issues of nasikh and mansu>kh are, indeed, the strongest evidences
within the Qur’an itself of the historical circumstances… However, similiar discussions on
the process of biblical canonisation emerged later, as higher criticism, textual and lower
criticism [in Christian world], relativel to Muslim culture. As a matter of fact, it is possible to
see Islamic influences and the impact of historical perspective in Islamic tradition on the
reform movements which are behind these [critical] thoughts.

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 Appendix 3: Current Religious Issues Consultation Meeting- I. (Final
Communiqué) May 18, 2002 stanbul
The Presidency of Religious Affairs, whose essential duty is to enlighten the public on religi-
ous matters, has until now tried to fulfill this mission to the best of its ability starting from
the day it was established.

Social changes which have been expedited by the developments in scientific and technologi-
cal areas have deeply influenced the traditional understanding of the religion and in turn ne-
cessitated new discussions over many issues, and caused the emergence of new problems
which are in need of urgent solutions.

The open discussion of these problems, which should be solved through scientific methods,
not only hamper reaching sound solutions but also results in mental confusion and offends
the religious sentiments of our nation.

In order that religious matters do not result in tension, and that the proposed solutions con-
vince and satisfy our faithful people to the religion, it is necessary to adopt methods taking
into consideration both traditional experiences and modern developments instead of making
declarations leading to speculations.

Basing opinions on a scientific method while expressing views on religious matters will not
only avoid the use of religious sources as a means for legalization but also enable us to reach
solutions which will convince the majority of the people and render marginal tendencies
inactive on religious issues.

The accumulation of knowledge and experience in our Faculties of Theology which examine
the nature of religion, the historic experience of Muslims and modern religious issues within
the framework of academic disciplines are sufficient to overcome these problems and consti-
tute a role model for other Islamic countries.

The Presidency of Religious Affairs has found it necessary to benefit from this accumulation
of knowledge by organizing a consultation meeting. Members of the Higher Council of Reli-
gious Affairs and Academicians met for solution to the current religious issues at a forum
which was held in the ✁stanbul Grand Tarabya Hotel on 15-18 May 2002.

Four separate commissions were established at this meeting and the following subjects were
discussed:

242
1. Traditional and modern approaches in understanding and the interpretation of religious
texts and their reflections on society,

2. Religious discussions regarding women’s problems in the modern world,

3. Discussions over pilgrimage (hacc),

4. Current discussions on acts of worship (ibadat),

Certain practical solutions were found for certain problems and important steps were taken
for the solution of others. These decisions which were discussed and accepted by the General
Board of the Meeting demonstrate that there is no essential conflict between religion and
universal values and it is possible to solve the problems created by social change through a
sound perspective.

We hope that these decisions will eliminate the mental confusions on religious matters, and
contribute to the continuation of social compromise and peace.

The following decisions were prepared by sub-commissions and accepted by the General
Board:

1. It can be misleading to classify the methods of interpreting and understanding religious

texts (Koran and Hadiths) into categories as ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’. In addition to the
classical methods developed by Islamic Scholars since the early stages of Islam, modern
methods should also be used in understanding and interpreting religious texts.

2. Taking into consideration that understanding and interpreting religious texts is a multidi-
mensional activity, a special project should be carried out and expert meetings should be
held where different points of views are discussed. It will be beneficial if a second consulta-
tion meeting is held after the first.

It is considered appropriate to discuss the following issues after preparations are made for
the presentation of papers and for the delivering of talks:

a) Understanding and interpretation,

b) Historicity,

c) Language,

243
d) The problems of classical methods,

e) The difference between accepting and obeying God’s commands and assignment of cause
and its limits,

f) The Prophet Mohammad’s position in religion,

g) The relationship between the intellect (aql) and revelation (wahy),

h) The relationship between religion and society,

i) The relationship between religion and science.

3. In a certain degree albeit subjectivity may be unavoidable in understanding and interpre-

ting religious texts, the literal cannotation of texts, historic experience of Islamic societies
and the understanding of Ijma (consensus) which forms the main body of this experience can
be viewed as the factors which reduce this subjectivity to a minimal.

4. The following issues should be taken into consideration especially during public discussi-
ons and in statements made concerning religious matters:

a) Abiding by the principle of “dependence on text” while interpreting the Koran and Ha-
diths.

b) Stating that the proposals and views made to find solutions for the Islamic issues are per-
sonal comments and that other views can be correct theoretically; avoiding styles of writing
and expressions indicating that any comment is as an absolute reality and thus giving the
people the chance of preference.

c) Avoiding any expressions, which may denote that the basic source of Islam is only the
Koran and the Sunnah is not regarded as a source.

5. Classical religious sources reflect a rich accumulation developed by the Muslim concer-
ning religious texts and issues during the historical process. These are of great importance
since they reflect the intellectual heritage of the period and the points of view of the authors,
and they constitute a section of the historical experience of Islam. In addition, these classical
sources are not sufficient as being merely a determinative source for the solution of religious
problems, but if they are completely ignored, a direct solution gotten from the Koran and Ha-
diths can also have some negative points from the theoretical and practical standpoints.

244
6. The religious solutions and judgements in the classical sources concerning daily practices
of that time are the result of the intellectual and cultural heritage of the period during which
they were mostly composed. It will be incorrect either to perceive them as part of the basic
teachings of Islam or to negate them in advance by comparing certain selected negative
examples with the contemporary level of information and understanding.

7. Change in religious rules (ahkam) from the standpoint of time and space cannot occur in
the clear and absolute rules of religious texts concerning basic creed and moral issues and
worship. Generally, changes can occur in the performance of the details and conditions of
worship, open to ijtihad (original thinking), and in formal legal regulations. In this field,
different trends may be arised due to the methods used and the effect of contemporary
understanding and practices.

8. With regard to the religion and change, making general assessments depending on some
individual examples lead to the impression that there are clashes between religion and con-
temporary values. This attitude also prevents correct comprehension of the Koran and
Sunnah and overshadows their basic features as a source of guidance to a greate extent.

9. The distinction between the aim and the means (maqasid and wasail) in religious rules, the
proper cause behind them, thought of the public interest, the methods of ijtihad, the criteria
concerning whether or not the reason of these religious stipulations can be known and histo-
rical and textual context may contribute to discussions held as to what extent and how religi-
ous rules can be altered.

10. It will be very useful to establish a research center within the Presidency of Religious Af-
fairs which will create a database and statistics reports in order to determine the religious
problems of the society and which will constitute the basis for new interpretations meeting
contemporary requirements.

11. Problems related to women still exist today, as they have been throughout the history of
mankind. In essence, religions have come up with important regulations for solving these
problems within the framework of rights and justice. In this respect, Islamic principles have
special importance. However, it was difficult for the patriarchal communities to adopt these
improvements which religions have achieved and in the course of time they sought ways to
reverse this process. Even, the anti-female ideology has come under the guise of religion
from time to time.

245
12. According to the basic sources of Islam (the Koran and Sunnah), men and women are
equal; they complete each other. In terms of ontology, as well as religious responsibility, le-
gal capacity, basic rights and freedoms, discrimination between men and women according
to basic principles is out of the question. However, besides these basic principles, a social
and cultural environment in which Islam emerged and developed, particularly the patriarchal
family structure has been effective in the determination of the status of women. This situati-
on is the reason why different concepts of women have emerged in Islamic communities.

13. In understanding and interpreting the verses of the Koran concerning women, the process
of social-cultural occasions of the verses and literal meanings, as well as the aims that were
taken as a basis should be taken into consideration. In addition, taking further steps concer-
ning the social and legal status of women are not against the spirit of the Koran. In addition,
in the light of the Koran’s basic principles and the Prophet Mohammad’s general attitude and
principles concerning women, it should be regarded that all narrations and information, as if
they were associated with sexual discrimination and despised woman for being woman and
deprived of their basic rights and freedoms, are either distorted, or untrue. Because of above
mentioned narrations and information falsely attributed to the Prophet, accusing Islam and
the Prophet Mohammad is neither scientific nor ethical.

14. The removal of all the above-mentioned falsities concerning women depends on a proper
education. As a matter of fact, one of the basic aims of our Republic and its modernization
concept is to improve the status of women within the family and society. Attaining this goal
depends on guaranteeing the rights of education and employment of females, providing them
with equal opportunities, and encouraging them by means of positive discrimination. There-
fore, perspectives and applications, which limit, restrict or have the possibility of limiting or
restricting girls’ and women’s opportunities for education and employment should be rescru-
tinized and necessary regulations should be implemented to this end.

15. In Islamic culture, marriage is regulated as an agreement between two parties depending
on their free will. There is no special ceremony performed other than the presence of witnes-
ses. The practice, which is known as a religious marriage, is the product of historic, religious
and legal conditions peculiar to Turkey. However, in view of spouses whom they have the
rights by means of marriage may not be lost, it is important to recommend that religious mar-
riage must be fulfilled after official marriage.

16. Although the continuity of the marriage is the basic aim, the Islamic religion accepts the

246
right to end this marriage when there is conflict between the two spouses and divorce is to be
neccessary. Divorce is permitted, taking into consideration the aims and legal procedures of
the Koran and the Prophet which have been upheld.

17. The issue of Muslim women marrying non-Muslim men will be discussed in detail in the
next consultation meeting.

18. The issue of witnessing, as mentioned in the verse concerning debts and, the difference
resulting from a woman’s passive role in commercial activities under the conditions of that
period would not include a general arrangement. The other related verses clearly indicate this
matter. Therefore, the difference in the verse regarding debts cannot be accepted as an intel-
lectual shortcoming of women.

19. In general, the regulation of women’s shares differently in inheritances have a direct rela-
tion with the fact that men have more financial resposibility in different areas compared to
the womens’. On the other hand, this stipulation can be changed with the consent of both si-
des in case that women have more needs and that men would have less financial responsibili-
ties.

20. Women being exempt from rituals under special conditions (in menstruation period) is
not because of their being unclean, but to relieve them of their psychological and physiologi-
cal burdens. However women, in these situations, may read the Koran, and may also enter
mosques (masajid). Although many scholars oppose it, some scholars have stated that wo-
men may walk around the Ka’bah (tawaf).

21. Women may attend daily congregational prayers, in addition to feast prayers, (Eidhu’l-
Fitr and Eidhu’l-Adha) Friday prayer and funerals. The attendance of women and children at
Friday and feast prayers should be encouraged since it was a practice during the time of the
Prophet.

22. The word “kawwamun” which is mentioned in the 34th verse of Surah Nisa gives rights
and responsibilities to men. Although there are different opinions on the literal meaning of
the verse in question, it cannot be considered as basis for violence within family which is
widespread today. On the contrary, the practices of the Prophet should be taken as a role
model in determining how to treat women.

23. When we take the integrity of the related verses and the Prophet’s Sunnah into con-

247
sideration, pilgrimage (hajj) is a sort of ritual worship “during certain months” namely
Shawwal, Dhu’l Ka’da and Dhu’l-Hijja and waqfah (standing before Allah) at Arafat is to
perform on the 9th day of Dhu’l-Hijja.

24. Those who under obligation to fulfill the pilgrimage can perform this worship in any year
they wish. Unless there is a danger to life and property, pilgrimage should not be prevented.
If the danger to life and property continues to exist pilgrimage may be delayed.

25. If one goes directly to Mecca with the intention of pilgrimage and umrah, entering the
state of “ihram” cannot be taken place in the “Hill” region in Jeddah.

26. Taking into consideration the different views of Islamic scholars concerning the violation
of the ihram prohibitions, the principle of easeness must be obeyed.

27. The view has been accepted that waqfah at Muzdalifah might be practiced after half of
the night of feast day (Eidhu’l Adha) until dawn.

28. One should be aware that stoning of jamarat is one of the obligations of the pilgrimage.
One should consult the views of Islamic scholars on the day and time of the practice of
throwing stones, which make the application easy.

29. The verses clearly express that during the pilgrimage (hajj) and umrah, animals should be
sacrificed (hady) in the Haram region. Therefore, if the intended pilgrimage necessitates sac-
rifice of an animal, these animals should be slaughtered only within the region of Haram.

30. Visiting the grave of the Prophet Mohammad in Medina before or after the pilgrimage
and prayers forty times in the Prophet’s Masjid (al-Masjid al-Nabawi) are not part of the
specific rites of pilgrimage. However, it is an appropriate behaviour for pilgrims to visit the
grave of the Prophet Mohammad, and pray at the Prophet’s Masjid.

31. In addition to the pilgrimage, the view that “Umrah” is also a religious obligation, once
in life, has not been accepted; but it is considered as a confirmed tradition (Sunnah) of the
Prophet.

32. The duties of pilgrimage should be completed in the shortest time possible. This would
both reduce the cost of the the pilgrimage and encourage the practice of Ifrad Pilgrimage
which do not necessitate the sacrifice of an animal.

248
33. Two separate books must be prepared by a commission of scholars, which will include
theoretical and practical information on canonical jurisprudence of a pilgrimage as well as its
historical, moral and cultural aspects. The books must aim at reducing conflicts on issues
concerning the practices involved in pilgrimages and must be supplemented by photographs,
maps and sketches. CD and videocassette versions of these books should also be prepared.

34. The view has been accepted that a consultative meeting on pilgrimage to be attended by
representatives of Islamic countries should be held in order to solve problems that might
arise during the pilgrimage.

35. There is a great necessity to translate the Koran into other languages and prepare its
comprehensible exegesis (tafsir). However, one should bear in mind that no translation can
substitute the original. Islamic scholars have agreed that translations should not be called the
“Koran” and neither should they have the same status as the Koran.

Reciting the Koran (qiraat) in a proper manner while praying is a definite, permanent
religious duty according to what is written in the Koran and the Prophet Mohammad’s exp-
lanations and examples. It is a practice which might be properly carried out when the Koran
is recited in its original language. It is clear that many conflicts and divisions will arise when
everybody recites the Koran in their own language while praying.

Such practices may also be harmful since they may damage social unity and deviate from the
main target. But considering that “salah” (praying) cannot be neglected nor postponed, those
who have no capability of reciting the original language of the Koran, may pray in their own
language untill they learn.

Since du’ah (suplication to Allah) means asking God for his blessings, one can perform this
in his own language.

36. The adhan (call to prayer) symbolizes the presence of Islam throughout the world. There
is a consensus and a tradition of 15 centuries that it should be recited in its original language.
Since the main aim of adhan is to remind Muslims that it is prayer time, the adhan has to be
recited in its original language in order to reach all Muslims who speak various tongues.

37. Praying five times in a day is confirmed by the Koran, the Sunnah and with the ag-
reement of all Muslims. However, the Prophet Muhammad’s some actions demonstrate that
the noon and afternoon prayers as well as the evening and night prayers can be unified

249
(Jam’) (to unify the prayers within a time) in the form of preceding (taqdim) and postponing
(takhir) in case of journey. Regarding all together some narrations about Muhammad’s unif-
ying the salah (prayers) when he was resident, and the interpretation of the companions
(sahabah) it is ascertained that it depends on justified reasons only and not to be ordinary
habit.

38. The worship of sacrifice is wajib (something necessary, slightly lesser degree than fard)
according to Ebu Hanifah, while it is a Sunnah for many Muslim scholars.

But, if a worship is not obligatory, it does not mean that it is not a worship, therefore to
change the ways of its practice is not allowed. For this reason, performing a sacrifice is not
to be replaced by a fee.

Animals should be sacrificed according to the basic rules of Islam and one should refrain
from polluting the environment when sacrificing an animal. If necessary, while sacrificing an
animal there is no prohibition to use appropriate technical methods for making animal un-
concious. But the animals should be alive in that case.

39. The amount of zakah of fitrah is set according to the basic daily requirements of a per-
son.

The amount of zakah (alms) is determined by the definition made by the Prophet Moham-
mad or with respect to the minimum wage for an individual or other kinds of indexes. But
since the topic is broad and has many dimensions, it has been decided that it should be dis-
cussed later at a comprehensive meeting.

By regards to public attention.

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