This Introduction charts the background of the scholarly engagement with the Qur’an in Early Modern Europe. Focusing on the historical importance of the emergence of academic treatments of the text in the nineteenth century and the scholarship which influenced these works, it outlines the discussions and debates which are prevalent in the study of the text and introduces the individual chapters included in this volume. While the area of Qur’anic Studies belatedly emerged from the matrix of a flourishing tradition of biblical scholarship and efforts to translate and confute the Qur’an, the constellation of topics and themes which currently feature in the study of the text underlines the qualitative nature of the advances made in the field of Qur’anic Studies.
‘The Discovery of the Individual’ through Autobiographical Texts?: A Critical Review of Self-Testimonies and Ego-Documents in Early Modern Europe
