John Wansbrough

John Edward Wansbrough (February 19, 1928 – June 10, 2002) was an American historian who taught at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

By his fundamental criticism of the historical credibility of the classical Islamic narratives concerning Islam's beginnings and his attempt to develop an alternative, historically more credible version of Islam's beginnings, Wansbrough founded the so-called "revisionist" school of Islamic Studies.

Wansbrough was born in Peoria, Illinois. He completed his studies at Harvard University, and spent the rest of his academic career at SOAS. He died at Montaigu-de-Quercy, France. Among his students were Andrew Rippin, Norman Calder, Gerald R. Hawting, Patricia Crone and Michael Cook.

Wansbrough began studying early Islamic manuscripts and the Quran. He realized that the early Islamic texts addressed an audience which was familiar with Jewish and Christian texts, and that Jewish and Christian theological problems were discussed. Criticism of "infidels" was addressed obviously to monotheists who did not live monotheism "purely".

These observations did not fit to the Islamic narratives on Islam's beginnings which depicted Islam to come into being within a polytheistic society. Wansbrough analyzed the classical Islamic narratives which had been written 150 to 200 years after Muhammad with the historical-critical method, especially literary criticism. Thus, he claimed countless proofs that these texts are not historical accounts but later literary constructions in the sense of the concept of a "salvation history" (Heilsgeschichte) of the Old Testament. Their historical core is meager and cannot be detected.

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