Revisionist School of Islamic Studies

The Revisionist school of Islamic studies, also known as Historical-Critical school of Islamic studies or simply Revisionism, is a movement within Islamic studies which spreads since the 1970s and initiated a paradigm shift in Islamic Studies.

The core concern of the Revisionist School is to finally show consequence concerning the knowledge, practically available since Ignác Goldziher's time, that the traditional Islamic accounts about Islam's early times - written 150 to 200 years after Muhammad - are highly questionable as historical sources. This relates to Muhammad's biography, the formation history of the Quran, and the historical developments under the first Islamic dynasty, the Umayyad Caliphate. The true historical events in the earliest times of Islam have to be newly researched and reconstructed by applying the historical-critical method.

The designation Revisionism was coined first by the opponents of the new academic movement and is used by them partially still today with a dismissive undertone. Then, the media took up this designation in order to call the new movement with a concise catchword. Today, also the adherents of the new movement use Revisionism to designate themselves, yet mostly written in quotation marks and with a slightly self-mocking undertone.

The new movement originated at the SOAS, University of London by two publications of John Wansbrough: Quranic Studies (1977) und The Sectarian Milieu (1978). Among the students of Wansbrough are: Andrew Rippin, Norman Calder, G. R. Hawting, Patricia Crone and Michael Cook. With their work Hagarism (1977) Patricia Crone and Michael Cook set a milestone in Islamic Studies, since by provocative theses they provided maximal attention in the academic community. Later, both distances themselves from their too far reaching theses in Hagarism. Yet they adhered to the basically new academic approach. Martin Hinds, too, studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Robert G. Hoyland is a student of Patricia Crone.

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