Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s Responses to Orientalists' Works on Islam: A Critical Study of William Muir’s Life of Mahomet

• Main Author: Afsana Khatoon
• Format: Article
• Language: Arabic
• Published: Hazara University 2014-06-01
• Series: Hazara Islamicus
• Subjects: Sir Syed Ahmad Khan; William Muir; Seerah; Orientalism.
• Online Access: http://hazaraislamicus.hu.edu.pk/public/uploads/2014/Issue_1/14-sarsayyad-ahmad-khan.pdf

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-1898), an influential Indian scholar, was interested in the study of biblical Scriptures and Christian theology. His writings on Biblical scriptures became a turning point in the history of religions in India. Sir Syed developed his views on Biblical scriptures on the basis of his study of Quranic passages. He also published books and articles on Islam as a response to works written and published by Western scholars such as William Muir. The religious controversy that arose between Sir Syed and William Muir of the Indian Civil Service was both theological and historical. Muir’s works on Islam and Sir Syed’s writings on Biblical subjects and his reply to Muir’s works on Islamic subjects has something to do with a religious controversy that already occurred between Muslim Ulama and Christian missionaries in India at that time. In this direction, this paper attempts to make an analysis of the responses of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan on the writings William Muir, especially his “Life of Mahomet”.