Andrew Rippin, "Literary Analysis of Qur'an, Tafsir, and Sira: the methodologies of John Wansbrough," in Richard E. Martin (ed.), Approaches to Islam in Religious Studies, pp. 151-63.
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Andrew Rippin, "Literary Analysis of Qur'an, Tafsir, and Sira: the methodologies of John Wansbrough," in Richard E. Martin (ed.), Approaches to Islam in Religious Studies, pp. 151-63.
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In this article the methodologies of historical and Islamic scholarship are addressed by Rippin. Wansbrough is acknowledged by many scholars of Islam as being a chronicler of the methodologies and scholarship of the "revisionist approach" to the study of Islam. Rippin initially addresses the problem of what we know and how we know it. Citing Wansbrough, "there is a problem among many historians in their emphasis to "desire to discover what really happened." (151) This desire on the part of some historians has led to a problem of supposition; a supposition that the historical foundations of many religions will in fact contain a type of scriptural truth within their Holy Scripture. However, the weakness in this line of thinking is revealed when some scholars acknowledge that they rely upon the evidence of scripture to determine "what really happened".
In addition to a problem of "prima faci" evidence i.e., a limited amount of literature available (which was also written after the fact), Rippin addresses the issues of 1) dating of the Qur'an and contemporaneousness of events 2) reliability of historical sources 3) reliability of interpretations of those evaluating the sources Wansbrough's approaches to sources are also addressed in this reading.