



Max Müller (1823-1900), a pioneering figure in comparative linguistics as well as in comparative religion. Chapter Three, therefore, outlines the study of ‘origins’ in linguistics and explores the correlation between linguistics and religious studies as illustrated by the case of F. This study endeavours to prove the relevance of linguistics to the study of ‘origins’ in comparative religion. Comparative religion and the methodologies of religious studies were adopted to serve the theological concerns of these western scholars. As reconstruction was an inevitable consequence of the study of ‘origins’, they used their findings to reconstruct an account of the origins of Islam and the Qur’an. In their historical-theological approaches, these scholars applied historical-theological method to place the origin of Islam and the Qur’an in a Judaeo-Christian environment. Chapter Two discusses the ideas of five English-speaking scholars namely Sir William Muir (1819-1905) William St. The significance of the study of ‘origins’ for Christian polemics has not been overlooked, and the attitudes to the origin of Islam in western orientalist discourse have been discussed with special reference to Edward Said and other critics of Orientalism.

In search of a better understanding of the study of the ‘origins’ of the Qur’an, Chapter One, first presents the historical background of the western ‘obsession’ with ‘origins’ and provides a general discussion of how theories of evolution influenced scholars in the 19th and the 20th centuries and how this influence affected the study of religion. This work aims to evaluate the discussion of the ‘origins’ of the Qur’an in 20th century English-Speaking Western scholarship.
