William Montgomery Watt
Encyclopedia
William Montgomery Watt was a Scottish historian, an Emeritus Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 in Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

 and Islamic Studies
Islamic studies
In a Muslim context, Islamic studies can be an umbrella term for all virtually all of academia, both originally researched and as defined by the Islamization of knowledge...

 at the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

. Watt was one of the foremost non-Muslim interpreters of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 in the West
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...

, was an enormously influential scholar in the field of Islamic studies and a much-revered name for many Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

s all over the world." Watt's comprehensive biography of the Islamic prophet
Prophets of Islam
Muslims identify the Prophets of Islam as those humans chosen by God and given revelation to deliver to mankind. Muslims believe that every prophet was given a belief to worship God and their respective followers believed it as well...

, Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...

, Muhammad at Mecca
Muhammad at Mecca (book)
Muhammad at Mecca is a book about the Islamic prophet Muhammad's life in Mecca written by the non-Muslim Islamic scholar William Montgomery Watt.It was first released by Oxford University Press in 1953.Muhammad at Medina is its sequel.-Contents:...

(1953) and Muhammad at Medina
Muhammad at Medina (book)
Muhammad at Medina is a book about Islam written by the non-Muslim Islamic scholar William Montgomery Watt. Oxford University Press, 1956. It is the sequel to Muhammad at Mecca....

(1956), are considered to be classics in the field.

Biography

Watt, whose father died when he was only 14 months old, was born in Ceres
Ceres, Fife
Ceres is a village in Fife, Scotland, located in a small glen approximately 2 miles over the Ceres Moor from Cupar and 7 miles from St Andrews. The former parish of that name included the settlements of Baldinnie, Chance Inn, Craigrothie, Pitscottie and Tarvit Mill.-The village:It is one of the...

, Fife
Fife
Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

.

Watt was a priest of the Scottish Episcopal Church
Scottish Episcopal Church
The Scottish Episcopal Church is a Christian church in Scotland, consisting of seven dioceses. Since the 17th century, it has had an identity distinct from the presbyterian Church of Scotland....

, and was Arabic specialist to the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem
Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem
The Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem is the bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem, which is a part of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and The Middle East, and based at St. George's Cathedral, Jerusalem. The Diocese of Jerusalem covers Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon...

 from 1943-46. He became a member of the ecumenical
Ecumenism
Ecumenism or oecumenism mainly refers to initiatives aimed at greater Christian unity or cooperation. It is used predominantly by and with reference to Christian denominations and Christian Churches separated by doctrine, history, and practice...

 Iona Community
Iona Community
The Iona Community, founded in 1938 by the Rev George MacLeod, is an ecumenical Christian community of men and women from different walks of life and different traditions in the Christian church....

 in Scotland in 1960. He was Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh from 1964-79.

The Islamic press have called him "the Last Orientalist
Oriental studies
Oriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies...

". He died in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

 on 24 October 2006 at the age of 97.

Awards

Watt held visiting professorships
Visiting scholar
In the world of academia, a visiting scholar or visiting academic is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university, where he or she is projected to teach , lecture , or perform research on a topic the visitor is valued for...

 at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

, the Collège de France
Collège de France
The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...

, and Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

, and received the American Giorgio Levi Della Vida
Giorgio Levi Della Vida
Giorgio Levi Della Vida was an Italian Jewish linguist whose expertise lay in Hebrew, Arabic, and other Semitic languages, as well as on the history and culture of the Near East.-Biography:...

 Medal and won, as its first recipient, the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies award for outstanding scholarship.

Watt's views

Watt believed that the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...

 was divinely inspired, though not infallibly true.

Martin Forward
Martin Forward
Martin Forward is a British, Methodist Christian lecturer and author on religion and Professor of Religion at Aurora University, Illinois. He has taught Islam at the Universities of Leicester, Bristol and Cambridge, and had spent a period of time in India where he was ordained into the Church of...

, a 21st century Non-Muslim Islamic scholar states:
Charlotte Alfred, a reporter for the journal founded in Watt's department at Edinburgh, the Edinburgh Middle East Report
Edinburgh Middle East Report
The Edinburgh Middle East Report , often abbreviated to EMER, is Scotland's only periodical dedicated to the Middle East. Founded in 2006 by George Richards and Camilla Hall, two students at the University of Edinburgh's Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies Department, the Report covers political,...

, pointed out:
Carole Hillenbrand
Carole Hillenbrand
Carole Hillenbrand OBE is professor of Islamic History at the University of Edinburgh. She is currently the Vice-President of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies and a Member of the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics....

, a professor of Islamic History at the University of Edinburgh, states:

Works

  • The faith and practice of al-Ghazālī (1953) ISBN 978-0686186106
  • Muhammad at Mecca
    Muhammad at Mecca (book)
    Muhammad at Mecca is a book about the Islamic prophet Muhammad's life in Mecca written by the non-Muslim Islamic scholar William Montgomery Watt.It was first released by Oxford University Press in 1953.Muhammad at Medina is its sequel.-Contents:...

    (1953) ISBN 978-0195772784
  • Muhammad at Medina
    Muhammad at Medina (book)
    Muhammad at Medina is a book about Islam written by the non-Muslim Islamic scholar William Montgomery Watt. Oxford University Press, 1956. It is the sequel to Muhammad at Mecca....

    (1956) ISBN 978-0195773071 (online)
  • Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman (1961) ISBN 978-0198810780, a summary of the above two major works (online)
  • Islamic Philosophy and Theology (1962) ISBN 978-0202362724
  • Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets (???)
  • Islamic Political Thought (1968) ISBN 978-0852244036
  • Islamic Surveys: The Influence of Islam on Medieval Europe (1972) ISBN 978-0852244395
  • The Majesty That Was Islam (1976) ISBN 978-0275518707
  • What Is Islam? (1980) ISBN 978-0582783027
  • Muhammad's Mecca (1988) ISBN 978-0852245651
  • Muslim-Christian Encounters: Perceptions and Misperceptions (1991) ISBN 978-0415054119
  • Early Islam (1991) ISBN 978-0748601707
  • Islamic Philosophy And Theology (1987) ISBN 978-0748607495
  • Islamic Creeds (1994) ISBN 978-0748605132
  • History of Islamic Spain (1996) ISBN 978-0852243329
  • Islamic Political Thought (1998) ISBN 978-0748610983
  • Islam and the Integration of Society (1998) ISBN 978-0810102408
  • Islam: A Short History (1999) ISBN 978-1851682058
  • A Christian Faith For Today (2002) ISBN 0-415-27703-5

External links

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