al-Mustashriqun fi al-Mizan
- Author died
- 1444 AH
- Editions
- Islamic University of Madinah
al-Mustashriqun fi al-Mizan (Orientalists in the Balance) is a treatise by the Saudi scholar Abd al-Aziz al-Qari (d. 1444 AH / 2022 CE) that evaluates the historical origins, methodologies, and ideological objectives of Western Orientalist scholarship on Islam .
Background and Purpose
The work originated as university lectures delivered in 1393 AH (1973 CE) while the author served as an instructor at the Islamic University of Madinah, and it was subsequently published in the university's journal . Al-Qari traces the genesis of Orientalism to Christian Europe's contact with Islamic civilization in al-Andalus and through the Crusades . He states that the Vatican initiated Arabic language studies and established university chairs—such as those created across Paris, Oxford, and Bologna in the early fourteenth century—to train polemicists capable of responding to Muslim scholars and internal Christian dissenters . Over time, these studies expanded into academic, colonial, and missionary apparatuses aimed at studying Islamic society and culture .
Method and Arguments
Al-Qari organizes his critique by balancing acknowledgment of the technical contributions of Orientalists against what he characterizes as fundamental structural and methodological shortcomings .
Acknowledged Technical Merits
The treatise grants that Orientalist research contributed significantly in two technical domains:
- The comprehensive collection and gathering of historical sources and manuscripts, facilitated by institutional funding and specialization .
- The systematic arrangement of research materials, bibliographic indexing, and quantitative compilation, which influenced modern Muslim scholars .
Methodological and Epistemological Flaws
Despite technical thoroughness, al-Qari argues that Orientalist conclusions suffer from severe flaws:
- Eurocentric and Subjective Frameworks: Orientalists judge Arabic literature and Islamic traditions through Western aesthetic and historical frameworks, often projecting racial hierarchies or viewing Eastern modes of thought as primitive .
- Inappropriate Sourcing: Orientalists frequently rely on literary or secondary anthologies—such as Kitab al-Aghani by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani or folkloric texts like Alf Laylah wa-Laylah—to draw authoritative conclusions about Islamic law and theology, rather than using primary hadith and jurisprudence sources . For instance, he cites the German orientalist Josef Horovitz relying on Kitab al-Aghani to assess early jurists' attitudes toward poetry .
- Linguistic and Textual Distortions: The author analyzes claims by Ignaz Goldziher, such as his misunderstanding of al-Sharif al-Murtada's linguistic argument regarding the Quranic word ila in Madhahib al-Tafsir al-Islami, and his assertion that Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri forged hadiths for the Umayyads, noting that Goldziher distorted reports recorded by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi and others . In refuting Goldziher, al-Qari draws upon the critique formulated by Mustafa al-Siba'i .
Ideological Focus Areas
Al-Qari outlines several recurrent themes in Orientalist literature aimed at undermining Islamic foundations:
- Denial of Revelation: Treating the Quran as a compilation of Jewish, Christian, and pre-Islamic folklore rather than divine revelation, citing claims by scholars such as David Samuel Margoliouth and Gustave Le Bon .
- Attacking Hadith and Law: Casting doubt on central Hadith transmitters, notably Abu Hurayrah and al-Zuhri, and portraying Islamic criminal penalties as barbarous .
- Weakening Arabic and Islamic Unity: Encouraging the adoption of vernacular dialects and Latinized script over Classical Arabic, challenging the authenticity of pre-Islamic poetry, and promoting pre-Islamic regional identities (such as Pharaonic, Phoenician, or ancient Persian nationalisms) to fragment Islamic political and cultural unity .
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