Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 55
Rushdie: Haunted By His Unholy Ghosts 55 study the old authorities, including Ketton, instead of advising him to learn the Arabick, to hear Mahomet speak in his own tongue. ’ (p. 295). Reland established the principle that the sole authority for facts about Islam must be Muslim, and this point had also been made more than half a century earlier by Edward Pocock the Elder. Dr. Daniel sums up by saying that most of the literary attacks which started during the medieval period have proved extremely durable and still have a bearing on present-day Western thinking : ‘Throughout the near fourteen centuries of Islam, Christians have defended their faith in the Trinity and Incarnation from Muslim attack; and they have in turn attacked Islam for accepting the claim of Muhammad to be the vehicle of Revelation, chiefly on the grounds that his character made it impossible reasonably to do so. Finally they have had to decide upon the admixture of truth and error: how to estimate its value, how to allow for the error, how to balance judgement upon the significance of each, and how to assess the fi nal result. In respect of these points the mediaeval concept proved extremely durable; this outline of it is still a part of the cul- tural inheritance of the West to-day. ’ ( p. 275). PROF ESSOR W I LL I A M MON TGOM E RY WAT T Of all the modern-day Western Orientalists, surely without doubt, the most renowned is Montgomery Watt, Emeritus Professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Edinburgh. He has been dubbed ‘one of the last of the orientalist giants’. He has written several books on Islam and the Holy Prophet(sa) including Muhammad at Mecca, Muhammad at Medina, Muslim - Christian Encounters, and Islamic Fundamentalism and Modernity. Watt has become the major present-day component of the ar- moury of the West in its struggle against Islam and has become the scourge of Muslims all over the world. His work and research has been admired and esteemed by all the other Western Orientalists