ABSTRACT
This is an account of the school of modern linguistic exegesis which is based on the text linguistic notions of cohesiveness and conceptual relatedness. A text, written or oral, is expected to be cohesive and thematically linked, i.e. its statements are intertextually related and hark back to each other. This is an intriguing textual criterion which needs to be incorporated into Qur’ānic exegesis. The present discussion also provides a critical assessment of the views of Western Qur’ān scholars on the Qur’anic text and exegetical problems. These scholars include Washington Irving (1850), Hartwig Hirschfeld (1886, 1902), H. Grimme (1892), Theodor Nöldeke (1909), Margoliouth (1914), Sir William Muir (1923), Richard Bell (1932, 1937, 1953, 1991), Charles Torrey (1933), Lichtenstadter (1974), Wansbrough (1977), Adams (1987), Paret (1983), Bosworth and Richardson (1991), Robinson (1996), and Ohlander (2005).
