ABSTRACT
Understanding of modern Qur’an commentaries and modern Islam, on many occasions, rests on two assumptions: the historical forces of Muslim revivalism and reform universally influenced Muslim writings on the Qur’an; the movements of traditionalism and modernism were widespread among Muslim intellectual circles and thus Muslim exegetical works can be organized around these categories. The current book challenges both of these assumptions. Instead of looking for Muslim revivalism and reform as epistemological foundations, it is more insightful to situate the study of modern Qur’an commentaries in particular local and cosmopolitan contexts. Similarly, instead of explaining Muslim scholarship and modern Islam through the lens of traditionalism and modernism, it is important to discover how Muslim scholars saw themselves and how they imagined and assessed their past intellectual tradition.
