WESTERN STUDIES OF THE QUR’ANIC NARRATIVE: from the Historical Orientation into the Literary Analysis

The beginnings of Western interest in the Qur’an can be traced back to the appearance of the first complete translation of the Qur’an into Latin by Robert of Ketton in the twelfth century when the Muslim and Western Christian worlds has begun a long-running confrontation. In the eighteenth century, Western scholars began to be interested in studying the history and sources of the Qur’an. The Qur’anic narrative, which has its parallels in the Judeo-Christian traditions, has been studied from the historical perspective. In this approach, everything in the Qur’an that can be also found in earlier scriptures, is considered as borrowed, and every story that the Qur’an modifies is viewed as distorted. Recent Western studies have shifted into a new arena, studying the contents and styles of the Qur’anic narrative by analyzing its discourse and narrativity. Keywords: Western scholarship, Qur’anic studies, Judeo-Christian source