The Biasness of British Academic Orientalism in the study of the prophetic Biography of prophet Mohammed peace & prayer be upon him

Abstract

This study aimed to clarify the positions of the British Orientalists in studying the biography of the Prophet - May the Blessings and Peace of Allah be upon him, and to show the sources on which they relied and their methodology in dealing with those sources, and the biases placements of British academic orientalism in studying the Prophet’s biography, and we refuted and replied to that. The study adopted the analytical descriptive methodology; and the researcher relied on many primary sources related to the sources of the Prophet’s Noble biography, such as Seerah of Ibn Ishaq (151 AH / 678 ​​CE) and its refinement by Ibn Hisham (281 AH / 833 CE), Al-Sear and Al-Maghazi by Al-Waqdi (271 AH / 823 AD), ‘The Beginning And The End' for Ibn Katheer (744 AH / 1372 CE), and the books that were exposed to the biography of the Prophet, most notably the book “Mohammed and the Rise of Islam” by David Samuel Margoliouth, published in 1950 CE, and the books of W. Montgomery Watt, “Muhammad At Mecca,” “Muhammad At Medina,” and “Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman”, published in London in 1953, 1956, 1961 CE, and other books of British Orientalists.

 The study consisted of an introduction, three researches and a conclusion; The first research which we called the conceptual justifications for the study identified the meaning of biases, academic orientalism, and the Prophet’s biography in language and convention, and we presented a brief overview about the backgrounds of Orientalist biases and their motives. The second one dealt with the sources of the Latin British Academic Orientalism, the factors of its origin, its pioneers, and its school. And the third one dealt with the themes of biases and we refuted them and replied to the Orientalist libels in their topics, some of which is the position of the Prophet towards the Jews of Medina, his polygamy, his forays (conquests), his illiteracy, and his personality. The study ended with a conclusion which included a number of results, the most important of which are: the British academic orientalist libels in many issues of Islam go back to an advanced period of Islamic history drawn by Jewish and Christian pens in the context of the ongoing debate about Islam, Judaism and Christianity, in a situation in which Arabs and Muslims were militarily and scientifically superior to Europe, as exactly is the supremacy of the Western world over the Islamic world today. Based on the results, the researcher presented a set of recommendations and suggestions, including: Creating courses concerned about Orientalist studies in all linguistic, social and humanitarian colleges with more studies of Western Orientalist thought that was concerned about Islam.