Outsider scholarship on Islam reads better to Western lay readers than insider accounts
Evidence
It is perhaps for this reason that, for the Western lay reader at least, the Islamic section is by far the most satisfying, the Jewish section a poor second, and the Christian third. The Islamic section begins with an historical introduc tion by Dr R. B. Serjeant, which offers new insights to the specialist as well as general guidance for the beginner. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1310
Categorization
Category: Craft and Method
- SEED: An essay angle: when does ‘insider’ authority degrade rather than enhance a survey chapter — the case for the analytical distance of the non-believing scholar.
Related
- Western lay readers found outsider-written scholarship on Islam most satisfying (similarity 0.91)
- Scholarly representation of Islam was dominated by Western outsiders (similarity 0.83)
- Western study of Islamic history moved from credulity to critical method to total rejection (similarity 0.79)
- Islamic studies remains exempt from scholarly norms applied to other fields (similarity 0.79)
- Islamic scholarship functions as an arm of state power, not disinterested learning (similarity 0.78)