John Wansbrough

John Edward Wansbrough ( born February 19, 1928 in Peoria ( Illinois), † June 10, 2002 in Montaigu -de -Quercy, France) was an American historian at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. He is an influential thinker regarding the beginnings of Islam.

Wansbrough completed his studies at Harvard University and worked until his retirement at SOAS. In the 1970s, his research on early Islamic manuscripts for excitement, including the analysis of the repeated use of Judeo-Christian ideas in the Koran, prompting him attended to postulate the rise of Islam is the mutation of an originally Jewish- Christian sect that sought in the Arab space to take root. According to Wansbrough the Judeo-Christian texts have been adapted to an Arab perspective over time and turned to the, from which the Quran was compiled, which was developed over the centuries with contributions by various Arab tribes. Wansbroughs research results indicate that a large part of the traditional history of Islam is a construction of later generations, with the purpose to create their own religious identity and to justify. In this context, Mohammed would be an invented myth which was created to give the Arab tribes own version of Judeo-Christian prophets.

Works

• Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation (Oxford, 1977)
• The Sectarian Milieu: Content and Composition Of Islamic Salvation History ( Oxford, 1978)
• Res Ipsa Loquitur: History and Mimesis (1987 )
• Lingua franca in the Mediterranean ( Curzon Press 1996 )