Orientalism and the Historical Development of Islamic Studies in the West: An Interview with Christopher Melchert

Melchert also touches upon different tendencies, approaches, and numerous disciplines (kalm, hadth, tafsr/qirt, Sufism) forming Ahl al-Sunnah, and in his later studies, he addresses and analyses each one of these subjects on their own.From this perspective, it can be stated that he tried to base on and develop the thesis by Montgomery Watt about the formation of Ahl al-Sunnah structure, and that he aimed to illuminate the points identified as the main elements of this structure by Watt.Among the research fields of Melchert, whose specialty is Islamic movements and institutions in the ninth and tenth centuries, are Sufism and other apostate movements as well as the life and works of Ahmad b.Hanbal.It attracts considerable attention that Melchert, who produced independent studies on the formation periods of each of these aforementioned fields following his doctoral thesis on the formation of fiqh schools, is especially interested in hadith, rijl criticism, and abaqt literature.Some of it has been simply to establish facts about some major scholars and their works, mainly Bukhr, Ab Dwd, and Nas.He has also continually drawn attention to discussions among eighth-and ninth-century Muslims that are to be documented mainly from hadith collections rather than Qur'an commentaries, where people have tended to look hitherto.Finally, his work titled Hadith, Piety, and Law: Selected Studies on eighth-century piety made unusual use of hadith collections.However, he mentioned that the word "unusual" might not be that significant, because even spending a great deal of time on eighth-century piety is, in itself, unusual-at least in Europe and North America.George Makdisi is well-known for his studies on the emergence of Islamic scholarship and educational institutions and especially on the madrasah as it developed in 11th-century Baghdad and for his work called The Rise of Colleges, which is regarded as a classic in its field.George Makdisi's example was the most important shaper of his students' scholarship.Melchert states that he learned from him the importance of being thorough and exact.He also mentions in the interview that apart from the tradition of Islamic Studies, the main influences on him were Marxist historians and Max Weber.Melchert presently has 44 articles in refereed journals and 32 in edited collections.Half a dozen more of these are "forthcoming."They have been accepted by editors but have not yet been published.