Orientalism and the " Encyclopedia of the Quran" Leiden

This article deals with the introduction of “Encyclopedia of the Quran”. Its five volumes till 2006 with chief edition of Dean Jane McAuliffe got accomplished and printed. Afterward, the writer keeps on analyzing and presenting an exhaustive criticism on the above-mentioned encyclopedia and with reminding of the instances disapproves its claim of impartiality and scientific scrutiny. Subsequently he comes up with a statistical analysis of its article’s writers. From amongst 270 writers of the articles only 20% of them are Muslim writers, at the same time the entire writers are chosen selectively from a particular type of Muslim and orientalists who maintain that the holy Quran is a human text and is to be historically interpreted. Eventually, he poses some problems in respect to the encyclopedia. For instance, according to him some of the sources are not genuine and criticizes selection of some of the entries. It’s been asked that why it does not have an entry for “Allah” whiles it has the benefit of an entry about the “African literature”.