Terminological Barriers to Interdisciplinary Collaboration between History and Quranic Studies, and The Way to Eliminate Them

In an interdisciplinary mechanism, there needs to be interactions in the three parts of terminology, epistemology and methodology. According to the order applied to these three parts, all steps shall be taken correctly, because if an error occurs in any of these three, it could influence other steps and would eventually end with creating non-principled relations in an interdisciplinary study. Among the three steps mentioned, achieving a common language is the most important issue taken into account in the very first steps of an interdisciplinary study. Because otherwise, it would lead to divergent understandings of concepts and therefore we will witness an unclear research in the sight of the expert readers. The term “History” and different understandings derived from it in various discourses can be an explicit example for clarifying this subject. Usually Quran researchers’ understanding - especially the contemporary scholars of the term “History” is different from that of the historian. This different understanding can absolutely lead to serious misunderstandings that might discredit a Quranic-historical research in the eyes of the historians. This outcome suggests the need for reassessment of the term “History” in order to reach a common understanding of the term. Hence, this paper, through discourse analysis of the meanings of history, seeks, first, to show the heterogeneity of the term and thus explicate the barrier existing in the way of interdisciplinary interaction between history and Quranic sciences, and, second, offer a terminological solution as an effort to eliminate these differences.