Sir Hamilton Alexander Roskeen Gibb (A review)

The article entitled “Sir Hamilton Alexander Roskeen Gibb” is written by Zia-ul-

Hasan Faruqi and part of the book “Orientalism Islam and Islamists”.1 He is an Indian

Muslim author and translator. As an author, he wrote valuable books like, The Deoband

School and Demand for Pakistan2 and biography of Junaid Bagdadi (830-910 CE). As

translator, he translated Allama Iqbal’s time-inspiring prose-book entitled

“Reconstruction of Religious Thoughts in Islam” into Urdu Language.

Here, in this article, Faruqi critically analyzes the services of H.A.R Gibb (1895 –

1971)—a Scottish Orientalist—in the fields of Hadith, Quran, Islamic history and the

biography of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH. To easily describe, the article can be

divided into two parts. In the first part of the article, the writer lavishly expresses the

homage to the services of orientalists in the field of Islamic studies and effectively

unmask the true nature of their claim of objective study and the lust of knowing. He

builds up the argument that orientalists in all of their study remain subjective and hardly

rise above their religious and culturally prejudices. In second part of the article, the writer

introduces H.A.R Gibb and his influential work and cautiously discloses the numerous

aspects of subjectivity in his work on Islam. Faruqi brings example from Islamic history,

Quran, Hadith and etc. to prove his argument. Such as, H.A.R Gibb looks the early

expansion of Islam with purely economic and material eyes however, he completely

neglect the reformative and revolutionary role of Islam. Moreover, by following his

predecessor, like Ignaz Goldziher, David S. Margoliouth and etc. he considers the Hadith

as forgery and fabrication. This is an evident example of his subjectivity, when he keeps

all of the argument aside and follows the preemptions of their predecessors.

Gibb’s subjectivity also shown when after admitting the fact that Muslims don’t

like to use the term “Muhammadanism” for them, he deliberately uses it to write the

biography of Prophet Muhammad PBUH. About Quran he wrote “Quran is the record of 1 Asif Husain, Robert Olson & Jamil Quraishi (edit.) Orientalism Islam and Islamists, (USA: Amana Publishers,

1984)2 Zia-ul-Hasan Farooqi, The Deoband School and Demand for Pakistan (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1963)

those formal utterences and discurses which Muhammad and his followers accepted as

directly inspired”. In this statement he seems to follow the same notions which most of

the orientalist have about Quran and regard it as an extraction from Judeo-Christian

tradition and passes furtively form the real evidences.

These are merely some of those innumerable examples which have been presented

by author to reveal the camouflaged notions of a well-known orientalist and whom

objectivity in his research is affirmative in the west. The writer’s conclusion is strongly

valid when he argues that no orientalist can hardly escape from his cultural and religious

beliefs. However, a disagreement can be made when he reveals the subjectivity of Gibb at

the point calling Muhammad only a great statesman and not to accept him as prophet. In

my view, when he himself describes his affiliation with Christian faith the question about

the prophecy of Muhammad PBUH leaves no objection upon Gibbs’s objectivity in

writing the biography of the Prophet. As he states:

“I make bold to say that the metaphors in which Christian doctrine is traditionally

enshrined satisfy me intellectually as expressing symbolically the highest range of spiritual truth,

which I can conceive”.

Along with this strong affirmation on Christian faith I think it leaves no

justification to question upon his objectivity about the biography of Muhammad PBUH.

Because if one along with his Christian faith accepts the prophethood of Muhammad,

consequently, this acceptance will eradicate his first article of faith which Gibb boldly

claims in above stated lines. This can be more precisely understood from the example of

Prophet Muhammad’s PBUH own life like “the treaty of Hudaibiyah” in which Quraysh

complained in writing Muhammad’s PBUH name with the appellation of “the messenger

of Allah.

Farman Ali

University of Management of Technology

March, 14, 2014