The Sirah and Orientalism is no new subject. In the past as well as in
modem times scholars have dealt with it from time to time. Of late some

serious studies have appeared on the methods and approaches of the orienta-
lists with regard to Islamic themes in general and the Sirah in particular.1

Some independent works have also appeared, particularly in Arabic, speci-
fically on the subject of the Sirah and the orientalists. Valuable and useful

as these works are, there still remains a good deal to be done in analyzing

and evaluating the main orientalist works on the Sirah. Especially it is nece-
ssary to take into account the whole range of arguments and evidences on

which the views and conclusions of individual scholars are based. The
present work is an effort in that direction.
It needs hardly any emphasizing that the views of any individual scholar
on any particular subject are scarcely all his own. He necessarily reflects the
pattern of knowledge existing in his time and draws and builds upon the

results of the researches of his predecessors. To study the work of any indi-
vidual scholar thus necessarily involves referring to the works of his pre-
decessors. It has therefore been thought more useful to take for study a

couple or more of scholars, not contemporary with one another, but whose
works cover a certain period of time. On this consideration I have selected
for the present study the works of William Muir (1819-1905), D.S.
Margoliouth (1858-1940) and W. Montgomery Watt (1909—). The works of
these scholars span the period from the mid-nineteenth century to the present
day. William Muir's work, The Life of Mahomet, appeared for the first time
in 1858, while the latest of Watt's works on the subject, Muhammad's
Mecca, appeared as late as 1988.

It must be emphasized at the outset that the present study takes into con-
sideration the principal works of the above mentioned scholars on the Sirah,

not all their works on all the subjects they have dealt with.

 A monumental work discussing the Makkan period of the Prophet’s life, and a refutation of Orientalist attacks.