together with the supposedly original meanings of such words, with no new fact or argument but only a repetition in effect and different forms of the old and stale Sprenger-N?ldeke assumptions and surmises.

During the past couple of years, the five consecutive volumes of an Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ân, about the preparation of which Toby Lester made a forecast in his article in 1999, have been published by Georgetown University, Washington, D. C. It is prepared under the general editorship of Jane Damnen McAuliffe. A number of orientalists and others have contributed the different articles in it. The materials represent mostly the views and assumptions so far made by the orientalists regarding the Qur’ân and subjects related to it.

The event of 11 September 2001 and its aftermath also have their effect in the field of Qur’ânic studies. Thus there appeared last year (2004) at least one serious work, Jihad from Qur’ân to bin Laden by Richard Bonney, with a foreword by Sheikh Dr. Zaki Badawi. (1) It gives an exposition of the concept of jihâd in the Qur’ân and the traditions together with an analysis of the views of scholars and experts on the subject.

The above is a very brief historical survey of the orientalist studies of the Qur’ân. Naturally it has not been possible to notice many other studies, particularly specialist articles published in various learned journals touching a number of subjects relating to the Qur’ân including even particular phrases and expressions in it. As these lines are being penned a conference is being held (10 - 12 November 2005) at the School of Oriental Studies, University of London on the theme: "The Qur’ân Text, Interpretation and Translation". About fifty scholars, mostly orientalists including some whose works have been mentioned above and belonging to different universities and institutions of Asia, Europe, America and Australia are presenting papers and participating at the conference. The nature and scope of their studies may be gleaned from the broad topics under which the sessions have been arranged. These topics are: Literary Strategy, Translation, Philosophical Approaches, Sufi