In this chapter, I will discuss the Muslim reaction to Western scholars’ criticism of the early Muslim sources. The justification for including such a chapter may be that there has been an ongoing debate in Western academia regarding the textual history of the text of the Qur’an and various attempts have been made to classify Western scholars’ view on the subject. However, these classifications by and large are not applicable to Muslim scholars who also contribute to the field. Whether one agrees or not, some Muslim scholars showed a particular interest in this debate not only for academic reasons but also due to the status of the Qur’an for Muslims. In this regard, a number of Muslim scholars relied on purely religious arguments to defend their positions. However, some other Muslim scholars, such as Fazlur Rahman, Yasin Dutton and Behnam Sadeghi mostly relied on methods and arguments that are acceptable by academic standards, although it is still evident from their study that they have more than an academic interest in the subject.

To make better sense of the study, I have divided the chapter into three sections based on relevant scholars’ arguments and, most importantly, their methods. The first section, entitled ‘Convincing “non-Believers” of the authenticity of the Qur’an through the Qur’an: The Muslim approach to the history of the text’ deals with the traditional Muslim scholars’ reaction to the debate, which they consider merely a religious debate. They, in return, try to come up with religious arguments and reassert traditional Muslim methods to deal with the criticisms. In the second section, entitled ‘Arguing historicity of the Qur’an’, I will focus on reformist Muslim scholar Fazlur Rahman whose approach to the debate is scientific and thus very different from the traditional Muslim approach. He adeptly scrutinises the existing theories about the history of the text of the Qur’an and exposes gaps in these arguments. Still, he does not provide an alternative method to assess the relevant sources. For these reasons, I have treated his approach in the second section of the Chapter. In the third section, entitled ‘Use of Archaeological data’, the focus is on arguments that are acquired through archaeological discoveries.