Life and Work of W. Montgomery Watt

Carole Hillenbrand is Honorary Professorial Fellow, Professor Emerita at the University of Edinburgh and Professor of Islamic History at the University of St Andrews since 2013. In 2005 she became the first non-Muslim scholar to be awarded the prestigious King Faisal International Prize for Islamic Studies, reflecting her ‘revolutionary approach to the largely one-sided subject of the Crusades’. She is author of The Crusades (EUP, 1999), The Waning of the Umayyad Caliphate (Albany, 1989), A Muslim Principality in Crusader Times (Brill, 1990), and co-editor (with C. E. Bosworth) of Qajar Iran, (Edinburgh, 1984) and editor of The Sultan's Turret (Brill, 1999).

• PrefacePart 1: Lectures given on 23 October 2015 at the University of EdinburghChapter 1: William Montgomery Watt: the man and the scholar, Carole HillenbrandChapter 2: The Study of Islam’s Origins since W. Montgomery Watt’s Publications, Fred DonnerChapter 3: Committed Openness: A Glance at William Montgomery Watt’s Religious Life, Richard HollowayPart Two: Unpublished Writings of William Montgomery WattChapter 4: A DiaryChapter 5: The Testament of a SearchChapter 6: William Montgomery Watt’s Inaugural Lecture - Islamic studies in Scotland: Retrospect and Prospect Part 3: Reflections on the work of William Montgomery WattChapter 7: Scottish Pioneers of Arabic and Islamic Studies, David KerrAppendices a) Some Reminiscences of Louis Massignon, William Montgomery Watt b) Tribute to Professor Watt, Josef van Ess c) The Last Orientalist: A Valedictory Interview with Professor Watt, Bashir Maan and Alistair McIntoshd) A Tribute to Professor Watt, Hakim Mohammed Saide) William Montgomery Watt and a Historicist Interpretation of Islamic History, Hasan Hüseyin Adalioğluf) Some obituaries of Professor Watti) Professor Hugh Goddard, The Scotsman ii) Bishop Richard Holloway, The Guardianiii) Professor Carole Hillenbrand, The Independentiv) Charlotte Aldred, Edinburgh Middle East Report Online A bibliography of the books published by William Montgomery Watt

These autobiographical elements, never before published, amplify the range and importance of Watt’s contributions. His staggering honesty about theological/metaphysical queries reminds one of Arberry, but unlike Arberry, who found in Islam and especially Sufism a kind of surrogate faith, Watt seemed to relish being both an Anglican priest and a forthright, monumental scholar on Islam.