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{{short description|Scottish historian and Orientalist (1909–2006)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox academic
| honorific_prefix = [[The Reverend]]
| name = W. Montgomery Watt
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Abdolrashidi & prof watt.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Watt (right), interviewed by [[Ali Akbar Abdolrashidi]]
| birth_name = William Montgomery Watt
| birth_date = {{birth date|1909|3|14|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Ceres, Fife|Ceres]], [[Fife]], Scotland
| death_date = {{death date and age|2006|10|24|1909|3|14|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Edinburgh]], Scotland
| death_cause =
| region =
| nationality = Scottish
| period =
| occupation =
| title = Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies
| boards = 
| known_for =
| spouse =
| children =
| era =
| language =
| discipline = [[Oriental studies]] and [[Religious studies]]
| sub_discipline = [[Arabic]] [[History of Islam]] [[Muhammad]] [[Islamic Philosophy]] [[Islamic theology]]
| movement = 

| education =
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| main_interests =
| workplaces = [[Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem]] [[University of Edinburgh]]
| notable_works = ''[[Muhammad at Mecca]]'' (1953) ''[[Muhammad at Medina (book)|Muhammad at Medina]]'' (1956)
| notable_ideas =
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}}
'''William Montgomery Watt''' (14 March 1909 – 24 October 2006) was a [[Scottish people|Scottish]] [[Oriental studies|Orientalist]], [[historian]], [[academic]], and [[Anglican ministry|Anglican priest]]. From 1964 to 1979, he was Professor of [[Arabic language|Arabic]] and [[Islamic studies]] at the [[University of Edinburgh]].

Watt was one of the foremost non-Muslim interpreters of [[Islam]] in the West, and according to [[Carole Hillenbrand]] "an enormously influential scholar in the field of Islamic studies and a much-revered name for many [[Muslim]]s all over the world". Watt's comprehensive biography of the [[Prophets of Islam|Islamic prophet]] [[Muhammad]], ''[[Muhammad at Mecca]]'' (1953) and ''[[Muhammad at Medina (book)|Muhammad at Medina]]'' (1956), are considered to be classics in the field.<ref name="obit - Independent" />

==Early life and education==
Watt was born on 14 March 1909 in [[Ceres, Fife|Ceres]], [[Fife]], Scotland.<ref name="obit - Guardian">{{cite news|last1=Holloway|first1=Richard|author1-link=Richard Holloway|title=William Montgomery Watt|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/nov/14/guardianobituaries.highereducation|access-date=1 June 2016|work=The Guardian|date=14 November 2006}}</ref> His father, who died when he was only 14 months old, was a minister of the [[Church of Scotland]].<ref name="obit - Guardian" /><ref name="obit - Independent" />

==Career==
===Ordained ministry===
Watt was [[ordained]] in the [[Scottish Episcopal Church]] as a [[Deacon#Anglicanism|deacon]] in 1939 and as a [[Priest#Anglican or Episcopalian|priest]] in 1940.<ref name="Crockford entry">{{Crockford| surname = Watt | forenames = William Montgomery | id = 19778 | accessed = 1 June 2016}}</ref> He served his [[curacy]] at [[St Mary The Boltons]], [[West Brompton]], in the [[Diocese of London]] from 1939 to 1941.<ref name="Crockford entry" /> When St Mary's was damaged in [[The Blitz]], he moved to [[Old Saint Paul's, Edinburgh]] to continue his training.<ref name="Crockford entry" /> From 1943 to 1946, he served as an Arabic specialist to the [[Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem]].<ref name="obit - Guardian" />

After Watt returned to academia in 1946, he never again held a full-time religious appointment. He did, however, continue his ministry with part-time and honorary positions. From 1946 to 1960, he was an [[Curate#Anglican Communion|honorary curate]] at Old Saint Paul's, Edinburgh, an [[Anglo-Catholic]] church in Edinburgh.<ref name="Crockford entry" /> He became a member of the [[Ecumenism|ecumenical]] [[Iona Community]] in Scotland in 1960.<ref name="obit - Independent">{{cite news |last1=Hillenbrand |first1=Carole |author-link1=Carole Hillenbrand |title=Professor W. Montgomery Watt |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-w-montgomery-watt-423394.html |access-date=1 June 2016 |work=The Independent |date=8 November 2006}}</ref> From 1960 to 1967, he was an honorary curate at [[St Columba's-by-the-Castle]], near [[Edinburgh Castle]].<ref name="Crockford entry" /> Between 1980 and 1993, following his retirement from academia, he was an honorary curate at St Mary the Virgin, [[Dalkeith]] and at St Leonard's Church, [[Lasswade]].<ref name="Crockford entry" />

===Academic career===
Watt was Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh from 1964 to 1979.

He has been called "the Last [[Oriental studies|Orientalist]]".<ref name=al>{{Cite web|url=https://www.alastairmcintosh.com/articles/2000_watt.htm|title=Interview with Prof William Montgomery Watt|website=www.alastairmcintosh.com}}</ref>

Watt held [[visiting scholar|visiting professorships]] at the [[University of Toronto]], the [[Collège de France]] and [[Georgetown University]].

==Later life==
Watt died in [[Edinburgh]] on 24 October 2006 at the age of 97.<ref>The Herald, The Scotsman, The Times, 27 October 2006</ref> He had four daughters and a son with his wife Jean. The family went on holidays in [[Crail]], a Scottish village. On his death, the writer [[Richard Holloway]] wrote of Watt that "he spent his life battling against the tide of intolerance".<ref name="obit - Guardian" />

==Honours==
Watt received the American [[Giorgio Levi Della Vida]] Medal and won, as its first recipient, the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies award for outstanding scholarship.<ref name="obit - Independent" />

Watt received an [[honorary doctorate]] from [[Heriot-Watt University|Aberdeen University]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/professor_carole_hillenbrand.pdf|title=Lecture by Professor Carole Hillenbrand in event: Islamic Studies in Scotland: Retrospect and Prospect|date=2016-12-13|website=University of Edinburgh, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies|access-date=2017-03-25}}</ref>

==Views==
Watt believed that the [[Qur'an]] was [[divinely inspired]] but not [[Infallibility|infallibly]] true.<ref name=al/>

[[Martin Forward]], a 21st-century [[Non-Muslim Islamic scholars|non-Muslim Islamic scholar]], states:
{{quote|His books have done much to emphasize the Prophet's commitment to social justice; Watt has described him as being like an [[Old Testament]] [[prophet]], who came to restore fair dealing and belief in [[tawhid|one God]] to the [[Arab]]s, for whom these were or had become irrelevant concepts. This would not be a sufficiently high estimate of his worth for most Muslims, but it's a start. Frankly, it's hard for Christians to say affirmative things about a religion like Islam that postdates their own, which they are brought up to believe contains all things necessary for [[salvation]]. And it's difficult for Muslims to face the fact that Christians aren't persuaded by the view that Christianity is only a stop on the way to Islam, the final religion."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.aurora.edu/cfa/published/muhammad.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060904192730/http://www.aurora.edu/cfa/published/muhammad.htm|url-status=dead|title=The Prophet Muhammad: A mercy to mankind|archivedate=4 September 2006}}</ref>}}

[[Carole Hillenbrand]], a professor of Islamic History at the University of Edinburgh, states:<ref name="obit - Independent" />

{{quote|He was not afraid to express rather radical [[Theology|theological]] opinions – controversial ones in some Christian [[Ecclesiology|ecclesiastical]] circles. He often pondered on the question of what influence his study of Islam had exerted on him in his own Christian faith. As a direct result, he came to argue that the Islamic emphasis on the uncompromising oneness of God had caused him to reconsider the Christian doctrine of the [[Trinity]], which is vigorously attacked in the Koran as undermining true [[monotheism]]. Influenced by Islam, with its [[Names of God in the Qur'an|99 names of God]], each expressing special attributes of God, Watt returned to the Latin word "[[persona]]" – which meant a "face" or "mask", and not "individual", as it now means in English – and he formulated the view that a true interpretation of Trinity would not signify that God comprises three individuals. For him, Trinity represents three different "faces" of the one and the same God.}}

His account of the origin of Islam met with criticism from other scholars such as [[John Wansbrough]] of the [[University of London]]'s [[School of Oriental and African Studies]], and [[Patricia Crone]] and [[Michael Cook (historian)|Michael Cook]], in their book ''[[Hagarism|Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World (1977)]]'', and Crone's ''[[Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam]]''.<ref>Patricia Crone, ''Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam'', Princeton University Press. 1987 [http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/med/crone.asp]</ref> However, Both [[Patricia Crone]] and [[Michael Cook (historian)|Michael Cook]] have later said that the central thesis of the book "Hagarism" was mistaken because the evidence they had to support the thesis was not sufficient or internally consistent enough.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Khan|first=Ali|date=2005|title=Hagarism: The Story of a Book Written by Infidels for Infidels|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.944295|journal=SSRN Electronic Journal|doi=10.2139/ssrn.944295|issn=1556-5068}}</ref>

==Reception==
[[Pakistani]] academic, Zafar Ali Qureshi, in his book, ''Prophet Muhammad and His Western Critics: A Critique of W. Montgomery Watt and Others'' has criticized Watt as having incorrectly portrayed the life of Muhammad in his works. Qureshi's book was praised by Turkish academic [[İbrahim Kalın]].<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.ibrahimkalin.com/test/prophet-muhammad-and-his-western-critics-a-critique-of-w-montgomery-watt-and-others/|title=Prophet Muhammad and His Western Critics: A Critique of W. Montgomery Watt and Others|author=Ibrahim Kalin}}</ref>

[[Georges-Henri Bousquet]] has mocked Watt's book, ''Muhammad at Mecca'', describing it as "A Marxist interpretation of the [[History of Islam#Origins of Islam|origins of Islam]] by an Episcopal clergyman."<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/professor_fred_donner.pdf|page=4|title=The Study of Islam's Origins since W. Montgomery Watt's Publications|author=Fred M. Donner}}</ref><ref>{{citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wmVltof__ZUC&pg=PA92|title=Muslims as Actors|author=Jacques Waardenburg|date=13 February 2012|isbn=978-3-11-019142-4|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG}}</ref>

==Selected works==
* ''The faith and practice of al-Ghazālī'' (1953) {{ISBN|978-0-686-18610-6}}
* ''[[Muhammad at Mecca (book)|Muhammad at Mecca]]'' (1953) {{ISBN|978-0-19-577278-4}}
* ''[[Muhammad at Medina (book)|Muhammad at Medina]]'' (1956) {{ISBN|978-0-19-577307-1}} ([https://archive.org/details/muhammadatmedina029655mbp online])
* ''Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman'' (1961) {{ISBN|978-0-19-881078-0}}, a summary of the above two major works ([https://archive.org/details/muhammadpropheta013058mbp online])
* ''Islamic Philosophy and Theology'' (1962) {{ISBN|978-0-202-36272-4}}
* ''Islamic Political Thought'' (1968) {{ISBN|978-0-85224-403-6}}
* ''Islamic Surveys: The Influence of Islam on Medieval Europe'' (1972) {{ISBN|978-0-85224-439-5}}
* ''The Majesty That Was Islam'' (1976) {{ISBN|978-0-275-51870-7}}
* ''What Is Islam?'' (1980) {{ISBN|978-0-582-78302-7}}
* ''Muhammad's Mecca'' (1988) {{ISBN|978-0-85224-565-1}}
* ''Muslim-Christian Encounters: Perceptions and Misperceptions'' (1991) {{ISBN|978-0-415-05411-9}}
* ''Early Islam'' (1991) {{ISBN|978-0-7486-0170-7}}
* ''Islamic Philosophy And Theology'' (1987) {{ISBN|978-0-7486-0749-5}}
* ''[[Sharh al-'Aqa'id al-Nasafiyya|Islamic Creeds]]'' (1994) {{ISBN|978-0-7486-0513-2}}
* ''History of Islamic Spain'' (1996) {{ISBN|978-0-85224-332-9}}
* ''Islamic Political Thought'' (1998) {{ISBN|978-0-7486-1098-3}}
* ''Islam and the Integration of Society'' (1998) {{ISBN|978-0-8101-0240-8}}
* ''Islam: A Short History'' (1999) {{ISBN|978-1-85168-205-8}}
* ''A Christian Faith For Today'' (2002) {{ISBN|0-415-27703-5}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-w-montgomery-watt-423394.html Professor W. Montgomery Watt by Carole Hillenbrand]
* [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/watt.html W. Montgomery Watt: Muhammad, Prophet and Statesman]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080528163602/http://abdurrahman.org/seerah/SeerahAndOrientalists-1.pdf "Sirat An-Nabi and the Orientalists"] Criticism of some of Watt's works by Muhammad Mohar Ali
* [http://emeronline.blogspot.com/search?q=montgomery+watt Obituary] by Charlotte Alfred. Edinburgh Middle East Report Online, a journal founded in Watt's former department. Winter 2006
* [http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/general/2005-montgomery-watt.htm Professor Watt's paper ''Women in the Earliest Islam'']
* [http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/articles/2000_watt.htm Interview with Professor Watt on Islam/Christian relations]
* [http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/about/bgallery/Gallery/records/nineteen2/montgomery.html William Montgomery Watt's picture]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watt, W. Montgomery}}
[[Category:British Islamic studies scholars]]
[[Category:Scottish Arabists]]
[[Category:Scottish orientalists]]
[[Category:Scottish Episcopalian priests]]
[[Category:1909 births]]
[[Category:2006 deaths]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Iona Community members]]
[[Category:Scottish Christians]]
[[Category:20th-century Scottish historians]]
[[Category:Writers from Fife]]
[[Category:Christian scholars of Islam]]

W. Montgomery Watt - Revision history

Shumail: expanded content based on references and added references

Ajay Kumar: Created a new article