Interview: William Montgomery Watt
Monday, February 14, 2005 The Reverend Professor William
Montgomery Watt has written over 30 books including Islamic Political Thought (1968) and Muslim-Christian Encounters: Perceptions and
Misconceptions (1991). In Scotland he has been a member of the ecumenical
Iona Community since 1960. Amongst Islamic scholars he has been held in an
esteem described as “most reverential.” The Muslim press have called him “the
Last Orientalist.” This interview was conducted in 1999, his ninetieth year, at
his home in Dalkeith. With Professor Watt’s approval and careful agreement of
the final text, it uses both spoken material and statements drawn from some of
his most important articles of recent years. It is, in a sense, a distillation
of his life’s work.
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