A review of the article archaeology and the Quran in Leiden Encyclopedia of the Quran

The article at hand reviews the entry ‘Archaeology and the Quran’ in the Leiden Encyclopedia of the Quran. This article, being an interdisciplinary work on the Quran and sciences in EQ, is written by the contemporary writer Robert Schick. The writer deals with the destiny of the past nations, their archaeological works, the historical governments and many other archaeological activities of Arabian Peninsula in the light of the Quran. He while considering the socio- cultural milieu where Islam developed in, confesses that he could not derive desirable conclusions. Then, he briefly points at the archaeological studies of Bait al-Muqaddas. The author prior to his review of the paper, presents a brief account of Robert Schick's article. His archaeological view, in the very article ‘Archaeology and the Quran’, is worthwhile but his lack of attention to all sources and his doctrinal backgrounds prompted some critical mistakes which devalue his scholarly work. More precisely, the writer treats critically his following notions: the helpful methods that archaeology makes the Qur’ānic concepts clearer, casting doubts in the existence of some historical documents in present-day Saudi Arabia, special remembrance from the Thamud tribe, doubting the fact whether or not Suleiman was cotemporary to the queen of Saba, the condition of other ancient places and traces that go back to the early days of Islam and his archaeological studies of Bait al-Muqaddas.