Introducing the Author & the Text

• Introduce the text from both within and without. Better you integrate your comments about within and without, more successful the introduction will be.

• Within means biography of the author and his other writings, the authorial intent (goals for writing this text), what you consider to be the key passages and significant themes within the text, and finally those ideas/passages that you consider puzzling and why.

• Without entails discussing the influence of this text upon Islamic intellectual tradition, debates within scholarship on the text, but also your observations and comments on the text and its content.

• Most importantly, you should bring this “background information” to bear upon the reading of the text: show if and how this information does or should inform/transform/influence our reading of the text.

• Cite the sources consulted and discuss those in your writing or presentation.