Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism and Its Discontents

424 Pages·2006·28.847 MB·English

by  Robert Irwin

ORIENTALISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS
IRWIN
AUTHOR OF THE ALHAMBRA
$35. .00
DANGEROUS
KNOWLEDGE
< WIEN'E4LI&U.AND I / IS Mst XINTENTS
ROBERT IRWIN
The publication of Edward Said’s hugely influential
Orientalism in 1981 called into question the entire
history of the Western study of Islamic culture, con¬
demning this scholarly tradition as one that presented
inaccurate and deliberately demeaning representations
of Islamic peoples and institutions—its effect
was so profound that the words “Oriental’’ and
“Orientalist” came to take on the most negative
connotations.
But what is Orientalism, who were the Orientalists,
and how did Western scholars of Islamic culture
come to be vilified as insidious agents of European
imperialism? In Robert Irwin’s groundbreaking new
history, he answers this question with a detailed and
colorful story of the motley crew of intellectuals and
eccentrics who brought an understanding of the
Islamic world to the West. In a narrative that ranges
from an analysis of Ancient Greek perceptions of the
Persians to a portrait of the first Western European
translators of Arabic to the contemporary Muslim
world’s perceptions of the Western study of Islam,
Irwin affirms the value of the Orientalists’ legacy:
not only for the contemporary scholars who have
disowned it, but also for anyone committed to fos¬
tering the cross-cultural understanding which could
bridge the real or imagined gulf between Islamic
and Western civilization.
Dangerous Knowledge is an enthralling history, a bold
argument, and an urgent redress of our conceptions
about Western culture’s relationship with its nearest
neighbor.
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DANGEROUS KNOWLEDGE
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
The Middle East in the Middle Ages:
The Early Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1382)
The Arabian Nights: A Companion
Islamic Art
Night and Horses and the Desert:
An Anthology of Classical Arabic Literaure
The Alhambra
Exquisite Corpse
Prayer-Cushions of the Flesh
The Arabian Nightmare
The Eimits of Vision
DANGEROUS
KNOWLEDGE
ORIENTALISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS
“ROBERT IRWIN
THE OVERLOOK PRESS
Woodstock & New York
This edition first published in the United States in 2006 by
The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc.
Woodstock & New York
WOODSTOCK:
One Overlook Drive
Woodstock, NY 12498
www.overlookpress.com
[for individual orders, bulk and special sales, contact our Woodstock office]
NEW YORK:
141 Wooster Street
New York, NY 10012
Copyright © 2006 by Robert Irwin
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval
system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the
publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection
with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Irwin, Robert, 1946-
Dangerous knowledge : orientalism and its discontents / Robert Irwin.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Orientalism. 2. Middle East—Study and teaching. 3. Asia—Study and teaching.
4. Middle East—Foreign public opinion. Occidental. 5. Asia—
Foreign public opinion, Occidental. I.Title.
DS61.85.I79 2006 303.48’2182105—dc22 2006045416
Manufactured in the United States of America
ISBN-10 1-58567-835-X / ISBN-13 978-1-58567-835-8
First Edition
10 987654321
Contents
Introduction i
1 The Clash of Ancient Civilizations 9
2 An Ancient Heresy or a New Paganism 19
3 Renaissance Orientalism 54
4 The Holiness of Oriental Studies 82
5 Enlightenment of a Sort 109
6 Oriental Studies in the Age of Steam and Cant 141
7 A House Divided Against Itself 189
8 The All Too Brief Heyday of Orientalism 237
9 An Enquiry into the Nature of a Certain
Twentieth-Century Polemic 277
10 Enemies of Orientalism 310
Notes 331
Index 377