The Turk and Islam in the Western Eye, 1450–1750

In the last thirty years, the study of relations between the Western world and that of Islam, and of the knowledge each had of the other, has been both advanced and hindered by Edward Said’s theory of ‘Orientalism’. Said’s controversial challenge brought to life a previously rather predictable subject area and sparked a rash of studies on new literary and cultural themes. A much broader range of scholars began to concern themselves with East–West influences as seen in, for example, the study of material culture or the English theatre. On the whole, this has been fruitful and has certainly enlivened and extended the subject area. On the other hand, the distinguishing feature of Said’s theory—not so much how to understand views of ‘the Other’, but rather his assertion of an ‘institutionalised’ orientalist outlook of cultural superiority on the part of the West—is not applicable to the early modern, pre-colonial era, though the assumption that it is can be difficult to dislodge from the minds of new students and outsiders

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Assertion · Colonialism · Islam · Literature · Muslim world · Orientalism · Subject (documents · Western literature · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History · Islamic Studies and History · Philosophy