Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Robert R. Bianchi, Guests of God: 

Pilgrimage and Politics in the Islamic World (Oxford: 

Oxford University Press, 2004); Golam W. Choudhury, 

Islam and the Contemporary World (London: Indus 

Thames, 1990); Saad S. Khan, Reasserting International 

Islam: A Focus on the Organization of the Islamic Con-

ference and Other Islamic Institutions (Karachi: Oxford 

University Press, 2001).

Organization of the Islamic Conference

  

535  J

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Orientalism

The study of the East (“the Orient”), especially 

the “Islamic East,” by European and American 

scholars during the 19th and 20th centuries is 

known as Orientalism. The ancient Greeks made 

an initial differentiation between themselves in 

the “Occident” (West) and the peoples of the Ori-

ent, which meant anywhere east of themselves, 

from Asia Minor to the eastern Mediterranean 

lands and beyond. They also assigned qualities 

to this basic geographic division—Westerners 

(meaning themselves) were democratic, rational, 

and civilized, while Easterners were despotic, irra-

tional, and barbaric. During the Middle Ages this 

differentiation was adopted by western Europeans 

and invested with religious meaning through their 

reading of the Bible. Europeans claimed that they 

were descended from Noah’s favored son Japheth, 

while Asians and Africans were descended from 

Shem and Ham, Noah’s less-favored sons. In the 

aftermath of the medieval c

rUsades

 some church 

scholars began to investigate Islamic religion, but 

they did this mainly in order to defend Christian-

ity, or to convert Muslims, whom they often called 

Saracens or Moors (in a

ndalUsia

). There was a 

great deal of interest in the Arabic translations of 

and commentaries about Aristotle, which formed 

the underpinnings of medieval scholastic theol-

ogy. Europeans were also very interested in Arabic 

scientific literature (medicine, 

mathematics

, phys-

ics, astronomy, and chemistry/

alchemy

). These 

works were translated into Hebrew and Latin at 

centers of learning in Spain and Italy, and subse-

quently carried to centers of learning in France, 

England, and elsewhere in Europe.

The cumulative tradition of scholarly study 

of Islam and the peoples and cultures of Muslim 

lands, which would later call itself Orientalism, 

did not develop noticeably in Europe until the 

late 18th and early 19th centuries. This study was 

stimulated by several factors: commitment to the 

study of human history and cultures based on 

Enlightenment rationalism rather than theology; 

the exploration and colonization of the Americas, 

Asia, and Africa by newly emerging European pow-

ers (Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, France, and 

England); and discovery of ancient civilizations 

in the Middle East and Asia and decipherment 

of their languages. One of the first Orientalists in 

the modern sense of the word was Baron Silvestre 

de Sacy (1758–1838), a Parisian scholar of Arabic 

and other “living oriental languages” who advised 

the French Foreign Ministry, and became the 

first president of the Société Asiatique (founded 

in 1822). Many of Europe’s leading Orientalist 

scholars studied under him and regarded him as 

the pioneer in their field. In i

ndia

 the leading pro-

moter of Orientalist research was William Jones 

(1746–94), an employee of the English East India 

Company with expertise in Arabic, Persian, and 

Hebrew who founded the Asiatic Society of Ben-

gal in 1784. This scholarly organization furnished 

Europe with English translations of religious and 

philosophical literature written in Arabic, Persian, 

Sanskrit, and other South Asian languages. It also 

served as a model for the Royal Asiatic Society of 

Great Britain and England (established in 1824). 

Other societies specializing in Orientalist studies 

were formed throughout Europe and in North 

America where the American Oriental Society was 

established in 1842.

Monuments in lands newly colonized by 

European powers and manuscripts obtained from 

major centers of Islamic learning such as i

stan

-

bUl

, c

airo

, and d

elhi

 provided Orientalists with 

substantial amounts of “raw” material for recon-

structing and studying the languages, religions, 

histories, and peoples of Asia/the Orient. They 

published scholarly journals, reference grammars, 

indexes, dictionaries, and, above all, critical edi-

tions and translations of Arabic, Persian, Turk-

ish, and Sanskrit texts. Much of what they wrote 

(excluding the Sanskritic materials) concerned 

Islamicate cultures and, above all, i

slam

—its 

scriptures, laws, doctrines, mysticism, and history. 

Moreover, Orientalists, despite their scholarly 

abilities, often stereotyped these cultures as static, 

despotic, inferior, and effeminate, usually attrib-

K  536