The Contributions Of Orientalism

Beginning with Muhammad’s age from the start of 7th century Islam, Islamic culture and politics have gone a great many events and occurrences. Throughout all of its years, it has boasted both a rich culture and technological/intellectual advancements. The preservation of the Quran, developments in mathematics, and the continued emphasis on respect and charitable nature are just some examples of Islamic achievement. However, as with any growing civilization, Islam has evolved beyond what it originated as. The cultural and political life of Islamic civilization beginning in the 7th century to the end of the Abbasids of the 13th century underwent many changes such as the deteriorating view of women in society and the shift from elected caliphates to dynastical caliphate. But, one aspect that persisted were the religious beliefs and traditions followed by the Islamic people.

In its Golden Age, Islam’s influence reached all the way to Spain, Anatolia, West Africa, and India, among other regions. While these regions were all, in a way, united under a common religion, each of them both altered and were altered by Islam in their own unique ways. Although there were similarities that existed with the spread of Islam to each of those places, many more differences prevailed. Differences and similarities existed in the forms of the role of migration, role of trade, role of cultural exchange, methods of conversion to Islam, and the unique cultural developments in each region.

Going through a series of revolts and revolutionary wars with the republicans, France was becoming a major consideration and a huge threat to Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire. Meanwhile, by the Ottoman Empire’s conditions declining, it made it an easy key advantage into world supremacy against Great Britain. By May 1798, General Napoleon Bonaparte, a French military leader and also a big politician, succeeded to convince the French government to invade and colonize Egypt which was considered as a main ottoman empire's province and also a major world trade point. Bonaparte's idea of starting an expedition towards Egypt was considered a critical advantage which leads the way to challenge Great Britain and interrupt connections with India,

It is no longer unusual to suggeste that the construction of the colonial order is related to the eloboration of modern forms of representation and knowledge

During the early modern period, two great Islamic states were created. One, covered most of the Middle East, while the Balkans covered the remaining majority of India. The two major Islamic Empires, the Ottomans and the Mughals, both brought major new influences to these regions as well. The Ottoman and Mughal Empires’ influences included great political and military strength, amongst other things. During the early modern period, these two empires established very large territories and new boundaries, resembling Russia’s rule. Also similarly to Russia, both of these empires included a diverse population made up of different linguistic, ethnic, and religious groups. Both the Ottoman and Mughal Empires, while similar, followed their own, separate paths during most of the early modern period. In doing so, they avoided Western civilization and the rest of the world, for the most part. However, contact with the West did increase with time as by the late 17th to early 18th century, “a more substantial Western presence began to affect internal developments”.

(1769-1849) Muhammad Ali was the founder of a dynasty that ruled Egypt in the beginning of 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. He encouraged the emergence of the modern Egyptian state. In 1798, Egypt was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, and occupied by French force under Napoleon Bonaparte. The three-year French occupation (1798–1801) had disrupted the country’s traditional political and economic structure. Ali arrived there in 1801 as a commander of a 300 men Albanian regiment sent b the Ottoman

(Pg. 610) Over time, the Islamic empire displayed into bigger territories. From 1300 to 1700, three “Gunpowder empires” dominated parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia: the

I must confess that I am guilty of harboring unconscious stereotypes of Asian women. Kathleen Uno’s article “Unlearning Orientalism: Locating Asian and Asian American Women in Family History” brought this to light. She makes a very strong argument that Orientalism has exaggerated Asian patriarchy and the subordination of women; therefore, influencing research to highlight only the oppressive aspects of the Asian family. Uno states that once we can free ourselves from the “Orientalist blinders”, it will allow us to shed the stereotypes by revaluating the role of Asian and Asian American women and acknowledging their contributions. (Uno, 2003)

Throughout the world there have been many different cultures that have been oppressed. People can be oppressed in many different ways by different people of different races. The writer will discuss the muslims culture/people and their oppressed history over time. In this paper it will address this group and their oppression currently. Furthermore the writer will discuss how we can end the oppression against muslims.

The book starts out talking about Egypt and Iran in the late nineteenth century. It says how during the nineteenth century, the major European powers expanded their overseas empires and protected their principal imperial possessions by entering into agreements among themselves or by neutralizing the rulers of territories bordering on those possessions. Next, the chapter talks about Iran during the second half of the nineteenth century. European influences came to Iran, because powerful forces of decentralization had taken root in Iran during the chaotic period between the fall of the Safavids in 1722 and the consolidation of the Qajar dynasty. The next chapter discusses how those that had escaped direct occupation-Iran, the Ottoman Empire, Afghanistan, and Morocco-

Stuart Hall’s The West and the Rest and Edward Said’s Orientalism both explore notions of power and discourse with regard to the dynamics of the Western world and the non-Western world. The works engage with the concept of a worldwide binary of two unequal sides, and how certain discourses, namely that of “the West and the Rest”, and Orientalism, have both stemmed from this idea and worked to maintain it. While Hall engages with the idea of “the West and the Rest” – the Western world and how it has been defined in opposition to the non-Western – Said analyses the relationship between “the Orient and the Occident” (2). Said’s work reflects in a more concrete way what Hall proposes in his, using the example of “the Orient” as part of “the Rest” against which the Western world positions itself. Both pieces convey significant ideas about how power informs perceptions of difference between societies, and in turn how discourse forms and maintains global hegemonic power.

Instead, from its onset, Islam spread as a conquering power and remained that way for some time. Explaining it this way, the reader gets a sense of the psychology behind Islam and why, besides being a religious task, spreading Islam is such a goal. By showing the issues Islam faces today in the context of past Islamic traditions, Lewis paints a much clearer picture of the skewed view today’s radicals have and the way they use history to manipulate. He examines influential Muslim voices like Saddam Hussein and Usama Bin Laden, who have used history to give Islam victim status or to claim the continuance of a predecessor’s mission to not only justify terrorist activities, but also to recruit followers. He tells the history of Bin Laden’s statement referring to the “humiliation and disgrace” Islam supposedly has suffered. What Bin Laden was referring to was the defeat of the Ottoman sultanate in 1918 and the imperial presence of Westerners on sacred Muslim lands. Lewis explains the offense many Muslims take to the desecration of their holy lands by foreigners. He describes how the discovery and exploitation of oil in the Holy Land of the Hijaz has exacerbated the growing resentment many Muslims

Different regions in the Middle East have different experienced different levels of colonialism. Prior to the First World War some regions of the Ottoman Empire were already under the influence of European countries (Owen 2006, p. 23). Between the first and second world wars most of the empire was formally divided between, and under the control of, Britain and France (Owen 2006, p. 25) and even after the second world war European influence lingered. Cole and Kandiyoti describe these periods as 'informal imperialism

British and French were main actors in that period which came after the collapse of ottoman power and state formation. After the industrial revolution and Enlightment, there was a new need for raw materials that counts as the main reason of the European mandate over Middle East(Fawcett, 2005).At that period the states were existed, but not every element of a modern state, because they were under other powers and there were only conflicts, resistance of self-determination, and

Orientalism is a study of language and traditions of the people and their culture in the Middle East. These studies are mostly done by people outside of the culture that is being looked at, and mostly the studies are being performed by white western men. Edward Said believed that there was a problem with the way in which other people were studying and writing about his culture. He was upset and spoke up when he wrote a booked called “Orientalism,” in his book he points out many reasons why the study of orientalism is hurting the cultures in which they are studying. The study of other cultures and countries better known as the Orient has become a popular discussion since Said’s book on orientalism was published. This paper will take a look