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Orientalism

by Edward W. Said

4.02 of 5 stars 4.02 · rating details · 5,527 ratings · 341 reviews

A definitive work on relations between the West and the Arabs.

Paperback, 395 pages

Published October 12th 1979 by Vintage (first published 1978)

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May 14, 2007 Erica rated it 4 of 5 stars

The following is a true story:

Me, in a San Franscisco bar reading Orientalism.

The blonde girl next to me reading over my shoulder: "So what's Orientalism?"

I explain as best I can in a couple sentences.

Her: "There are so many isms in Asia - like Buddhism and Taoism. You know what book you should read? The Tao of Poo. It's sooo good. It's, like, the perfect way to teach Americans about Eastern Religion."

Horrified, I look back to my book and take a sip of beer.

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Nov 17, 2010 DoctorM rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: critical-theory, postcolonial

Yes--- in many ways, Said's "Orientalism" is a classic. And he's right about some things: Western art and literature created a whole fantasy world about "the Orient" (which included the Balkans and Russia) over the last few centuries; Western scholarship about North Africa or the Middle East or India could be (and was) used by colonial powers. But as critics (especially Bernard Lewis and Robert Irwin)have pointed out, Said took a handful of serious ideas and created his own fantasy world of "Ori...more

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Dec 01, 2012 عبدالرحمن ابوذكري rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: كتب-لها-عرض-من-كل-الانواع

شتان بين الطلسمات التي ابتلينا بها على يد كمال ابوديب في الترجمة الأولى التي صدرت قبل أكثر من عقدين، وبين هذه الترجمة السلسة الرائقة البعيدة عن التقعُّر، والإغراب، وصك المصطلحات الشاذة. إذا أردت أن تقرأ كتاب إدوارد سعيد، وتفهمه فهماً حسناً، وتفيد منه، فعليك بقراءة ترجمة أستاذنا محمد عناني، واهرب من ترجمة كمال ابوديب هروبك من المجذوم!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Jul 11, 2008 Adam rated it 5 of 5 stars

Orientalism is a masterpiece of comparative literature studies and deconstruction, published in 1978 it is arguably Said's most rigorous piece but undoubtedly his most influential. This is a examination of the academic discipline of Oriental Studies, which has a long history most of the European universities. Oriental Studies is a pastiche areas of study which include philology, linguistics, ethnography, and the interpretation of culture through the discovery, recovery, compilation, and translat...more

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Apr 07, 2007 Lucy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: the-orient, the-mile, indigenous-post-colonial

I think the problem with reading Orientalism today is that much of what he says (that was so revolutionary at the time) is so accepted now (at least among most academics). He's a brilliant writer, although he did irritate me at times (he constantly vilified anyone trying to represent anything, claiming, rightfully, that it is only possible to have a misrepresentation of anything built on one's own experiences and culture, and I did truly want to remind him that was what he was doing with Orienta...more

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Apr 25, 2010 Inam rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Inam by: Professor

Still the most influential book in Cultural, Near Eastern, Arab, Islamic, and Post-Colonialist Studies.

Interesting how everyone giving it a bad/ambivalent review is someone that simply can't acknowledge history - 200-300 years of colonialism which was then only replaced by neo-imperialism in the form of wars, economic exploitation, and political interference through force. Is the world any different even today? Obviously not. You're not hating the West by acknowledging this truth, Edward Said a...more Still the most influential book in Cultural, Near Eastern, Arab, Islamic, and Post-Colonialist Studies.

Interesting how everyone giving it a bad/ambivalent review is someone that simply can't acknowledge history - 200-300 years of colonialism which was then only replaced by neo-imperialism in the form of wars, economic exploitation, and political interference through force. Is the world any different even today? Obviously not. You're not hating the West by acknowledging this truth, Edward Said asserts this acknowledgment is the first step towards a fairer understanding of both sides. Knowledge and patriotism aren't mutually exclusive, contrary to what others might have you believe with their bigotry.

The "tide isn't changing" against this book in academia or outside, this book is as relevant today as it was 30 years ago. Nor is this book some vitriolic outcry against the West that some ignorant reviewers like to fallaciously classify it as.
Rather, it simply acknowledges a bias and uneven power dynamic in the shaping of East-West relations, conditions that are supported by historical and cultural facts, which ultimately resulted in how the West views the East today. A quite reasonable conclusion.

This is a book lauded by intellectuals and critics alike, the few "responses" to Said's assertions would be laughable if they weren't so lacking in credibility, written by pseudo-scholars that are ignored in academia like Ibn Warraq and Daniel Pipes but somehow get 5 stars on amazon.com from xenophobes and islamophobes.

Even Bernard Lewis, at one point the most influential Near Eastern Studies scholar in the West, only criticized Orientalism because he was forced to. In Orientalism, Said asserts that those of a particular culture, with appropriate education, intellect, and experience, were more capable of teaching their culture than a white man who only knows of that culture through his immersion in the academic bubble. Of course, Mr. Lewis couldn't stand by this as a westerner who made his living teaching about the Middle East.

Yet this isn't really a controversial position considering African-American Studies is taught by African-Americans as is Chicano Studies by Latinos. So why is it so shocking that in studies of the East, a minority has a more relevant view of their culture than a random who only knows of that culture through the vacuum of academia? The truth is, it isn't, if anything it's quite logical and reasonable - two characteristics we need more of in a post 9/11 world.

I urge you to not pay mind to the fallacious reasoning of those giving this book bad reviews, there's a reason it's still extremely influential and relevant even 35 years after being published. How many works can stand both the test of time and the test of critical academic scrutiny? Not many, which is why this work has continued to influence many professors and scholars. I hope someday to also join such scholars rising under its shadow like Columbia's eminent Near Eastern professor Massoud.

This was the first book to inspire me to become a professor, philosopher, and cultural critic just like Edward Said and I can proudly say I'm on that path.

To ignore this book is to simply ignore world history. I recommend this book so highly that if you read one book a year, this is the one for 2010.

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Jan 13, 2008 Rob Salkowitz rated it 2 of 5 stars

Intellectual porn for self-hating westerners, shockingly became one of the most influential texts of the last 25 years. Said's pompous, self-important writing style papers over yawning gaps in scholarship and breathtaking dishonesty. Finally, some academics appear to be getting over their institutional infatuation with Said and the critical tide is starting to turn. None too soon.

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Nov 20, 2007 علی rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays

شرق شناسی که قرن هاست در انستیتوهای شرق شناسی دانشکده های کشورهای غربی رواج داشته، از دیدگاه ادوارد سعید، بیشتر در جهت آشنایی به تاریخ اجتماعی و سیاسی جوامع شرقی ست که به گمان سعید و با دلایلی که ارائه کرده بیشتر در جهت محکم کردن بندهای استعمار و استثمار به کار رفته است.

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Apr 09, 2008 nanto rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: international-relations, history-and-sociology, friend-s-lib

Ada sebuah ungkapan ," ex orient lux", dari timut terbitlah kemakmuran, yang saya dapat ketika SMA dari guru sejarah saya. Ungkapan itu merupakan sebuah cara dari sudut pandang sebuah masyarakat yang melihat di timurnya merupakan banyak tempat bagi lahir pencerahan. Konon itu ungkapan dari masyarakat eropa, entah kapan tepatnya ungkapan itu muncul saya tidak tahu. Yang jelas, ungkapan itu menunjukan tempat tempat seperti Mesir dengan piramida dan kemajuan geometrinya dan Yunani dengan filsafatny...more Ada sebuah ungkapan ," ex orient lux", dari timut terbitlah kemakmuran, yang saya dapat ketika SMA dari guru sejarah saya. Ungkapan itu merupakan sebuah cara dari sudut pandang sebuah masyarakat yang melihat di timurnya merupakan banyak tempat bagi lahir pencerahan. Konon itu ungkapan dari masyarakat eropa, entah kapan tepatnya ungkapan itu muncul saya tidak tahu. Yang jelas, ungkapan itu menunjukan tempat tempat seperti Mesir dengan piramida dan kemajuan geometrinya dan Yunani dengan filsafatnya.

Ketika saya membaca Said (yang terjemahan) ada kesan lain yang diperoleh. Timur di mata Eropa oleh Said diberitakan pada awalnya adalah sebuah ancaman. Ketika itu ada konflik antara Eropa dengan Islam atau Middle East. Perang yang berlarut itu tidak luput mencitrakan timur yang menjadi simbol bagi datangnya ancaman.

Timur bagi eropa pun berganti ketika mereka mengenal India (dan tentunya juga Indonesia). Timur yang ektotis mulai dikenal oleh mereka. Salah satu yang memperkenalkan eksotisme (atau tepatnya erotisme) tarian timur, mungkin, adalah Matahari yang juga spion legendaris itu.

Eropa yang berbicara tentang timur seolah telah menjadi kebenaran yang tak terbantahkan, itulah mithos yang hendak dibongkar oleh Said. Menurutnya akan berbeda ketika timur berbicara tentang dirinya sendiri atau bahkan tentang barat.

Lepas dari polemik itu. Saya cuma mau bertanya tentang pusat produksi "timur" di universitas eropa versi Said. Entah saya yang salah, atau buku saya yang ada lewat halamannya hehehe kali aja, kok saya tidak menemukan adanya Belanda sebagai pusat produksi citra timur di eropa. Ketika Said bisa menyebut Perancis, Inggris, dab bahkan Amerika sebagai kelompok yang agak belakangan masuk dalam kancah produksi citra timur ini, kenapa dia lewat menyebut Belanda?

Bukankah Belanda juga memperkenalkan bukan saja C. Snouck Hurgronje, bahkan pengembangan klasifikasi tumbuhan telah dimulai oleh Rumphius ketika dia di Ambon sehingga ia mendapat julukan the "blind seer of Ambon". Kerja keras Rumphius yang bahkan mengalamai banyak ujian mulai dari buta, hasil kerjanya terbakar, karyanya diterbitkan atas nama seseorang yang mengaku sahabat, atau ketika karyanya butuh waktu lama untuk diterbitkan karena harus disensor oleh VOC itulah yang menyumbang pada taxonomi moderen versi C. Linneaus. Sumbangan Belanda kiranya tidak kecil terhadap citra timur, baik dalam hal budaya maupun alamnya.

Ada yang tau mungkin kenapa Said lewat dalam mengulas Belanda sebagai mazhab sehingga hanya mengupas Masignon, Gibb dan selanjutnya saja? atau saya yang terlalu bersemangat sehingga tidak sadar ada yang salah dalam pernyataan di atas?(less)

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Dec 08, 2011 Jeremy added it

Shelves: politics, sociological

Said borrows from the best of thinkers like Vico and Foucault, offering a rigorous survey and evisceration of a disgusting, racist, lazy intellectual tradition all while maintaining a profound, broadly stated humanist commitment. And he makes an airtight (and deeply troubling) case that academia has often been not only tacitly aligned with, but in many ways openly complicit with dehumanizing Imperialist ambitions. This is a brilliant statement about the inherently political, non-essentialist nat...more

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Apr 17, 2013 Trevor rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, social-theory, religion

This is a fascinatingly interesting book. It is also a book that is virtually required reading if you are going to say anything at all about post-colonialism. Whether you agree or disagree with the central theme of the book is almost beside the point. This work is seminal and landmark – so it can be avoided only at your own cost.

I’ll get to the central idea of the book in a second, but first some advice for people thinking of reading it. I think, if I only wanted to get an idea of what the book...more

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Apr 12, 2013 Shaherzad ahmadi rated it 2 of 5 stars

In his seminal book, Orientalism, Edward Said argues studies of the Middle East indicate structural power relations between the East and West. By implicating all academics of Middle Eastern studies (or, in Said’s time, Orientalists) in participating in this essentially racist discourse, Said caused quite a stir as he forced academics to confront ingrained prejudices. In the book, Said focuses his critique to Anglo-French scholarship, as Britain and France constituted the most powerful Western Eu...more In his seminal book, Orientalism, Edward Said argues studies of the Middle East indicate structural power relations between the East and West. By implicating all academics of Middle Eastern studies (or, in Said’s time, Orientalists) in participating in this essentially racist discourse, Said caused quite a stir as he forced academics to confront ingrained prejudices. In the book, Said focuses his critique to Anglo-French scholarship, as Britain and France constituted the most powerful Western European imperialists in the Middle East, as representative of the influence of Western hegemony on Oriental studies. By establishing a tone of objectivity, Orientalists elaborated mythologies prevalent in European discourse: the sensuality and mysteries of the Orient, Islamic heresy, the inherent backwardness of Orientals. All this, Said argues, granted Europe the power to “produce” the Orient and claim ownership of Oriental knowledge. Thus, further studies in the field sought only to corroborate, rather than challenge, the prevailing stereotypes of the Oriental and the so-called realities of the Middle East.

While Said utilizes Foucault’s concept of discourse as an overarching power-knowledge framework inhibiting individual (and, in this case, imaginative) agency, Said also embraces the possibility of human agency in affecting discourse. Unfortunately, Orientalism’s repetitive argument leaves many aspects of the subject unexplored. Specifically, Said’s focus on Anglo-French scholarship omits important research from other imperial players in the region. Additionally, the book suffers from vast generalizations, ignoring nuance in specific historical characters. For example, Said lumps E. G. Browne with other so-called Orientalists, an academic whose political and cultural contribution to the Iranian Constitutional Revolution proved paramount. Thus, while extremely important in shaking assumptions and reorienting the field, Said’s Orientalism also suffers from dangerous generalizations and important omissions. (less)

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Nov 20, 2012 Mark Fitzpatrick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Read after I graduated from college. Said's project is a landmark work in the project of Orientalist studies. However, it only serves as an introduction to the study of post-colonial studies and how one can analyze the literature and cultural networks the West applied to the "Orient". This book opens up the reader to see Orientalist language as racist, imperialistic, ethnocentric, and the project of European culture and society manufacturing an Other in the Orient, particularly in the geographic...more

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Oct 19, 2012 Brandy rated it 5 of 5 stars

(Response is cobbled together from several early entries into the blog ophelia-prissywig.xanga.com)

...The passage that caught my attention tonight was this:

"Knowledge means rising above immediacy, beyond self, into the foreign and distant. The object of such knowledge is inherently vulnerable to scrutiny; this object is a 'fact' which, if it develops, changes, or otherwise transforms itself in the way that civilizations frequently do, nevertheless is fundamentally, even ontologically stable. To...more

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Jul 27, 2012 حسين العُمري rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

يناقش أدوارد سعيد في هذا الكتاب " الاستشراق " كظاهرة ثقافية يشوبها الكثير من التحامل الغربي على الشرق ،، يظهر ذلك في سطحية النظرة الغربية للثقافة العربية و الاسلامية بل و الشرقية بصفة عامة فيلعب المستشرق دور الراصد لما يعتقد أنه همجية في مقابل الحضارة و التقدم الغربي فينجرف وراء " نحن " مقابل " هم " أو المسيحية و الحضارة مقابل البدائية و هنا تظهر كثير من الدراسات الاستشراقية كدعامة للعنصرية و التعالي الأوربي على الشعوب الأخرى الأقل درجة في رأيهم ،، ناقش إدوارد سعيد بشكل كبير الاستشراق من عدة جوا...more

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Mar 29, 2012 ضيف فهد rated it 5 of 5 stars

الاستشراق : المعرفة . السلطة . الانشاء ... إدوارد سعيد .. نقله إلى العربية: كمال أبو ديب .. الناشر : مؤسسة الأبحاث العربية ---

بالطبع لا يمكن الحديث أو امتداح مادة يقدمها مثل هذا المفكر الهائل .. إذ يكفينا فقط معرفة أن هذا الكتاب تم ترجمنه إلى : الفرنسية و الالمانية و الاسبانية و الايطالية و التركية و الفارسية و الماليزية و اليابانية .. وصدر منه إلى الآن في اللغة العربية ثمان طبعات على حد علمي .. الكتاب مهم جدا .. في المقدمة يقول كمال أبو ديب عن الكتاب : " كتاب ادوارد سعيد لا يدور على دقة تصور ال...more

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Oct 08, 2011 Donald Linnemeyer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: culture, imperialism

I only got through a few chapters of the book, but they were fabulous. Said's basic thesis is that empire in its more explicit forms (political/economic structures, military force, etc.) tends to spread through culture and is reinforced more implicitly in other cultural expressions, like literature or academic scholarship.

Said's work is specifically on how the British empire's perspective on the east, an expression of its political and military imperial dominance, thoroughly entrenched itself in...more

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Sep 13, 2011 Ruhat alp rated it 5 of 5 stars

Said argues that Orientalism can be found in current Western depictions of "Arab" cultures. The depictions of "the Arab" as irrational, menacing, untrustworthy, anti-Western, dishonest, and--perhaps most importantly--prototypical, are ideas into which Orientalist scholarship has evolved. These notions are trusted as foundations for both ideologies and policies developed by the Occident. Said writes: "The hold these instruments have on the mind is increased by the institutions built around them....more Said argues that Orientalism can be found in current Western depictions of "Arab" cultures. The depictions of "the Arab" as irrational, menacing, untrustworthy, anti-Western, dishonest, and--perhaps most importantly--prototypical, are ideas into which Orientalist scholarship has evolved. These notions are trusted as foundations for both ideologies and policies developed by the Occident. Said writes: "The hold these instruments have on the mind is increased by the institutions built around them. For every Orientalist, quite literally, there is a support system of staggering power, considering the ephemerality of the myths that Orientalism propagates. The system now culminates into the very institutions of the state. To write about the Arab Oriental world, therefore, is to write with the authority of a nation, and not with the affirmation of a strident ideology but with the unquestioning certainty of absolute truth backed by absolute force." He continues, "One would find this kind of procedure less objectionable as political propaganda--which is what it is, of course--were it not accompanied by sermons on the objectivity, the fairness, the impartiality of a real historian, the implication always being that Muslims and Arabs cannot be objective but that Orientalists writing about Muslims are, by definition, by training, by the mere fact of their Westernness. This is the culmination of Orientalism as a dogma that not only degrades its subject matter but also blinds its practitioners."

Said calls into question the underlying assumptions that form the foundation of Orientalist thinking. A rejection of Orientalism entails a rejection of biological generalizations, cultural constructions, and racial and religious prejudices. It is a rejection of greed as a primary motivating factor in intellectual pursuit. It is an erasure of the line between 'the West' and 'the Other.' Said argues for the use of "narrative" rather than "vision" in interpreting the geographical landscape known as the Orient, meaning that a historian and a scholar would turn not to a panoramic view of half of the globe, but rather to a focused and complex type of history that allows space for the dynamic variety of human experience. Rejection of Orientalist thinking does not entail a denial of the differences between 'the West' and 'the Orient,' but rather an evaluation of such differences in a more critical and objective fashion. 'The Orient' cannot be studied in a non-Orientalist manner; rather, the scholar is obliged to study more focused and smaller culturally consistent regions. The person who has until now been known as 'the Oriental' must be given a voice. Scholarship from afar and second-hand representation must take a back seat to narrative and self-representation on the part of the 'Oriental.'

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Jul 31, 2011 Andreea added it

Such a massive disappointment. I spent quite a lot of time discussing the way Central Europe is in a weird cultural limbo between Western Europe and Asia in the last two years or so and I was really looking forward to reading this. And indeed for the first 150 pages it was so interesting, I couldn’t put it down. But after the first 150 pages the Western bias because virtually nauseating and getting through the book became a chore. What Western bias you might ask? Well, the one that makes a huge...more

Such a massive disappointment. I spent quite a lot of time discussing the way Central Europe is in a weird cultural limbo between Western Europe and Asia in the last two years or so and I was really looking forward to reading this. And indeed for the first 150 pages it was so interesting, I couldn’t put it down. But after the first 150 pages the Western bias because virtually nauseating and getting through the book became a chore. What Western bias you might ask? Well, the one that makes a huge chunk of Europe disappear in the clouds of history. By page 230 where I am now, there’s been only one mention of a central European country which wasn’t Germany or Switzerland (and that was in a vaguely moronic ramble about the Roman Empire and Thracian barbaric tribes - yes, he did say, barbaric- a term which British and French imperialists will use to talk about Easter cultures/peoples). A quick perusal of the index shows no other mentions although the index does include Jorges Luis Borges and Don Quixote which are only mentioned in casual remarks and have virtually no relevance to the subject.

The problem of the Ottoman Empire as a colonial power in Europe (because I can’t think of any other way to describe it) is absolutely and completely ignored, so is Orientalist scholarship written in Europe but not by colonial powers (for example, by numerous Central European scholars, who not only spoke Arabic fluently, but were educated within the Ottoman Empire about Islamic philosophy, culture, etc). In turn, Said talks in sweeping generalities about European attitudes and scholarship as if the only kind of European-ness lies West of Germany. I feel like serious development in post-soviet studies/criticism has been stalled because people insist on seeing it as a brand of post-colonialism when in fact, it’s very different from it. Whereas imperialist attitudes are characterised by a desire to interact with the Other (which Said points out very well), Cold War Western attitudes are the complete opposite. The Cold War enclosed 2/3 of Europe in an impenetrable wall - which Western consciousness can’t penetrate. Hence Said’s ignorance of the existence of an European territory east of Germany.(less)

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Jan 22, 2011 Clif rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm sure you've heard people say, "I've got to get a handle on it" when they are telling you they need to better understand something.

Edward Said has written this comprehensive account of how people in the West have gotten a handle on the area of the world called the Orient - the Middle East, Asia Minor, the Far East and Southern Asia, much of it Islamic. It isn't about the Orient at all but about the representation of the Orient in the West. To say the result was a better understanding would be...more

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Jan 10, 2011 Ally de Padua rated it 4 of 5 stars

Concerning Mirrors
Looking into the mirror at his altered face, Chamcha attempted to remind himself of himself. I am a real man, he told the mirror, with a real history and a planned-out future.
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
In this kind of discourse, based mainly upon the assumption that Islam is monolithic and unchanging and therefore marketable by “experts” for powerful domestic political interests, neither Muslims nor Arabs nor any other dehumanized lesser peoples recognize themselves as h...more Concerning Mirrors
Looking into the mirror at his altered face, Chamcha attempted to remind himself of himself. I am a real man, he told the mirror, with a real history and a planned-out future.
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
In this kind of discourse, based mainly upon the assumption that Islam is monolithic and unchanging and therefore marketable by “experts” for powerful domestic political interests, neither Muslims nor Arabs nor any other dehumanized lesser peoples recognize themselves as human beings, or their observers as simple scholars.
Edward Said, “Afterward”, Orientalism

One remarkable aspect of a work’s popularity is that with the passage of time and translation a book like Edward Said’s Orientalism seems to acquire its own sort of agency. Orientalism is neither a book about the Orient, nor about Islam, nor, really, is it about the Occident. As Said asserts in his Introduction, Orientalism is a book about a discourse, by which he means several things, none of them pertaining to the history of a specific national or geographic space. Nevertheless in the wake of its dispersion, success, and particularly its translation into Arabic, Said’s book has been continuously challenged by what he calls two overarching, and thematically related misinterpretations. The first, lodged in particular by offended academics like Bernard Lewis, is that the book is a piece of barely checked anti-Western polemic, creating in “Orientalism” and “Orientalist” terms profoundly associated with abuse, or as Said said in a more recent preface “Orientalists who betrayed their calling as scholars.”

If complete professional detachment from his area of study is the goal of scholarly research, then certainly Orientalism is guilty of partiality. In effect this book presents a troubling challenge to the notion of scholastic objectivity. Firstly, he disabuses his reader of the notion of any particularly “disinterested” motivations for European study of the Orient. From even the earliest stages, Western attempts to “know” about the Arab, the Muslim, or more commonly, the Oriental Other have served processes by which those in the West have constructed an identity. Using the Oriental alter ego (literally the Other Me) the Orient has been used as a mirror through which Western authors, scholars, and Oriental enthusiasts have constructed a culturally superior “us” to a backward and inferior “them.”
The compilation and distribution of “knowledge,” Orientalism as a discourse, is predicated on the intrinsic connection between knowledge and power. For example, in Medieval Iberia in the twelfth century there arose in Barcelona a network of Dominican missionary schools promoting the intensive study of Islamic and Jewish languages and sacred texts. These “Oriental” religious studies were pursued by the monks not simply as an altruistic form of knowing, but rather, as a means to the comprehension and subsequent refutation and negation of the threat that Islam and Judaism posed to Christian society. That the greatest work to come out of these schools was Fr. Raymond Marti’s Pugio Fidei, (literally, Dagger of the Faith) a polemic is quite telling in regards to the purpose of this early form of studying the Oriental Other. Moreover, that the primary audiences for these texts were specifically educated Western Christians, emphasizes the fact that the medieval Christian study of the Semite represented predominantly an internal dialogue, meant above all to strengthen and solidify a fundamentally European Christian identity rather than to actively confront and understand a uniquely Jewish or Muslim one.

It is this essentialising and divisive process that Said attempts to confront when he follows the path of Orientalism, and the works of Orientalists through modern history. The imperial aspirations and aggressions of France, Britain, and America were contextual realities that those that sought to study the Orient were and are acutely affected by and aware of. The history of studying and knowing about the Orient and its peoples is bound up in the history of the relative power and powerlessness between the West and the East. The ability to designate “Orient” and “Oriental” as objects of study and the persistence of the dialectical opposition of “East” and “West” speaks to Orientalism’s role in the creation and maintenance of a discourse invested with power, and not the pursuit of disinterested scholarly discourse.

In part, it is the assumption of the concrete nature of this division, and of this enduring “essentialising” impulse that lead to a second, related misunderstanding of Said’s work—that in it he writes the history of a predatory West. As such Orientalism has been seized upon by Muslim scholars advocating a fundamentalist, predominantly anti-Western ideology. That this book has been used in the scholastic salvo of a culture war pitting “true” Islam against the West is highly ironic, as throughout the book Said has fashioned his arguments on understandings of “identity,” Orient,” and “Occident” that are distinctly de-essentialised and mutable:
As a system of thought Orientalism approaches a heterogeneous, dynamic and complex human reality from an uncritically essentialist standpoint; this suggests both an enduring Oriental reality and an opposing but no less enduring Western essence…This false position hides historical change.

In so much as notions of Western superiority and entitlement lie at the heart suppositions of Orientalism, so the image of an abused and aggrieved Islam is being used by some today to forge an image of “essential Islam.” From Fox News punditry to an upsurge of Islamic “Fundamentalism,” modern identities are artificially hardened and reinforced on the notion of a lasting opposition between East and West, as the Other Me in the mirror is used to drive the two “closer and closer apart.”
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Nov 10, 2010 Eider rated it 4 of 5 stars

1. Conocer lo oriental
Que derecho tienen ustedes a adoptar esos aires de superioridad respecto a la gente que deciden llamar oriental?
Se podía hablar en Europa de una personalidad oriental, de un ambiente oriental, de un cuento oriental, de un despotismo oriental o de un modo de producción oriental y ser comprendido. (...) conocer así un objeto es dominarlo, tener autoridad sobre el y autoridad aqui significa, para "nosotros" negarle autonomia.

La logica de Balfour: Inglaterra conoce Egipto, Egi...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Malcolm rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is justifiably a classic text in the analyses of imperial practice, outlining how a major field of intellectual practice developed in late 19th century Europe and since. His case is in many ways simple – the notion of the orient (by which he means the 'middle east') is a European invention. The challenging thing about orientalism, as Said defines it, is that it has established since the 19th century a set of ideas and an outlook that have become 'truths'. This is a huge, powerful, challengi...more

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Mar 27, 2012 Omar BaRass rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

مع إني سئ في الكتابة حول كتاب ما إلا إني سأكتب على أي حال...
قسم ادوارد سعيد كتابه 560 صفحة لثلاثة فصول رئيسية... 1-الاستشراق وفصل فيه حول مدى معرفة الغرب حول الشرق، تلك المعرفة الباهتة التي ألزمت الشرقي صفة الجاهل وغير عارف بمصالحه. وأن الغربي أكثر دراية بها هذا ما حاول تبريره بلفور لغزو مصر. وتحدث عن مشروعات عن مشروعين سبقا غزو نابليون لمصر. أنكتيل الذي ترجم الأفستا وترجمة الأوبانيشاد ومنها ربط بين الشرق والغرب فاكتسبت آسيا لأول مرة بعدا فكريا وتاريخيا دقيقا. ثم جاء وليم جونز الذي جاء بعد انكتي...more مع إني سئ في الكتابة حول كتاب ما إلا إني سأكتب على أي حال...
قسم ادوارد سعيد كتابه 560 صفحة لثلاثة فصول رئيسية... 1-الاستشراق وفصل فيه حول مدى معرفة الغرب حول الشرق، تلك المعرفة الباهتة التي ألزمت الشرقي صفة الجاهل وغير عارف بمصالحه. وأن الغربي أكثر دراية بها هذا ما حاول تبريره بلفور لغزو مصر. وتحدث عن مشروعات عن مشروعين سبقا غزو نابليون لمصر. أنكتيل الذي ترجم الأفستا وترجمة الأوبانيشاد ومنها ربط بين الشرق والغرب فاكتسبت آسيا لأول مرة بعدا فكريا وتاريخيا دقيقا. ثم جاء وليم جونز الذي جاء بعد انكتيل ووضع قواعد التحليل والتصنيف والمقارنة. 2- أبنية الاستشراق وإعادة بنائها وتحدث عن ساسي الذي اختير لوضع لوحة عامة عن تقدم العلوم والفنون من قبل المهد الفرنسي المكلف من قبل نابليون. ثم رينان الكاره للسامية مع فقه اللغة. 3- الاستشراق الآن تحدث عن الانجلوفرنسي ومن ثم الوريث لهم الامريكي.

بعض الأمور التي اراد توضيحها سعيد وهي الأفكار السابقة التي اعتمدها المستشرقون اللاحقون دون الحيد عنها في الاتفاق على أن الشرقي أبله لا يعرف مصالحه وأنه عبدا لشهواته ونزواته. وأن المنطق لم يخلق لهم بيننا مثلا الانجليزي يولد محملا بجينات المنطق! كذلك الهدف الغربي من وراء الاستشراق في السيطرة على الشرق وتجنبا مثل ما يصفون همجيته التي كانت لها انتصارات عظيمة مثلما سبق.
تغير موضوع الاستشراق الذي كان في زمن رينان محاربا لكل السامية، وخصوصا بعد سقوط الاتحاد السوفيتي الى الاسلام بوصفه عدو السامية -متمثلة في اليهود- الأكبر فهو دين لا يعرف سوى العنف والكراهية تجاه الغير.

الكتاب دسم جدا وهو مناسب للمتخصصين في السياسة او من كان مهتما في العلوم السياسية وصعب على من هو غير ذلك. وكان صعبا علي فعلا واتعبتني طريقة سعيد في سرده الطويل وجمله الأطول...

الكتاب مهم فعلا وحتى بفهمي القاصر الا اني خرجت بفوائد والاهتمام اكثر من خلال القراءة مستقبلا. ولقد ادهشني قول بعض المفمرين مثل ماركس الذي عمل ما عمل من اجل الانسان الا انه لم يزد الا موافقة على تصرفات الانجليز في الهند مما قد يترجم خوفا من قوة السرق...

هذه القراءة لم تفي الكتاب حقه...
تقييمي له 3/5(less)

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Oct 27, 2012 Kraychik rated it 1 of 5 stars

The epitome of faux intellectualism. This man is likely the progenitor of contemporary "intellectual" supporters of Islamism and associated tyrannies and terrorists such as Tarek Ramadan and Rashid Khalidi. So many better critiques have already been written about this tripe in past decades so I don't feel much of a need to expand on it. If you're a leftist that worships at the altar of cultural relativism and sincerely believe that all people are essentially the same, then this book is for you....more

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Aug 31, 2011 Josh rated it 1 of 5 stars

On reading my first impression was a petulant teenager wrote this whining screed of victimhood and irresponsibility. I was dismayed when I learned that he was over 40 years old when he had published this book and that it was upheld as the new model for studies of the middle east/near east. It may have created a new perspective within the field, but if creating a new word to lambast your enemies, your critics, and silence opposition is "new thinking" then I wish no part of it. The rest of this e...more

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Sep 23, 2011 Marcus Smith rated it 5 of 5 stars

If reading is a war this book is a worthy adversary. Of course, reading is not a war and therefore what this book is is a challenging and intellectual read. It is a bit heavy on references to specific scholars in the field of social science, history, and philosophy over a vast period and therefor far more accessible to those familiar with the field already but for those who, like me, are in the humble beginnings of scholarship, it is a worthwhile challenge. it has a lot to say even if you don't...more

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Jul 03, 2010 Jehol rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: histoire

Un ouvrage polémique sur la perception de l'orient par l'Occident, qui relança le débat en Europe dans les années 1980. Un point de vue essentiel pour comprendre la position des anciennes puissances coloniales quant à cet orient qui fascina les Hommes lors des siècles passés. La récente réédition comprend une lettre testament de l'auteur, décédé au début de la second guerre du Golfe.

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Apr 18, 2012 Michael.e.philpott rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own

I started to pick at this foundational work while I was still in Iraq (2007). Things I saw from both Americans and Iraqis began to remind me faintly of some half-remembered ideas from Said's pen. Said's stated purpose of writing was to show how an intellectual study such as Orientalism can not be viewed independently from the influence of power dynamics on an author. Orientalism, he stated, responded directly to the West's need to possess and control an East that it considered inferior, doing so...more

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Nov 06, 2012 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

More fun than Foucault, that's for sure. The reason being that while Said is also writing about a discursive regime, he analyzes how people made that regime. How the discourse was assembled and strengthened. And he allows for the possibility of breaking free of the "mind forged manacles" of the discourse, by critically examining it.
Orientalism, according to Said, is the way that the "West" (Europe, the U.S.), has considered the "East" (Asia). The West has used the East as an other, as a foil, t...more More fun than Foucault, that's for sure. The reason being that while Said is also writing about a discursive regime, he analyzes how people made that regime. How the discourse was assembled and strengthened. And he allows for the possibility of breaking free of the "mind forged manacles" of the discourse, by critically examining it.
Orientalism, according to Said, is the way that the "West" (Europe, the U.S.), has considered the "East" (Asia). The West has used the East as an other, as a foil, to serve as the opposite of everything "western" and thus show how superior the West is. So while the West is portrayed as dynamic, growing, critical, freedom-loving, and dominant, the East is always portrayed as static, submissive, incapable of rationality, and in need of Western control. This system of knowledge about the East has gone hand-in-hand with power as well...it began to be constructed as Europe entered the age of empires, and it provided intellectual justification for the western subjugation of the East.
Said argues that Asian people have had no influence in this discourse- this has been completely constructed by Europeans, and later, Americans. And this conception of the East has been fixed. If one fundamental understanding of the East is that it never changes, then subsequent Orientalists can't argue that it has changed. So just as eastern people are trapped in this hegemonic conception of the "the East," so too are westerners. After this discourse was first assembled, subsequent scholars have sort of subconsciously accommodated themselves to it. Even more recent scholars, who pride themselves on being culturally sensitive, have a hard time breaking free of this idea that the distinctions between "west" and "east" mean something- that there is a thing called the East and the people there are different from westerners.
I think that's true...it is very difficult to let go of this eastern/western dichotomy, it has insinuated itself into the backs of all of our brains. Really interesting read. There are lots of points here that could be debated, the book isn't perfect or anything, but the argument has been continually bouncing around in my head since I finished the book a week ago. (less)

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About Edward W. Said

(Arabic profile: إدوارد سعيد)

Edward W. Said was born in Jerusalem and raised in Egypt until his parents sent him to the United States in 1951.

Said graduated from Princeton University in 1957 and earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1964.

He was a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York and held his chair until his death at 67. His major interests w...more

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Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World

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Quotes from Orientalism

“The Orient and Islam have a kind of extrareal, phenomenologically reduced status that puts them out of reach of everyone except the Western expert. From the beginning of Western speculation about the Orient, the one thing th orient could not do was to represent itself. Evidence of the Orient was credible only after it had passed through and been made firm by the refining fire of the Orientalist’s work.” — 15 people liked it

“فلم يكن القصد من وصف شخص ما بأنه شرقي، على نحو ما دأب عليه المستشرقون، ينحصر في الإشارة إلى أن لغة هذا الشخص وجغرافية بلاده وتاريخه من موضوعات الدراسة العلمية، بل كثيراً ما كان ذلك التعبير يرمي إلى الحط من شأن الشخص ويعني أنه ينتمي إلى سلالة دنيا من البشر، وإن كان ذلك لاينفي أن كلمة "الشرق" كانت ترتبط في أذهان بعض المبدعين مثل نيرفال وسيجالين ارتباطاً رائعاً وخلاباً بالغرابة، والبهاء، والغموض، والوعد، ولكن الكلمة كانت بمثابة تعميم تاريخي مغرق في شموله.” — 7 people liked it

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