For lust of knowing : the Orientalists and their enemies

The publication of Edward Said's hugely influential Orientalism in 1981 called into question the entire history of the Western study of Islamic culture. Said's book condemned his scholarly tradition as an institution that presented inaccurate and demeaning representations of Islamic peoples, and came to dominate academic thinking. But what is Orientalism, who were the Orientalists, and how did Western scholars of Islamic culture become known as agents of European imperialism? In this groundbreaking history, Robert Irwin answers these questions with the colorful story of the motley crew of the intellectuals and eccentrics who bridged the gap between the Islamic world and the West. By analyzing such diverse sources as Ancient Greek perceptions of the Persians, a portrait of the first Western European translators of Arabic, and the contemporary Muslim world's perception of the Western study of Islam, Irwin affirms the value of the Orientalists' legacy. For Lust of Knowing is an enthralling history, a bold argument, and an urgent redress of our conceptions about the relationship between the East and the West. In recent times Orientalists, with their passion and fascination for the East, have been variously accused of imperialism, colonialism and distorting history. In this new book Robert Irwin overturns these views and radically reassesses the influence and legacy of the Orientalists. Robert Irwin has spent a lifetime investigating and imagining the history of the Islamic world. In For Lust of Knowing, the culmination of that lifetime's devotion, he makes the definitive case for the Orientalists. Irwin charts the origins of Orientalism - in this case, the study of the Middle and near East - and its foremost practitioners, from Ancient Greece to the present day. In doing so, he finally banishes the ghosts of Edward Said's Orientalism, which branded this rich and wondrous field of study a weapon of imperialism. Irwin shows that, whether making philological comparisons between Arabic and Hebrew, cataloguing the coins of Fatimid Egypt or establishing the basic chronology of Harun al-Rashid's military campaigns against Byzantium, these scholars have been unified not by politics or by ideology but by their shared obsession In recent times Orientalists have been variously accused of imperialism, colonialism and distorting history. Robert Irwin powerfully overturns this view and radically reassesses their influence and legacy: he makes the definitive case for the Orientalists. Irwin charts the origins of Orientalism and its foremost practitioners, from Ancient Greece up to the present day. In doing so, he finally banishes the ghosts of Edward Said's Orientalism and shows that, whether making philological comparisons between Arabic and Hebrew, cataloguing the coins of Fatimid Egypt or establishing the basic chronology of Harun al-Rashid's military campaigns against Byzantium, scholars have been unified not by politics or by ideology but by their shared obsession. For Lust of Knowing is an extraordinary, passionate book, both a sustained argument and a brilliant work of original scholarship Robert Irwin's history of Orientalism leads from Ancient Greece to the present. He shows that, whether making philological comparisons between Arabic and Hebrew, cataloguing the coins of Fatimid Egypt or establishing the basic chronology of Harun al-Rashid's military campaigns against Byzantium, scholars have been unified not by politics or ideology but by their shared obsession. For Lust of Knowing is an extraordinary, passionate book, both a sustained argument and a brilliant work of original scholarship.