First three chapters of Contending Visions

1. Grounding Frameworks
CONTENDING VISIONS OF THE MIDDLE
EAST

2. BIAS, PARTIALITY, AND SOCIAL
CONSTRUCTIONSIM
 Contrast between two basic perceptions about
knowledge and historical truth
 Empiricist or Positivist -- events can be represented
in factual terms, in an objective, bias-free manner;
facts speak for themselves
 Constructionist – interpretation and judgment are
inevitable, and they take place from particular (often
unacknowledged) theory, interpretive stance, or
perspective (90-105)
 Meanings are derived from context and conditions of
interpretation, not merely from access to „fixed
realities‟

3. WHY STUDY OLDER VIEWPOINTS
 Medieval views of Islam and Muslims emerged out
of already existing perceptual categories
 Ideas from ancient Greece and Rome were
borrowed and recirculated in medieval Europe,
and medieval and early modern views continue to
have influence today
 The perceptions and perspectives of the past thus
help us to understand how Islam and the Middle
East are understood and portrayed today
 In particular, the idea of a west and an east as
essentially different, with conflicting values and
practices, is an important thread running through
history and culture in the west (145-155)

4. ANCIENT GREECE
 “Ancient Greece” – a later label applied to a
“diverse collection of city-
states, principalities, towns, villages and islands”
(163)
 Not a unified culture, though most spoke some
version of Greek
 Viewed by the 19th c as the „cradle‟ of civilization
(where „truly civilized‟ values and culture were
born and fostered) [See text 168-73 for discussion
of „rise and fall‟ view of history]
 Greek culture itself was not unique, but was
influenced by Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and
Phoenician cultures that preceded or coincided
with it (180)

5. HELLENIC GREECE C 550 BCE

6. GEOGRAPHIC FRAMEWORKS IN ANCIENT
GREECE
 World divided into 2 parts – East and West: Europe to
the west of the Aegean, Black Sea, and Bosporus
straits, Asian to the east of those waters (201)
 World divided into 3 parts surrounding the
Mediterranean (middle of the earth) –
North, East, and South – Europe to the north, Asia to
the east, Libya (northern Africa west of Egypt) to the
south (203)
 By c 21 CE, Roman historians would recognize that
Ancient Greece had only taken their own immediate
region into account, and remained unaware of
regions beyond that area

7. GREEK VIEWS OF ‘ASIANS’
 Much of the sense of the ‘Asian’ character stems from the
long drawn-out military and territorial conflict between Persia
and Greece
 Eventually achieved relative peace, but Greeks considered
everyone else ‘barbarians’ (220-223)
 They thought in essentialist terms about cultures – difference
stemmed from their inherently different ‘natures’ (220-23)
 ‘Asians’ or Persians
 Rulers were ‘tyrants’
 People were servile, enslaved or entirely subjugated
 Society was rigidly hierarchical, fixed in its structure
 Unbridgeable gap between ruler and ruled
 Though rulers were wealthy, they were corrupt, vulgar, and
immoral
 Greeks
 Ruled through democracy and free citizens
 Committed to civic rights and obligations, resistant to tyranny
 People were virtuous, modest
 Liberty of subjects the highest good

8. GREEK/PERSIAN DISTINCTIONS CHALLENGED
 Lockman points out that Greek culture was not as
free and uncorrupt as it was idealized to be
 Also notes that Persian culture was diverse and did
not align with the universalizing stereotypes asserted
by the Greeks
 Adds that after later Greek conquest of Persia
(Alexander, „The Great‟, ruled 336-323 BCE),
Alexander adopted a Persian monarchical style and
that Persian practices, always very profound, were
explicitly adopted
 The point – the East/West divide was not as clear ad
scholars would later believe it to have been
 Relying on Greek perspectives created a continued
sense of division and difference that had never been
accurate

9. ROMAN EMPIRE AND EAST/WEST RELATIONS
 Roman Empire encompassed both Western and Southeastern
Europe, Northern Africa, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt; they traded
with India and China
 Wars with the Parthians of the Iranian Plateau to the east
 Wealthy east became the center of the empire – at Constantinople –
more Greek influenced
 Roman center remained powerful for a time, but gradually lost power and
control of its territories
 Christian church also divided between east and west, with Latin Roman
Church dominating western history, and Latin Roman portion of empire
seen as its only significant part
 Among many western scholars, prejudicial perceptions of the influence of
„eastern softness and excess‟ were blamed for weakening and eventual
collapse of Rome, though the „Byzantine‟ empire remained strong for
centuries
 Alternative (also inaccurate) histories would eventually posit a coherent
Roman culture that took shape with the rise of Charlemagne (c 800 CE)
and lasted until the rise of Islam and the expansion of the Muslim
empire, which is blamed for the true destruction of the Roman empire

10. RECONFIGURATIONS OF HISTORY
 An influential 20th c perspective on history situates Islam‟s rise in the East
and Charlemagne‟s rise in the West in approximately parallel,
oppositional terms (288-92)
 Muslim conquests in the 7th c, not Germanic tribes in the 4th (they
propose) destroyed the Roman empire and divided east and west
 This argument 'corrects' the older view of the divide between east and
west, frames it in new terms.
 According to this theory, after the 7th c, with the conquest of most
Mediterranean regions, the Mediterranean became
 a barrier to western European trade
 boundary between Christendom and Islam
 Marks the rise of a unique Roman/Germanic culture and also
Charlemagne's leadership and unification of Europe in its 'new age„
 Continuities between Ancient Rome and Medieval Europe are accurate
and appropriate (Charlemagne‟s reconquests of European territory, but
also overall cultural similarities)
 Distinctions between Islam/Muslim Empire and Catholic European Empire
are sharpened, inaccurately, and Islam is blamed for destroying the
Roman Empire‟s unity – a unity that had not existed for centuries
 Important as a view of the relationship between Christendom/Islam,
East/West

11. WESTERN MEDIEVAL PERSPECTIVES
 Medieval Christian scholars overlay Christian and Biblical
perceptions over Greek 3-part division of the world.
 Thus, Noah's sons inherited each of these
regions, Japheth => Europe; Shem => Asia; Ham =>
Africa
 These were hierarchically defined in the Bible, with Ham's
people inherently destined for servitude, Shem's Semitic
heirs for a limited glory, but eventual subjugation by
Japheth's people
 Thus a hierarchy is established through Biblical means as
well as the tradition of historical prejudice.
 These ideas were carried forward into the 20th century as
justifications for mistreatment of other races and peoples
throughout this history

12. SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY
 Through conversion and conquest, Christianity had spread
throughout most of the area of the old Roman Empire by the 7th c.
 No political continuity, but a fairly strong religious continuity in the
former western Roman empire
 Eastern Roman Empire remained a region considered to be
heretical and misguided in their beliefs and practices, but
nevertheless Christian
 Christians saw the regions beyond their control as pagan and
barbarian
 „Heretical‟ Christians of various sects in the Eastern regions were
pressured to adhere to more „mainstream‟ versions of the faith,
including the Eastern Orthodox and the Catholic
 Based on the Biblically defined hierarchy that they applied to the
classical Greek geographic and cultural divisions of the world, they
imagined a divine imperative to convert the whole world to
Christianity

13. THE RISE OF ISLAM
 The rise of Islam was not initially seen as a threat to Christianity or as a
parallel monotheistic faith
 Rather, it was viewed as another pagan culture trying to assert itself
against („inevitable‟) Christian domination
 As Islam gained followers and the Empire rapidly expanded, less
orthodox Christians often welcomed the new faith as a relief from the
pressures of the orthodox Christian church, converting willingly
 Many Jews also converted, accepting the Islam as preferable to
Judaism
 The territorial impact on the Byzantine Empire was profound and very
threatening
 Loss of Syria, Jerusalem and the Levant, loss of Egypt and N
Africa, and soon, the loss of most of Spain situated Christianity as „on
the defensive‟ against a powerful and successful religious and territorial
movement
 Despite widespread misperceptions about Islam, some scholars in the
period did understand the religion as fairly parallel to Christianity in its
structure and values, and so viewed it as a heretical sect that should be
eliminated
 Nevertheless, ancient classical and Biblical categories were the main
frameworks through which Christians perceived Islam

14. EARLY CHRISTIAN VIEWS OF ISLAM
 Before Islam emerged, the Arabic peoples were often called 'Saracens'
because they lived in tents (or were thought to do so)
 Depicted in European accounts as rapacious pagans (circumcised) who
habitually destroyers of the provinces of an empire they conquered
 This view was then mapped onto Arabic Muslims when they began to
expand and conquer territory, though it does not accurately describe
their actions and policies
 N African and Spanish Muslims were called „Moors‟ and not necessarily
connected culturally or religiously to the Arab „Saracens‟ who were
coming to dominate the Middle East
 Biblical genealogy situated this „race‟ as descended from one of
Abraham‟s wives, and thus as related to the Jewish heritage that
grounded Christianity – another line of inferior peoples
 In general, then, confusion about who Muslims were, what they believed
 Spain‟s „Golden Age‟: In Muslim Spain, Christians, Jews, and Muslims
intermingled and the most elevated culture in Europe developed –
Arabic (rather than Latin) became the language of art and literature

15. THE CRUSADES
 11th c transformations of Western Europe
 gradual conversion of raiding tribes to Christianity allowed
them to be absorbed into the mainstream
 population growth and expansion of trade increased wealth
and connections to other parts of the world
 internal conflicts in Muslim Spain led to divisions and opened
the way for the 'Reconquista', returning most of Spain to
Christian rule
 Sicily was also conquered and taken back from the Muslims
 Byzantine Empire suffered a catastrophic defeat at the hands
of the Muslim Seljuk Turks (Manzikert)
 Seljuk seizure of Palestine from another Muslim state
somewhat restricted Christian access to the Holy Land
 When Byzantium called for help from western Christianity,
these were considered good reasons to come to their aid
 Other factors included economic and political pressures and
interests, the pursuit of advantages in both areas, and the
sense of righteousness born of religious intolerance and divine

16. THE FIRST AND SECOND CRUSADES
 1095, Pope Urban called for a crusade against the „enemies of
God‟ in the East, the Saracens, who also threatened the West
 1097, Crusader armies advanced into Seljuk-held territory,
winning a number of victories over Turkish Muslim forces – mainly
because of disunity and lack of preparedness on the part of the
Muslims
 1099, Crusaders captured Jerusalem, and established several
„Crusader States‟ controlled by Latin Christian noblemen in Syria
and Palestine
 Soon, Muslim forces rallied and undertook the reconquest of the
regions captured by Crusaders – regions that had been in Muslim
hands for centuries
 1145 a second Crusade was called to reclaim these territories for
Christianity (Jerusalem remained in Christian hands at this time)
 A dismal failure – no territory was reclaimed
 1145 Salah al-Din, a Muslim general and new Sultan of an empire
stretching from Egypt to Iraq, retook Jerusalem and decimated
the Crusader states, nearly destroying them

17. THE THIRD AND FOURTH CRUSADES
 The Third Crusade 1189-92) was led by European kings and
noblemen, and succeeded in recapturing a small region along the
eastern coast of the Mediterranean
 They failed to capture Jerusalem, but Salah al-Din granted
Christians access to their holy city, which was venerated by
Muslims and Jews as well
 The Fourth Crusade (1202-4) failed to retake or claim any new
territory from the Muslims
 Succeeded in arriving at Constantinople and sacking the city
 Established a Latin-Christian regime in Constantinople that lasted
for several decades
 1229 – the Holy Roman Emperor negotiated for control of
Jerusalem (without papal approval, so he was excommunicated!)
 1244 Jerusalem was again taken by the Muslims
 1291, Mamluk Muslims (rulers of Egypt and Syria) captured the
last European Crusader states on the coast
 The Holy Land remained under Muslim rule until conquered by
British forces in 1917

18. ISLAM IN CRUSADERS’ EYES
 They sometimes expressed respect for the organization of enemy
armies and military strategies
 Generally viewed Muslims as vicious enemies who threatened
Christian culture and destiny
 Claimed superior values as Christians, but often practiced
incredible brutality against others, including Jews, „heretic‟
Christians, and Muslims
 Gradually, improved knowledge would provide more accurate
understanding of, though seldom fair or accurate responses
to, Islam
 In parallel with real understanding, and far outweighing it, popular
stories and literary representations spread distorted views focusing
on sexuality and violence not accurately reflective of actual Muslim
cultures
 Even the scholarly efforts were aimed at „knowing your enemy‟ in
order better to dominate or overcome them, or to critique their
beliefs and values
 Nevertheless, this led to the first Latin translation of the Qur‟an
(1143 CE)

19. WHY REFERENCE THESE EARLY VIEWS AND
VALUES?
 Europe and America have drawn on them for their own
conception of their fundamental cultural values
 They have been important in establishing preconceptions
about clear distinctions between „Western‟ people and
culture, and „Eastern‟ people and culture
 Knowing the actual relationships between Greece and
other cultures helps to challenge these preconceptions
 Struggle for world domination was part of the Christian
agenda, seen as a divine destiny and a necessary effort in
fulfilling God‟s will
 Recognizing the mixed agendas of the church, states, and
leaders of Europe, as well as other participants in the
crusades movements and other actions against Muslims
clarifies the complex nature of these actions; perceptions
of Muslims and „other heretics‟ figure into this complexity

20. CH 2: ISLAM, THE WEST, AND THE REST
 The last of the four main Crusades established a Latin Christian
emperor in Constantinople that lasted until Michael VIII reconquered
it for the Byzantines in 1261
 Local crusading continued in the form of the Reconquista, until
Muslim rule in Spain had been eliminated (except in Granada);
Granada itself fell in 1492
 By 1220 reports of a new invader in the Middle East: the Mongols
 Took control of much of Russia, 1230s
 Attacked and moved into Poland and Hungary by 1241 [direct threat
to Western Europe]; this was halted with the death of the Khan
 Conquest of Persia continued; 1258 Mongol army seized Baghdad
and ended the Abbasid Caliphate
 Latin Christians saw this invasion as a scourge sent by God to
destroy the Muslims
 Christian kings and the Pope sent emissaries to the Mongol court to
try to convert them and to determine their intentions toward Europe
 Mamluks stopped the expansion of the Mongols in 1260
 Between 1260 and 1300, it became clear that the Mongols favored
Islam rather than Christianity, though they gave religious freedom to
both within their territories;

21. CHANGING PERSPECTIVES – THE 14TH-17TH C
 Halt of Mongols reduced concern about imminent military
threat
 Failure of Crusade efforts reduced confidence in military;
Christian world domination through conquest /conversion
less likely (613)
 Peaceful relations with many Muslim states encouraged
Mediterranean trade
 Renaissance Humanisms, stimulated by access to ancient
Greek and Roman texts and culture, displaced narrow
medieval religious world view with one patterned on classical
models
 A sense of ‘Europe’ and ‘European’ identity began to displace
the primarily ‘Christian’ perspective (618)
 Travel to the east and other regions of the world expanded
knowledge of and contact with other cultures

22. RISE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
 Muslim Turks from Anatolia, E.ast border of Byzantine
empire (627)
 Used political as well as military means to gain control of
Middle Eastern regions
 Took advantage of internal conflicts to claim
Bulgaria, Serbia, N. Greece, S. Romania; European kings and
pope ignored Byzantine and Balkan rulers call for aid
 1453 captured Constantinople and ended Byzantine Empire
 No organized European response to Ottomans; Venice
launched sea wars against them
 Ottomans expanded on land: Persia, Syria, N. Iraq, W.
Arabia, between 1512-20 CE (637); by 1529 controlled large
areas of SE and Central Europe, N. African coast, the Middle
East
 Not seen as an ideological threat – not cultural or

23. OTTOMAN/EUROPEAN INTERACTIONS
 Interactions between Christian states and Ottomans motivated
by political expediency (649-660)
 treaties aimed at gaining political and economic advantage over
other European states
 alliances with internal Muslim factions against the Ottomans
 Conversion to Islam offered advantages that encouraged many
Europeans in Ottoman-controlled regions to ‘turn Turk’ (655)
 Ottoman ‘zenith’ in early 16th c coincided with the Reformation,
which split European sociopolitical regions into two hostile
factions, Catholic and Protestant
 Religious intolerance within Christianity became extreme and
violent, Islam a weapon to wield against other Christians (661)
 Both accused the other of being like Muslims (660-64)
 Both see the other as a threat to the true Christian faith
 Ottomans tended to favor Protestant states because their
common enemy was the Habsberg Empire, stronghold of
Catholicism
 Ottoman Empire welcomed refugees and outcasts, including
Protestant refugees from Catholic regions, Jews driven out of
Spain in 1492, etc.

24. THE EUROPEAN IMAGE OF THE OTTOMANS
 Lurid tales of the Turks circulated:
cruel, violent, fanatical, and sexually deviant, similar to
images of Islam that had long circulated
 Some Christians admired the power, wealth, and political
methods of the Ottoman state; contrasted Ottoman virtues
with European defects, especially the European fixed
inheritance of political place (670-685)
 ‘Meritocracy’ praised – merit and bravery rather than inherited
social and political place, as in Europe
 Relative absolute monarchical authority praised as best model
for rule
 Seen as heirs to properly structured Roman model
 The rise of ‘Orientalist’ studies, including language studies, in
European universities allowed for broader scholarly access to
Arabic texts and culture, but often aimed at proving the
deceptions and falseness of Islam
 Derogatory views and perspectives continued to influence
scholarship for many centuries
 Travelers returned bearing tales that held a varied relationship

25. THE IDEA OF ORIENTAL DESPOTISM
 By the end of the 16th c., even the positive view of Ottoman
political structure began to shift (709 – 20)
 Rise of view that Ottoman state was corrupt, oppressive, brutal
 Displaced view of the Ottoman state as efficient, just, virtuous,
tolerant, merit-based
 Turks themselves increasingly seen as boorish, ignorant,
dishonorable, immoral, ineffectual, corrupt, irrational, as Muslims
had long been viewed
 Ottoman empire itself lost power and continuity throughout the
17th c: political and financial crisis, internal order destabilized,
military defeats
 Europe admires Greek and Roman values of freedom and law;
advocates these over absolute authority of monarch (734-9)
 Separation of powers, protection of individual rights praised,
critique of Ottomans also aimed at European absolutist
monarchs
 Contrast with earlier admiration of strong, autonomous kings
 Ottomans associated now with despotic systems at odds with
these new values – lawless, arbitrary, oppressive
 Differences essentialized – cold climate = active, virile; hot

26. EUROPEAN GLOBAL HEGEMONY
 A major transformation of Europe‟s place in the world
began in the late 15th c and continued through the 17th
(752)
 C 1500 Europe was poor, under-
populated, technologically backward, and situated
peripherally
 High demand for Eastern products in the West, little
demand for Western products (mainly cloth) in East; drain
of gold and silver eastward
 Middle-Eastern merchants dominated trade routes, cities
and states connecting Europe to East
 Efforts undertaken to gain direct access to
India, China, Africa, SE Asia (760)
 Portuguese efforts to circumnavigate Africa, establish
ports, colonies along African coasts, and trade relations
directly with India (first reached 1498)
 Spanish, Dutch, English, and French followed eventually

27. EUROPE’S GLOBAL HEGEMONY (2)
 1492: Spain sponsored an expedition to reach Asia by sailing
west – ‘discovered’ a ‘new world’ unknown to Europeans – the
Americas (778)
 1492: Reconquista complete, Muslim power driven from
Granada; Jews, Muslims would soon be expelled from Spain
 Rich mineral, agricultural, and human resources from Central
and South America enriched Spain
 Other European states claimed regions of the
Americas, destroying cultures and oppressing populations
 Europeans successfully seized territories along the coasts of
Africa, in India and Southeast Asia, dominating trade routes
and centers, breaking the Muslim grip on trade
 A highly competitive undertaking, with Papal intervention in
favor of Catholic nations, power struggles within Europe
connected to access to the seas, and ‘diplomatic’ as well as
economic negotiation with Eastern powers
 Enabled by new technologies of sea-faring, warfare, and
communication (including gunpowder, the compass, and
print)

28. EUROPE’S GLOBAL HEGEMONY (3)
 Different from previous empires in that the territories were not
contiguous, often separated by thousands of miles of ocean
from conqueror
 Often limited power and authority in the regions controlled
(esp in East), where terms of interaction were mainly
controlled by Asian nations (801)
 Europeans lived in isolated strongholds within these
territories, managing economic interactions but not really
‘ruling’ in the traditional sense of the word
 Shift from controlling trade only to also controlling production
in conquered regions
 Slavery supported this shift
 Represented a major transformation of social, economic, and
political life in these regions including Europe itself, gradually
supported development of new societies in the Americas
reliant on slave labor
 Elsewhere Europeans used other labor systems, displacing
local production (like coffee) with imports from cheaper
production sites (828)

29. EUROPE’S GLOBAL HEGEMONY (4)
 Transformations supported increase in volume of
world trade and changes in patters of production and
consumption (834)
 Wealth gained through empire and slavery contributed
to the Industrial Revolution which began late 18th c
 Production of machine-made goods
 Undermined local and hand-made production
 Deindustrialization of colonial sites – they become
providers of resources for European-located production
 Non-European regions become consumers of finished
goods exported from Europe (transforms trade balance)
 Ottoman empire’s ability to expand was cut off by loss
of control of trade
 Greater tendency to export manufacturing goods,
import European manufactured goods hurt local
craftsmen
 Economic stasis or destabilization, and eventual

30. CONTENDING VIEWS – EXPLAINING THE ‘RISE
OF THE WEST’
 From c. 1500 CE Europe began to dominate in
science, technology, economics, and thus increasingly gained
control of other regions politically and to some extent culturally
(909)
 Early in this process the success was attributed to God‟s favor;
Biblical foretelling of domination by „Japheth‟s heirs‟
 Later, scientific explanations traced European success to inherent
superiority – the basis of biological racism (914)
 More recently, success has been attributed to „uniquely European
cultural traits, e.g. intellectual curiosity, rationality, innovative
thinking, belief in progress, spirit of adventure
 Unique patterns of social organization are also cited: role of
church, decentralized state power, structure of European families
 In contrast, Asian societies and states were seen to have none of
these positive qualities or structures, and so were inherently „pre-
modern, backward, lacking in the ability to transform themselves
into modern states except with the guidance and intervention of
Europeans

31. CHALLENGING ‘EUROCENTRISM’
 Some of the above factors unarguably contributed – advances in
science and technology, success in New World conquests, etc
 However, these were not simply „uniquely European‟
accomplishments
 Significant cultural exchange had made much of this knowledge
available to the west
 Gains by Europe instigated losses to the Middle East, so as one
rose, the other inevitably lost ground
 The modern sense of identity in the West emerged at the same
time as the new, European-centered global economic order was
emerging – the two are closely tied to each other, and have been
for centuries
 Two key factors in this convergence of cultural and economic
identity that can be understood not as „indigenous‟ to Europe:
(952-60)
 Technological innovations frequently emerged in colonial settings
using slave labor, not in European cities – so capitalism (associated
with modernity) did not arise in a uniquely European environment – it
was imported from the colonies, to a great extent

32. ORIENTALISM (CH 3)
 By 1700s Russia was expanding into Central
Asia, controlling lands inhabited by Muslims
 By the 1800s, European colonial powers secured
direct political control over large portions of
predominantly Muslim lands of Asia and Africa
(1021)
 Images of the „Orient‟, discussed in previous 2
Ch, continued to develop in 19th c. as European
control expanded and „Orientalism‟ as a scholarly
field developed – the two are linked
 Orientalism is associated with far east as well as
middle east

33. ORIENTALISM AS A SCHOLARLY FIELD
 Many Orientalist societies supported scholarly research in
Orientalism from the late 18th c
 Focus tended to be philological – focus on language study
as the key to understanding Islamic and Eastern cultures:
translation of important texts (not study of existing culture)
 Romantic literary movement of the late 18th and early 19th
c rejected Enlightenment rationalism and sought inspiration
and knowledge about spiritual, emotional, imaginative, and
intuitive expression and understanding in Eastern texts
and philosophies
 Inclusion of Muslim imagery and themes, use of Persian
and Arabic literary styles
 Architects and designers also drew on Egyptian stylistic
elements
 Visual arts also drew on Orientalist imagery and
stereotypes – fierce, lavish, intensely
colored, exotic, sexualized

34. WOMEN IN ALGIERS, 1834, EUGENE DELACROIX

35. L’EXPÉDITION D’EGYPTE SOUS LES ORDRES DE
BONAPARTE (IN 1798) LÉON COGNIET 1827-35

36. LE BAIN TURK 1862
JEAN AUGUSTE DOMINIQUE INGRES

37. ODALISQUE AND SLAVE – INGRES, 1842

38. UNE PISCINE DANS LE HAREM 1876
Jean-Léon
Gérôme

39. THE RECEPTION JOHN FREDERICK LEWIS 1873

40. THE PYRAMIDS ROAD, GIZAH, EDWARD LEAR
1873

41. BASHI-BAZOUK CHIEFTAIN, 1881, JEAN-LEON
GEROME

42. BRIDE ARRIVING IN A VILLAGE, BISKRA,
ALGERIA 1889 PHILIPPE PAVY

43. AN ALMEH, GEROME, 1882

44. HOSH (COURTYARD OF THE HOUSE OF A COPTIC
PATRIARCH, CAIRO, JOHN FREDERICK
LEWIS, 1864

45. JOURNEY OF THE MAGI, JAMES TISSOT, 1894

46. REALITY VS EXOTIC IMAGINATION
 Tension between accurate first-hand knowledge and
exoticized imaginative projection
 Erotic, titillating, drawn from older sense of Muslims as
violent, lusty, sexually perverse
 Women, and especially the Harem, were popular topics, but
animals, people of all status, and architectural detail also
strongly present
 Most depictions of women were fantasies, with no actual
contact or basis in experience – European desires projected
onto foreign and exotic spaces
 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu had portrayed upper-class
Ottoman women as having great freedom in part because of
veiling; most perceived women as horribly oppressed and
men, like sultans, as tyrannical
 Such views supported the claims of European moral
superiority, even as they played on European desires
 Little actual interest in how the indigenous inhabitants of
these lands actually lived, what they thought, how they saw
the world

47. CONQUESTS OF OTTOMAN AND MUSLIM LANDS
 From the late 18th c, contentions over political and
economic positioning around the Mediterranean led to
conquests of many regions
 1789-99 French take control of most of Egypt, try to
conquer Syria
 1801 British ally with Ottomans to drive French out
 1830 French invade Algeria – decades of brutal warfare
resulted in eventual defeat of Algerians; considered part of
France, French occupants enjoyed benefits of Fr
citizenship, Muslim majority was
disenfranchised, dispossessed, impoverished Read
Assian Djbar‟s Fantasia!
 1882 Britain took control of Egypt, ruled until
1922, withdrew last soldiers in 1956
 Russians gained control of many areas around the Black
sea, establishing a more contiguous empire

48. MEHMET ALI – RULED 1801-1869
 1801 French withdraw from Egypt
 Mehmet Ali broke with the Ottomans, took control of
Egypt, and rapidly restructured Egypt's finances,
economy, military and administration
 Secured the country and its resources for himself and
his family; new Egyptian state withstood Ottoman
claims; resisted very real threat of European
encroachment (72)
 Development of cotton industry, opening of Suez
Canal both attracted European interest and bound
Egypt more closely to Europe
 Britain, in particular, desired control of the area
 Economic collapse opened the way to British

49. MARX, WEBER, AND ONGOING MISPERCEPTIONS
 Marx theorized an "Asiatic mode of production," distinct from the
other major modes of production delineated by Marx: the "primitive
communism" of early human societies, slavery, feudalism and
capitalism.
 In Asian societies, in contrast to European feudalism, power was
concentrated in the hands of the absolute ruler, the despot, who
also controlled almost all land; there was no independent
hereditary aristocracy, only a mass of peasants working the land
and paying taxes to the state, i.e. the ruler – and thus little chance
that a bourgeoisie would arise
 The West needed to correct this in order for capitalism to work
through its phases so that it could end
 Weber echoed Marx‟s ideas: Muslim societies were weak and
backward because they lacked many of the key institutions which
enabled Western societies to become wealthy and powerful
 Weber used the term "sultanism" to characterize the political
systems of these patrimonial states, whose rulers he saw as
rapacious and arbitrary despots unencumbered by any effective
limits on their power over their subjects.

50. SUCCESSION OF CIVILIZATIONS
 19th c shift from Medieval views that all men were
more or less equally human, to Homo Islamicus as a
distinct kind of human = rigid, intolerant, hostile to
outside influences, overly sexualized, irrational, etc
 Theory of rise and fall of civilizations situated in the
context of a sense of larger human development that
moved from east to west
 Early eastern cultures (Greek, Islamic) had rich
intellectual, scientific, and artistic capabilities
 Gradual decline and degeneraltion of those cultures as
West rose, acquired more advanced knowledge and
technology
 Tendency to ignore differences among civilizations on
both ends of the spectrum, but especially the vast
differences within Muslim cultures