Abstract
If we are to draw back what Claude Roy called the ‘iron curtain of false enigmas’, we must urgently set in motion a critical revision and re-evaluation of the general conception, the methods and the instruments which have given the West its knowledge of the Orient, at all levels and in every area — a process begun in the early years of the last century.
It is indispensable to see Europe from the outside, to see the history of Europe, its failures as well as its successes through the eyes of that vast part of humanity formed by the peoples of Asia and Africa.
Joseph Needham
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes and References
R. Schwab, ‘L’Orientalisme dans la culture et les littératures de l’Occident moderne’, Oriente moderno, vol. xxxII, no. 1–2 (1952) p. 136.
J. Berque, ‘Cent vingt-cing ans de sociologie maghrébine’,Annales, vol.xI, no. 3 (1956) pp. 299–321.
J. Berque and L. Massignon, ‘Dialogue sur les Arabes’, Esprit, vol. XXVIII, no. 280 (1960) p. 1506. On the relations between Orientalism and colonialism see these words of L. Massignon: ‘I myself, strongly colonial at the time, had written to him of my hope of an early armed conquest of Morocco, and he had replied approvingly… (letter no. 1 from In-Salah. 2nd Oct. 1906). It is true that Morocco was then in a terrible state. But fifty years of occupation, without Lyautey and his high Franco-Moslem ideals, would have left nothing of note’ (‘Foucauld au désert devant le Dieu d’Abraham, Agar et Iesma’, Les mardis de Dar-es-Salam (1959) p. 59).
Cf. M. Khalidi and O. Farroukh, Al-tabshir wal-instimar fil-bilad alArabbiyyah (Beirut, 1953 ).
K. Mueller, ‘Des Ostblock and die Entwicklungslander’,Das Parlament (12 July 1961) pp. 397–411.
Marx-Engels, The First Indian War of Independence (Moscow, 1960). It is something very different from the ‘mutual errors’ based on a so-called ‘reciprocal’ theory. Recently, S. Avineri has provided a useful anthology of Karl Marx on Colonialism and Modernisation (New York, 1969).
Fung Yeou Lan, History of Chinese Philosophy (Peking, 1937 and Princeton 1952–3) 2 vols; and J. Needham, Science and Civilisation, vol. 2.
P. Sweezy, The Present as History (New York, 1953 ).
H. Passin, China’s Cultural Diplomacy (London, 1962) pp. 107–15.
Copyright information
© 1981 Anouar Abdel-Malek
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Abdel-Malek, A. (1981). Orientalism in Crisis. In: Civilisations and Social Theory. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-03819-0_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-03819-0_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-03821-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-03819-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)