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Oriental studies

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Ancient Assyrianantiquities in theBritish Museum.In the 19th century, the placing of spectacular antiquities in the new museums brought unusual interest from the general public to Oriental studies.

Oriental studiesis the academic field that studiesNear EasternandFar Easternsocieties and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms ofMiddle Eastern studiesandAsian studies.Traditional Oriental studies inEuropeis today generally focused on the discipline ofIslamic studies;the study ofChina,especially traditional China, is often calledSinology.The study ofEast Asiain general, especially in theUnited States,is often calledEast Asian studies.

The European study of the region formerly known as "theOrient"had primarily religious origins, which have remained an important motivation until recent times. That is partly since theAbrahamic religionsin Europe (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) originated in the Middle East and because of the rise of Islam in the 7th century. Consequently, there was much interest in the origin of those faiths and ofWestern culturein general.[citation needed]Learning frommedieval Arabic medicineandphilosophyand theGreektranslations toArabicwas an important factor in theMiddle Ages.Linguistic knowledge preceded a wider study of cultures and history, and as Europe began to expand its influence in the region, political, and economic factors, that encouraged growth in its academic study. In the late 18th century, archaeology became a link from the discipline to a wide European public, as artefacts brought back through a variety of means went on display in museums throughout Europe.

Modern study was influenced byimperialistattitudes and interests and by the fascination for the "exotic" East for Mediterranean and European writers and thinkers, and was captured in images by artists, which is embodied in a repeatedly-surfacing theme in thehistory of ideasin the West, called "Orientalism."Since the 20th century, scholars from the region itself have participated on equal terms in the discipline.[citation needed]

History

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Before Islam

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The original distinction between the "West" and the "East" was crystalized by theGreco-Persian Warsin the 5th century BC, whenAthenianhistorians made a distinction between their "Athenian democracy"and thePersianmonarchy. An institutional distinction between East and West did not exist as a defined polarity before theOriens- andOccidens-divided administration of Roman EmperorDiocletianin the late 3rd century AD, and the division of theRoman Empireinto portions that spokeLatinandGreek.The classical world had an intimate knowledge of itsAncient Persianneighbours (and usually enemies) but veryimprecise knowledgeof most of the world farther east, including the "Seres"(Chinese). However, there was a substantial directRoman trade with India,unlike that with China, during the Roman Empire.[1]

Middle Ages

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Hayton of Corycusremits his report on theMongolstoPope Clement Vin 1307.

Thespread of Islamand theMuslim conquestsin the 7th century established a sharp opposition or even a sense of polarity in theMiddle Agesbetween EuropeanChristendomand theIslamic world,which stretched from theMiddle EastandCentral AsiatoNorth AfricaandAndalusia.Popular medieval European knowledge of cultures farther east was poor and depended on the widely-fictionalized travels of SirJohn Mandevilleand the legends ofPrester John,but the equally-famous account byMarco Polowas much longer and was more accurate.

Scholarly work was initially largely linguistic in nature, with primarily a religious focus on understanding bothBiblical Hebrewand languages likeSyriacwith earlyChristian literature,but there was also a wish to understand Arabic works onmedicine,philosophy,andscience.That effort, also called theStudia Linguarum,existed sporadically throughout the Middle Ages, and theRenaissance of the 12th centurywitnessed a particulargrowth in translations of Arabic and Greek texts into Latin,with figures likeConstantine the African,who translated 37 books, mostly medical texts, from Arabic to Latin, andHerman of Carinthia,one of the translators of theQur'an.Theearliest translation of the Qur'aninto Latin was completed in 1143, but little use was made of it until it was printed in 1543. It was later translated into otherEuropean languages.Gerard of Cremonaand others based themselves in Andalusia to take advantage of its Arabic libraries and scholars. However, as the ChristianReconquistain theIberian Peninsulabegan to accelerate in the 11th century, such contacts became rarer in Spain.[citation needed]Chairs of Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic were briefly established at Oxford and in four other universities after theCouncil of Vienne(1312).[2]

There was avague but increasing knowledgeof the complex civilisations ofChinaand ofIndiafrom which luxury goods (notablycottonandsilktextiles as well asceramics) were imported. Although theCrusadesproduced relatively little in the way of scholarly interchange, the eruption of theMongol Empirehad strategic implications for theCrusader kingdomsand for Europe itself, which led toextended diplomatic contacts.During theAge of Exploration,European interest inmapping Asia,especially the sea routes, became intense, but most was pursued outside the universities.

Renaissance to 1800

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Matteo Ricci(left) andXu Guangqi( từ quang khải ) (right) in the Chinese edition ofEuclid's Elements( bao nhiêu nguyên bản ) published in 1607

University Oriental studies became systematic during theRenaissance,with the linguistic and religious aspects initially continuing to dominate. There was also a political dimension, as translations for diplomatic purposes were needed even before the West engaged actively with the East beyond theOttoman Empire.[3]A landmark was the publication in Spain in 1514 of thefirst Polyglot Bible,containing the complete existing texts in Hebrew and Aramaic, in addition to Greek and Latin.[4]AtCambridge University,there has been aRegius Professor of Hebrewsince 1540 (the fifth-oldest regular chair there), and the university'schair in Arabicwas founded in about 1643. Oxford followed for Hebrew in 1546 (both chairs were established by Henry VIII). One distinguished scholar wasEdmund Castell,who published hisLexicon Heptaglotton Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Samaritanum, Aethiopicum, Arabicum, et Persicumin 1669, and scholars likeEdward Pocockehad traveled to the East and wrote on the modern history and society of the Eastern peoples.[5]TheUniversity of Salamancahad Professors of Oriental Languages at least in the 1570s. In France,Jean-Baptiste Colbertinitiated a training programme forLes jeunes de langues(The Youth of Languages), young linguists in the diplomatic service, likeFrançois Pétis de la Croix,who, like his father and his son, served as an Arabic interpreter to the King. The study of theFar Eastwas pioneered by missionaries, especiallyMatteo Ricciand others during theJesuit China missions,and missionary motives were to remain important, at least in linguistic studies.

During the 18th century, Western scholars reached a reasonable basic level of understanding of the geography and most of the history of the region, but knowledge of the areas least accessible to Western travelers, likeJapanandTibet,and their languages remained limited. TheEnlightenmentthinkers characterized aspects of the pagan East as superior to the Christian West inMontesquieu'sLettres PersanesandVoltaire's ironic promotion ofZoroastrianism.Others, likeEdward Gibbon,praised the relativereligious toleranceof the Middle East over what they considered the intolerant Christian West. Many, includingDiderotand Voltaire, praised the high social status of scholarship inMandarinChina.

TheUniversità degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale"(English: University of Naples "L'Orientale" ), founded inNaplesin 1732, is the oldest school of Sinology and Oriental Studies ofContinental Europe.

The late 18th century saw the start of a great increase in the study of thearchaeologyof the period, which was to be an ever-more important aspect of the field in the next century.Egyptologyled the way and, as with many other ancient cultures, provide linguists with new material for decipherment and study.

19th century

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The old building of theAsiatic Society,inCalcutta,founded byWilliam Jonesin 1784

With a great increase in knowledge of Asia among Western specialists, the increasing political and economic involvement in the region, and particularly the realization of the existence ofclose relations between Indian and European languagesbyWilliam Jones,there emerged more complex intellectual connections between the early history of Eastern and Western cultures. Some of the developments occurred in the context ofFranco–British rivalryfor the control of India. Liberal economists, such asJames Mill,denigrated Eastern civilizations as static and corrupt.Karl Marx,himself ofJewishorigin, characterized theAsiatic mode of productionas unchanging because of the economic narrowness of village economies and the state's role in production.Oriental despotismwas generally regarded in Europe as a major factor in the relative failure ofprogressof Eastern societies. The study of Islam was particularly central to the field since most people living in the geographical area that was termed as the Orient were Muslims. The interest in understanding Islam was fueled partly by economic considerations of the growing trade in theMediterraneanregion and by the changing cultural and intellectual climate of the time.[6]

During the course of the century, Western archeology spread across the Middle East and Asia, with spectacular results. In the 1850s, for example, the French government was determined to mount large-scale operations in Assyria and Mesopotamia to showcase its dominance in the region. An archaeological team, led byVictor Place,excavated the palace of the Assyrian KingSargon IIinKhorsabad(formerlyNineveh), which was the first systematic excavation of the site.[7]The expedition resulted in a pioneering publication,Ninevah and Assyria,which jointly authored byVictor PlaceandFelix Thomasand was published around 1867.[8]New national museums provided a setting for important archaeological finds, most of which were then bought back to Europe, and they put Orientalists in the public spotlight as never before.

The first serious European studies ofBuddhismandHinduismwere by the scholarsEugene BurnoufandMax Müller.The academicstudy of Islamalso developed, and by the mid-19th century, Oriental studies had become a well-established academic discipline in most European countries, especially those with imperial interests in the region. Although scholastic study expanded, so didracistattitudes and stereotypes of Asian peoples and cultures, however, which frequently extended to local Jewish and Romani communities since they were also of Oriental origin and widely recognized as such. Scholarship often was intertwined with prejudicial racist and religious presumptions[9]to which the newbiological sciencestended to contribute until the end of theSecond World War.

20th century

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Experts inspecting theRosetta Stoneduring theSecond International Congress of Orientalistsin London, 1874

The participation in academic studies by scholars from the newly-independent nations of the region itself inevitably changed the nature of studies considerably, with the emergence ofpost-colonial studiesandSubaltern Studies.The influence ofOrientalismin the sense used by Edward Said in hisbook of the same namein scholarship on the Middle East was seen to have re-emerged and risen in prevalence again after the end of theCold War.It is contended that was partly a response to "a lacuna" inidentity politicsin international relations generally and within the 'West' particularly, which was brought about by the absence ofSoviet communismas a global adversary.[10]Theend of the Cold Warcaused an era that has been marked by discussions ofIslamist terrorismframing views on the extent to which the culture of theArab worldand of Islam is a threat to that of the West. The essence of the debate reflects a presupposition for which Orientalism has been criticized by the Orient being defined exclusively by Islam. Such considerations were seen to have occurred in the wider context of the way in which many Western scholars responded to international politics after the Cold War, and they were arguably heightened by the terrorist attacks ofSeptember 11, 2001.[11]

Symbolic of that type of response to the end of the Cold War was the popularization of theclash of civilizationsthesis. That particular idea of a fundamental conflict between East and West was first advanced byBernard Lewisin his article "The Roots of Muslim Rage", which was written in 1990. Again, that was seen as a way of accounting for new forms and lines of division in international society after the Cold War. The clash of civilizations approach involved another characteristic of Orientalist thought: the tendency to see the region as being one homogenous civilization, rather than as comprising various different and diverse cultures and strands. It was an idea that was taken on more famously bySamuel P. Huntingtonin his 1993 article inForeign Affairs,"The Clash of Civilizations?"[12]

Orientalism

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The Women of Algiers(1834) byEugène Delacroixis one of the earliest paintings from Western painters in the "Eastern world."
Main article:Orientalism

The termOrientalismhas come to acquire negative connotations in some quarters and is interpreted to refer to the study of the East by Westerners who are shaped by the attitudes of the era of Europeanimperialismin the 18th and the 19th centuries. When used in that sense, the term often implies prejudiced outsider-caricatured interpretations of Eastern cultures and peoples. That viewpoint was most famously articulated and propagated byEdward Saidin hisOrientalism(1978), a critical history of that scholarly tradition.[13]In contrast, the term has also been used by some modern scholars to refer to writers of the colonial era who had pro-Eastern attitudes, as opposed to those who saw nothing of value in non-Western cultures.[14]

From "Oriental studies" to "Asian studies"

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Like the termOrient,Orientalismis a term that derives from theLatinwordoriens(rising) and, equally likely, from the Greek word ('he'oros', the direction of the rising sun). "Orient" is the opposite ofOccident,a term for the Western world. In terms of theOld World,Europewas considered the Occident (the West) and its farthest-known extreme as the Orient (the East). From theRoman Empireto the Middle Ages, what is now in the West considered theMiddle Eastwas then considered the Orient. However, the use of the various terms and senses derived from "Orient" has greatly declined since the 20th century, especially since trans-Pacific links between Asia and America have grown, and travel from Asia usually arrive in theUnited Statesfrom the west.

In mostNorth AmericanandAustralianuniversities, the field of Oriental studies has now been replaced by that ofAsian studies.In many cases, the field has been localised to specific regions, such as Middle Eastern orNear Easternstudies,South Asianstudies, andEast AsianStudies. That reflects the fact that the Orient is not a single monolithic region but rather a broad area, encompassing multiplecivilizations.The generic concept of Oriental studies has to its opponents lost any use that it may have once had and is perceived as obstructing changes in departmental structures to reflect actual patterns of modern scholarship. In many universities, like theUniversity of Chicago,the faculties and institutions have been divided. TheBiblical languagesmay be linked with theological institutes, and the study of ancient civilizations in the region may come under a different faculty from that of the studies of modern periods.

In 1970, the Faculty of Oriental Studies at theAustralian National Universitywas renamed the Faculty of Asian Studies. In 2007, the Faculty of Oriental Studies atCambridge Universitywas renamed the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and theUniversity of Oxfordfollowed suit in 2022, also renaming the former Faculty of Oriental Studies as theFaculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.Elsewhere, names have remained the same, as in theChicago,Rome,and theLondon(only now referred to only by the acronym "SOAS" ), and inother universities.

Various explanations for the change to "Asian studies" are offered; a growing number of professional scholars and students of Asian Studies are themselves Asian or from groups of Asian origin (likeAsian Americans). This change of labeling may be correlated in some cases to the fact that sensitivity to the term "Oriental" has been heightened in a morepolitically correctatmosphere, although it began earlier: Bernard Lewis' own department atPrinceton Universitywas renamed a decadebeforeSaid wrote his book, a detail that Said gets wrong.[15]By some, the term "Oriental" has come to be thought offensive to non-Westerners.Area studiesthat incorporate not only philological pursuits butidentity politicsmay also account for the hesitation to use the term "Oriental".

Supporters of "Oriental Studies" counter that the term "Asian"is just as encompassing as" Oriental, "and may well have originally had the same meaning, were it derived from anAkkadianword for "East" (a more common derivation is from one or both of two Anatolian proper names). Replacing one word with another is to confuse historically objectionableopinionsabout the East with the concept of "the East" itself. The terms Oriental/Eastern and Occidental/Western are both inclusive concepts that usefully identify large-scale cultural differences. Such general concepts do not preclude or deny more specific ones.[citation needed]

See also

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Institutions

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Americas

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Asia

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Europe

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References

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  1. ^Shaw, Ian(2003).The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt.Oxford University Press. p. 426.ISBN0-19-280458-8.
  2. ^Hebrew to Latin, Latin to Hebrew: the mirroring of two cultures2006, p. 75 Giulio Busi, Freie Universität Berlin. Institut für Judaistik - 2006 "According to the famous decision of the council of Vienne (1311–1312), Oxford was chosen as one of four universities (with Paris, Bologna and Salamanca) in which Hebrew, Arabic, Greek and Aramaic were to be taught."
  3. ^"Renaissance Orientalism".Harvard Ukrainian Studies.Retrieved2023-06-09.
  4. ^"British Library".bl.uk.Retrieved2023-06-09.
  5. ^"Castell, Edmund°".jewishvirtuallibrary.org.Retrieved2023-06-09.
  6. ^Zachary Lockman,Contending Visions of the Middle East,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004:44
  7. ^Potts, D.T. (ed),A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East,Volume 1, John Wiley & Sons, 2012, p. 51-52; Pouillon, F.,Dictionnaire des Orientalistes de Langue Française,KARTHALA, 2008, p. 924
  8. ^Maisels, C.K.,The Near East: Archaeology in the Cradle of Civilization,Routledge, 2005, pp 40-41; Tanner, J.P., "Ancient Babylon: From Gradual Demise to Archaeological Rediscovery,"Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin,Vol. 47,2002, pp 11-20; Library notes onNinive et L'Assyrie, Consul General Avec Des Essais De Restauration,by Victor Place and Felix Thomas, [3 volume set], Imprimerie Imperiale, Paris, 1857, Online:https:// iberlibro /buscar-libro/primera-edicion/tapa-dura/precio-min/30/vi/960590/sortby/1/;Pouillon, F.,Dictionnaire des Orientalistes de Langue Française,KARTHALA, 2008, p. 924
  9. ^J. Go, "'Racism' and Colonialism: Meanings of Difference and Ruling Practice in America's Pacific Empire" inQualitative Sociology'27.1 (March 2004).
  10. ^Jochen Hippler and Andrea Lueg (eds.),The Next Threat: Western Perceptions of Islam(Pluto Press/The Transnational Institute, London, 1995), p. 1.
  11. ^Zachary Lockman,Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism(Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004), pp. 223–233.
  12. ^Zachary Lockman, p. 233.
  13. ^Clarke, J.J. (1997).Oriental enlightenment the encounter between Asian and Western thought.Routledge. pp.8.
  14. ^For example, Thomas R. Trautmann inAryans and British India,1997,ISBN0-520-20546-4
  15. ^"Princeton University, Near Eastern Studies department".

Further reading

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Institutions

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Americas

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Asia

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Europe

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Articles

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