Looking East in Error

By J.H. PLUMB
s I passed through security at Heathrow Airport, the guard, seeing this book,
said meaningfully, "That looks interesting." This reaction would doubtless
please the author, as it confirms a part of his thesis. The dust acket of the book
is a picture by the !"th#century $rench artist, %ean#Leon
&erome, "The 'nake (harmer." A stark#naked boy of about
!), with a python around his shoulders, stands facing an old
sheik, armed to the teeth, surrounded by retainers in a blue#
tiled palace* the boy+s father or owner is playing on a flute.
There is a sly smile on the sheik+s face, which, with his ,ery rela-ed pose,
would seem to indicate the anticipation of debauchery. Here is the .est+s crude
,ision of the /rient# a mi-ture of barbarity and lu-ury, of military ferocity and
unspeakable depra,ity, all bathed in a twilight glow of e-oticism.
Edward 'aid+s book is an e-ploration of the .est+s attitude to Islam and the
East, an ideology that goes by the name of /rientalism# a mi-ture of preudice,
racist assumptions, intertwined and underpinned with scholarship and
archeology. /ften the scholarship has been controlled, almost dictated by
racism. Indeed, 0r. 'aid, the 1arr 1rofessor of English and (omparati,e
Literature at (olumbia 2ni,ersity, would maintain that many of the institutions
of /rientalism# academic departments, learned societies and the like# still
support it, and he would argue too, that the works of outstanding /rientalists
such as 3ernard Lewis or the late 'ir Hamilton &ibb are as much imbued with
the .est+s distorted ,ision of the /rient as Ernest 4enan+s, Edward .illiam
Lane+s or 'ir 4ichard 3urton+s.
There is a profoundly interesting concept in this book, and underneath the self#
posturing ,erbiage there is an acute analytical mind at work, but the book,
unfortunately, is almost impossible to read. .hy I was dragging it about with
me from one continent to another was that, a,id as I am for print, I found it
difficult in some chapters to read more than )5 pages at a time. The names of
Le,i#'trauss, &ramsci, and 0ichel $oucault drop with a dull thud to
authenticate statements or suggest methods* words such as paradeutic send one
scurrying# to no a,ail# to a dictionary 6it+s not in the shorter two#,olume
/-ford7. 'ometimes simple and ,ery sensible generali8ations are clothed in the
unbearable argon of philosophic sociology. And at other times 0r. 'aid+s need
to embrace all political, economic and scholarly acti,ity as a part of the
ORIENTALISM
3y Edward ..
'aid.
distorting comple- of preudices that he calls /rientalism leads him to some
,ery odd historical statements.
"9e Lesseps and his canal finally destroyed the /rient+s distance," he writes,
"its cloistered intimacy away from the .est, its perdurable e-oticism. %ust as a
land barrier could be transmitted into a li:uid artery, so too the /rient was
transubstantiated from resistant hostility into oblo:uy, and submissi,e
partnership."
This, as indeed the whole book does, shows a capacity for ,erbal inflation of
the highest order. Actually, the canal route# long before the canal was cut# was
a main artery to the East* that+s why de Lesseps cut it. The canal made only a
:uantitati,e difference, not a :ualitati,e one, in communication. Also, Arabs
were far from inert in the !;<5+s and ;5+s= They were busy con,erting darkest
Africa and had a stranglehold on the sla,e trade there. And in the 0ahdi they
found a superb and accomplished leader who challenged the .est. 3ut history
is not 'aid+s forte.
3asically, 0r. 'aid postulates a dichotomy# and a romantic ,ision of the
/rient# held by the .est. The 0iddle East and Asia are ,iewed as backward,
inert, capable of dedication to an idea 6Islam7 or to philosophy 6India and
(hina7, but dirty, depra,ed, idle, archaic in social structure, poor in economic
de,elopment, ,icious in morals yet mysterious, e-otic# a world, also, that
knows little or nothing of its own greatness or past. And all .estern
intellectual acti,ity on matters /riental support this ,ision# it e,en dominates
the thought of >arl 0ar-. .hereas the reality of Islamic life is totally different#
a comple- of cultures and e-perience and history that cannot be contained in so
simple an ideology. And, rightly, 0r. 'aid maintains that this /rientalism
sanctifies the aggressi,e, imperialist, e-ploiti,e attitude to the East that lies at
the heart of the 3ritish, $rench and, indeed, 4ussian and &erman policy in the
!"th and early )5th centuries. 3ut 0r. 'aid should ha,e read more 0ar- and
less Le,i#'trauss or $oucault. He does not see that this thesis, which one can
accept 6and he is astoundingly good at e-posing the deep and re,olting
preudices of such romantic /rientalists as (harles 0ontagu 9oughty, T.E.
Lawrence, &ertrude 3ell and the rest of that tribe7, bred its own antithesis.
2nless one reects industriali8ed society entirely or considers that its ability to
impro,e health, length of life and its capacity to pre,ent star,ation are of no
importance compared to the destruction of traditional and purely Eastern modes
of li,ing and thinking, then the .est+s impact on the East 6from whate,er
moti,e, or ustified by whate,er racist illusions7 has been beneficial, as 0ar-
well reali8ed. After all, it is .estern ideas that ha,e brought a new self#
awareness and determination to the masses of the East, helped to destroy the
feudalism that held them in thrall and gi,e them a promise of a richer and
longer life. And the knowledge that .estern scholars built up, the intellectual
interchange between East and .est that sprang from the /rientalism of the
!"th century, has sown seeds of destruction of the ,ery /rientalism that
supported it. There were positi,e achie,ements of the .est in the East= in
technology, in medicine, in agriculture# all deri,ati,es of /rientalism. Indeed,
the actuality of the historical process that has go,erned the relations between
East and .est is ne,er e-plored. Indeed, there is a great deal of historical
nai,ete shown in this book.
It is a pity that it is so pretentiously written, so drenched in argon, for there is
much in this book that is superb as well as intellectually e-citing. .hen 0r.
'aid is doing a hatchet ob# for e-ample, on &ibb or, better still, on "The
(ambridge History of Islam"# he is a different writer. He becomes clearer,
simpler* indeed trenchant, ferocious and utterly con,incing. These are
delectable oases in a desert of pretentious prose* fortunately they are
moderately fre:uent. .hene,er 0r. 'aid deals with a specific writer one can
:uicken one+s reading pace, for he always becomes not only more forceful and
simple in his prose, but far clearer and more penetrating in his analysis. And
e,en when philosophic sociology clots the prose and "paradeutics" fall thick
and fast, it is worth perse,ering. Take him slowly, )5 pages at a time, re#read
and re#read if necessary. It is truly worth the effort for anyone interested in the
history and power of ideas. The fundamental concept that one society+s ,iew of
another+s culture may be used, like an interpretation of the past, to sanctify its
own institutions and political aggression is a ,ery fruitful one that could be
applied, and should be, to other constellations of nationalist or racist thought.
%.H. 1lumb is professor of history at (ambridge 2ni,ersity.
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