The definitions of Orientalism which are normally prevalent are:

i. The study of the occident’s language, culture, philosophy, literature and religion by the
orient is called orientalism.
(Adu' alal istishraaq wal mustashriqeen of Dr. Muhammad Ahmad Diab)
According to this definition, those western scholars who devote themselves in the study of the
sciences of the East are known as Orientalists.
i. In the modern Oxford Dictionary, Orientalist is defined as, “the one who expertise
himself in the sciences and literature of the East.”
ii. In the dictionary al Munjid, the meaning of Orientalist is:
‫العامل باللغات واالداب والعلوم الشرقية واالسم االستشراق‬

It means: the scholars of Eastern languages, sciences and literature are called Orientalists and
this science is called Orientalism.
i. In the Collinggem English Dictionary, Orientalist has been defined as “An expert in
eastern languages and history.”
He recounts in his biography of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) named ‘Zia al-Nabi’ that
changes always took place in the definition of East and West. In the medieval and the ancient
period, the Black Sea was considered as the centre of the world and direction was established
accordingly. The eastern regions were known as the East and the western as the West.
According to him, if we accept this definition of East and West, still it won’t be clear: neither the
meaning germinating from the East will depict a clear and meaningful picture, nor the above-
mentioned definition of Orientalist. According to that definition, Jesus and Christianity is then
related to the East. In this context, the Western scholar who studies the language, life and other
endeavours of Jesus must be called an Orientalist; but practically it is not the case.
All the events that have been recorded in the Old and New Testament of the Bible, most of them
are related to the East; but none of its experts is considered as Orientalist.
To this extent, it seems that those intellectual sources that are derived from the endeavours of the
orientalists are either completely silent or if the words “Orientalism” or “Orientalists” are
mentioned there, it would be not enough to define its terminology.
The reason may be that the Orientalists complied much with the policy of hiding their aims and
savoir-faire. Like that they were not revealing their identities.
This movement was active for centuries but there was not any established name. Arberry said
that the word ‘Orientalist’ has first been used for a priest in the Eastern or Greek Church in 1630
CE. According to Rodenson, the word ‘Orientalism’ was included in the English dictionary in
1779 CE and in French classical dictionary in 1838 CE, although, practically, the movement had
already been in existence centuries before, and was very active also.
Some scholars have studied this movement deeply and tried to point out its scope and aims, its
historical development and its intellectual contributions. Dr Ahmad Abdul Hameed Ghurab, one
of them, has mentioned some definitions of Orientalism in his book Ru’yah al-Islamiyyah li al-
Istishraaq.
1. Orientalism is a western style of thinking which is based on the racial division of the East
and the West, which shows that the Occident have got racial and cultural superiority over
the Orient.
Pir Muhammad Karam Shah al Azhari interprets this definition as such:
By the midst of 8 th century CE, the first University, known as the Bayt al-Hikmah was
established by the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid (reigned 786–809) in Baghdad where
different sciences from all parts of the world were studied. Many works from Latin, Hebrew,
Syriac, Sanskrit and Greek were translated into Arabic, commentaries were being made and also
new works were produced by a panel of scholars. These works were transferred later to the
Umayyad Spain, especially during the caliphate of Abdur Rahman III (889-961), who made
Cordova the capital of Spain, which became the world’s famous and most advanced city in the
West. Universities and libraries were constructed in different cities like Toledo, Murcia and
Seville.
The Christians and the Jews took much interest in the study of these sciences which also include
the Islamic sciences. The Latin translation of the Quran first appeared in the early 12 th century
under the chairmanship of Peter, the Vulnerable who appointed a panel of translators who had
profound knowledge of Arabic and Latin. Other non-Muslim scholars included Robert of Ketton,
Alphonso X, Mark of Toledo and others. The motive of their interest in these studies was none
but to disgrace Islam as there had always been confrontations between Islam and the People of
the Book. This sentiment and attitude continued to be found in non-Muslim scholars’ writings
about Islam up till date as a form of a movement which is known as ‘Orientalism’
 This definition though depicts the mental state of all orientalists; however, from this
source, it can be concluded that all the Europeans and Americans shall be considered as
orientalists because since the West made progress in the industrial and military fields and
colonised the East for some time, at that time the whole West was thinking like this. This
definition is not appropriate to understand the movement of Orientalism in this context.
1. To gain power over the East through impartial research about its history, cultures,
religions, languages, political and community systems, treasures and possibilities by the
scholars of the western colonizing countries,on the basis of the racial superiority.
2. Orientalism is the name of that western form which aims to overpower the East by
reviving its political and moral states.
The last two definitions depict clearly the Orientalist’s colonization and exploitation but do not
reveal the hidden intentions, whose veil has already been uplifted by The All-Knowing Almighty
Allah, in the following verse:
:Translation‫ﱡ‬
A group among the People given the Book(s) desire that if only they could lead you astray; and“
.they only make themselves astray, and they do not have sense”. (Surah Aal e Imran, verse 69)

Based on the above definitions and explanations, Dr Ahmad Abdul Hameed Ghurab gave his
own definition as follows:
Western People of the Book, on the basis of Christian West’s racial and cultural
superiority over the Islamic East, to colonize and imperialize the Muslims by creating doubts in
their minds about Islam,leading them astray; by presenting Islam in a cartoonish figure with the
propaganda that they are studying the Muslims’ beliefs, culture, jurisprudence, history,
governance, resources and possibilities impartially is called Orientalism.
For Pir Karam Shah al-Azhari, this definition does unveil the intentions of the Orientalists about
Islam and the Muslims, but, on one hand, the definition given for the word ‘East’ has been given
less importance as it ought to be because, according to him, it is on this basis that an Orientalist
will be called an Orientalist; on the other hand, from this source, all the Orientalists are counted
in one category although they can easily be divided into different groups. The third error that he
found in this definition is that there are Orientalists who expertise in other eastern sciences and
cultures excluding Islam, who are excluded from this definition although they are commonly
known as Orientalists.
For the perfect definition of Orientalists and Orientalism, the meaning of East is very
helpful which Dr Rodibart has given in his al-Istishraaq al-Risaalah al-Isti’maar.
According to Dr Muhammad Ibrahim Al Fuyumi Rodibart, the meaning of the word ‘East’ is not
meant to be taken geographically; for the Orientalists, East refers to that plot of land on which
Islam is promoted.
As if, according to them, the East refers to the Islamic countries and they interpret the
Islamic world as the ‘East’.
Under this meaning of the East, regarding the practical struggle of the Orientalists,
which reveals their hidden aims and intentions through their hugeintellectual contributions and
their different stages, Pir Karam Shah al-Azhari defines ‘Orientalism’ as:
The deep study of the people of the East; the Muslim community in particular, its beliefs,
languages, cultures, history, human rights, communal speciality, resources and possibilities of
life, with the aim to enslave them morally and to impose their religion and culture and to
politically overpower them and exploit their resources of living by the West, in common, and the
Jews and the Christians, in particular, is known as Orientalism and those supporting this
movement are known as the Orientalists.
In short, Pir Karam Shah al-Azhari set up a different methodology of studying the
subject compared to other former scholars. With this definition of Orientalism, any reader can
now detect the intention and aim of any Orientalist writing about Islam and the Muslims.