Orientalism Revisited: In Defense of Western Civilization

When Edward Said published his book Orientalism in 1978, it gave a bad name to a once-vibrant field of Western academic art and scholarship. Considered the bible of post-colonial studies, Said’s work accused Western culture of perpetuating harmful stereotypes about the Middle East. Despite its arrogant attack on nearly two centuries of Western painting and literature, Said’s superficial thesis has since become the conventional wisdom within woke American universities. In pop culture, we are endlessly lectured about the alleged harms of racial or cultural bias — even when these so-called “stereotypes” reflect factual observations about Islamic culture. But beyond the silly speech codes of political correctness, Said’s “Orientalism” thesis has done very serious damage to the academic study of the Middle East. It has needlessly defamed an entire generation of European art and culture, which ought to be re-evaluated and praised for its aesthetic excellence.

Perhaps worst of all, Said’s Orientalism gives a grossly distorted picture of the modern Middle East. Across the Islamic world today, we see an utter lack of basic human rights and freedoms. Whether it is Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, or Turkey, we find an alarming pattern of illiberalism. Women are barred from the public sphere; those who speak out are brutally tortured and murdered. Hijabs are mandated by law, and the female body is erased from all popular media. There is no freedom of speech, as evidenced by the existence of blasphemy laws, stonings, and public executions. Media is largely nothing more than the propaganda of the regime, which violently cracks down on dissent. None of these contemporary realities are accurately represented by Edward Said’s Orientalist thesis, which blames Western democracy for the shocking atrocities of Muslim culture. Here is the politically incorrect truth behind European Orientalism.

What is Orientalism?

Before Orientalism became a dirty word, it was a neutral term to describe European academic study of the Middle East. Students who were interested in Arab language, culture, literature and philosophy were known professionally as Orientalists. This artistic and cultural movement took place from 1848 to 1914, ending with the collapse of the Ottoman empire. European interest in the Middle East began with Napoleon’s Egypt and Syria campaign in the early nineteenth century. This gave birth to the field of Egyptology, after Napoleon’s Oriental army discovered the Rosetta Stone, which unlocked the previously undeciphered hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. Napoleon introduced the principles of the French Enlightenment to the Middle East, such as secularism and democracy, and we can still see the seismic impact of that Westernization today. (I discuss Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign further in my 2024 book Napoleon: The Revolutionary Hero).

Contrary to Edward Said’s theory, Orientalism was not necessarily borne out of racial or religious prejudice against non-Western cultures. In fact, early Orientalists, such as the British philologist Sir William Jones (1746-1794), saw the “foreign” cultures of Asia, Africa and the Middle East as sharing a common heritage with that of Europe. By studying non-Western cultures, these European scholars were actually advocating for equality and open-mindedness. Nor was Orientalism a purely “Western” invention, either. Ottoman artists themselves, such as Osman Hamdi Bey, painted exotic scenes of their own culture, although these scenes were admittedly aimed at a foreign Western audience. Unlike their European counterparts, Ottoman Orientalists took more interest in the intellectual milieu of Islamic culture, portraying scenes of theological conversations and religious spaces. Women, too, were shown engaging in these theological arguments, or sometimes performing mundane domestic tasks, such as laundry. Nevertheless, some Western painters did take interest in portraying Islamic practices on the canvas. In 1861, the French artist Léon Belly painted Pilgrims Going to Mecca, which was displayed to great acclaim at the Parisian Salon. Today, this masterpiece of orientalist art is held at the Musée d’Orsay, in Paris.

The “Academic” Style of Painting

Artistically, the term “Orientalism” refers to a genre of Western painting in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which took Middle Eastern culture as its subject matter. European artists infused these masterful artworks with exoticism and sensuality, skillfully portraying fleshy female nudes in the context of oriental harems and bathhouses (called hammam). These erotic scenes served an almost pornographic purpose, which, ironically, catered more to Western tastes than Islamic ones. Islamic art is famously aniconic, meaning that it never depicts the human figure, due to the Quran’s ban on idolatry. Other European paintings showed Arabs smoking the hookah and leisurely lounging in the sun. It is worth noting that in today’s Middle East, many of these harmless “vices” are punishable by jail or even death.

The European tradition of academic art reflects a breathtakingly high-quality naturalism, on par with the masterpieces of Da Vinci and Raphael. The impeccable draftsmanship, the masterful use of color and shading, and the imaginative choice of subject matter all reflect the classical perfection of European art since the Renaissance. Whether we are discussing the exotic romanticism of Delacroix, the sensual odalisques of Ingres, or the meticulous landscapes of Gérôme, European Orientalism represents a high point of Western artistic achievement. These artworks deserve to be appreciated on their own merits, rather than being tainted by Said’s inaccurate characterizations.

Over the past century, there has been a concerted effort to downplay and degrade the European tradition of academic painting. For example, William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) was once one of France’s most beloved painters until his reputation was opportunistically sabotaged by Impressionists and other modernist movements. By the early 20th century, the salon painters had all but faded in memory. Today, when modern art has never been so ugly and irrelevant to most audiences, we ought to think twice before trashing the old masterpieces of the French Academy.

An Exchange of Faiths

Orientalism also has a religious meaning. It refers to a tradition of Western esotericism and occultism which began in the 19th century. Theosophy was a philosophical movement that emphasized the common wisdom found in all the world’s religions. This core principle is known as perennialism. Theosophists combined concepts from Neoplatonism and Hermeticism, with elements from Asian religions, such as karma. The Theosophical Society was founded in New York City in 1875. Alice Bailey (1880-1949), a theosophist who coined the term “New Age,” taught a universalist spirituality that emphasized peace, love, and truth. Her esoteric ideas would go on to inspire the hippie counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. Inspired by non-Western cultures, the theosophists sought to harmonize the world’s religious traditions and adopted an individualistic approach to spirituality, blurring the lines between East and West. This cosmopolitanism was made possible by Orientalist scholarship, which, unlike what Edward Said claims, is based on mutual respect for foreign cultures, rather than bigotry or closed-mindedness.

The War on Terror

Now, finally, to the bottom line: Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism is extremely misguided, and it has serious implications for geopolitics today. Inspired by Said’s theory, critics of the war on terror accuse American counterterrorist efforts of racial prejudice against Muslims. Instead of focusing on national security, the American government has to avoid the appearance of being “racist” or “essentialist” against the Middle East. But as it turns out, many of these so-called “stereotypes” about the Islamic world are well-grounded in empirical observation. Human rights are routinely violated by Islamic regimes. Women’s rights are nearly nonexistent. In Iran, young girls are forced to wear hijabs under threat of death.

Under the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, women are deprived of formal education; those who dissent are brutally murdered in public executions. In Saudi Arabia, women did not gain the right to drive a car until 2017. Needless to say, not all Muslims or Arabs agree with these barbaric practices; I am a proud Arab myself. But why is it considered “bigotry” to require Muslims, just like anybody else, to respect Western democratic norms as a non-negotiable condition of citizenship? Is it wrong to insist that America’s existing culture is worth preserving?

From the nineteenth century until the present day, the cultures of Western Europe and North America have been inspired by the political and social ideals of the Age of Enlightenment. This means a belief in freedom of thought and speech, open debate, democracy, secularism, equality, liberty, and constitutional government. Many of these Western values are simply incompatible with Islamic Sharia norms. We saw this repeatedly with the failure of the Arab Spring, the crisis in Egypt, Libya, and Syria, the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) caliphate, and the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. Rather than worrying about “cultural appropriation” and “microaggressions,” the American intelligentsia should stop promoting self-hatred of their own academic disciplines, and start teaching the truth about Western influence in the Islamic world.

Sources:

D’Antone, Ambra. “Introduction to Orientalism in Art History.” Athena Art Foundation. Accessed on YouTube on March 28, 2025.

“Edward Said on Orientalism” documentary (1998). Posted on YouTube by Palestine Diary on October 28, 2012. Accessed online March 28, 2025.

Henry, Andrew Mark. “New Age Spirituality Explained.” Posted on YouTube on August 23, 2024. Accessed online March 28, 2025.

“Orientalism,” Musée d’Orsay. Posted on YouTube on October 3, 2019. Accessed March 28, 2025.

Orientalism and power: When will we stop stereotyping people? | A-Z of ISMs Episode 15 – BBC Ideas. Accessed on YouTube on March 28, 2025.

Stadelman, Felicia. “Through the Eyes of The Artist: William Bouguereau.” Hudson Library and Historical Society (9/4/2014). Accessed on YouTube on March 28, 2025.