Middle East Map

Imagining the Middle East Look at the following set of

pictures and answer the question, ‘What is the Middle East?’

Write a paragraph that starts with the phrase:

‘The Middle East is a place …’

Abu-Ghraib Invading Iraq

Gender

Children

Place of Faiths

Oil & Power

Configuring the East Traditional and dominant Western historical narratives and

explanations of the Middle East consist of several main themes:

The name ‘Middle East’ is Eurocentric, explaining the location of the region in relation to Europe and the ‘Far East’, from a European perspective.

Thus the West (more particularly, the dominant countries and classes within them) is the main reference point. From this perspective, analyses of other parts of the world are explained through contact with and conquest by Western empires.

The ‘civilising’ role of western intervention is emphasised and describes the West as ‘civilised’, ‘modern’ and ‘powerful’, and the other as ‘uncivilised’, ‘backward’ and ‘weak’.

Orientalism

According to Edward Said, one may discern four ‘dogmas’ of Orientalism:

The absolute and scientific difference between the West, which is rational, developed, humane, superior, and the Orient, which is aberrant, undeveloped, inferior

The Orient is best understood through texts representing ‘classical’ Oriental civilisation, rather than from direct evidence drawn from modern Oriental realities.

The Orient is eternal, uniform, and incapable of defining itself.

The Orient is at bottom something either to be feared or to be controlled.

Orientalism [Cont..]

Many Western Scholars still argue that there “are still such things as an Islamic society, an Arab mind, an Oriental psyche.” Often they still refer to Koranic texts to explain contemporary Middle Eastern society.

Religion, particularly Islam, is perceived as a constant and defining feature of the region’s people and societies.

Zachary Lochman, has argued that most scholars of Orientalism proceed from the assumption “that Islam was a coherent civilisation whose historical dynamics, institutions, though, and way of life were expressions of a basically unitary and stable set of core values and beliefs…”

The geo-political scope The historic Ottoman Empire: But Turkey is neither Arab

nor sees itself as part of the Middle East. Also, the Ottoman Empire stretched into Eastern Europe.

Land of Arabs: But Persians, Berbers, Kurds & Turks are not Arab

Land of Islam: In a number of countries there is an important presence of Coptic Christians, Christians & Jews

Furthermore, Islam is not a homogeneous religion