Orientalists

Submitted by Concerned European (Lithuania), Jan 12, 2007 at 06:10

[In the libraries of the West, throughout the 19^th and 20^th centuries there was a massive upsurgence in anti-Islamic publications. There are little or no books by Islamic authors of noteworthiness published and held for posterity in the majority of public libraries in the West.]

In general, this piece of islamist propaganda is not very worthy of commenting on, but this is the most blatant lie perhaps in the entire comment, so I think I should answer.

While one can discern certain bias in the publications of many Orientalists(and who of is is unbiased?), their works were for the most part analytical and critical studies of Islamic religion and society, not anti-islamic polemical tracts. It stands to reason that these authors which were brought in a different environment disagreed with many points of Islamic doctrine and practice, however they had no intent of slandering or defaming Islam. Some of them were pure scientific studies, some contained advise to governments how to deal with Muslim nations and populations.

Western scholars have publicated lots of critical editions of the works of noteworthy Muslim authors. A "critical edition" means such edition where a certain number of extant manuscripts are compared and the most plausible version established. Editions, translations and studies of Orientalists include such noteworthy Muslim autors as diverse as Rumi, Iqbal, Ibn Taimiya, Ibn Arabi, Hujwiri, Ghazali, Ibn al-Farid, al-Mutanabbi, Ibn Hazm, al-Kalabadhi to name only few. One need only to look to the bibliography of just one of Orientalists Arthur Arberry.

http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/v2f3/v2f3a039.html

In general oriental sections of university libraries are replete with oriental books(Arabic or Persian) and manuscripts, not only by studies of orientalists.

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