Introduction to Orientalism
Lexical Meaning: The word "Orientalism" is derived from the word "Sharq" (East). It is a cognate of the بابِ استفعال (Bab-e-Istif'al), which means to turn towards the East or to study Eastern sciences and arts.
Technical Meaning: Orientalism refers to the scholarly and practical research activity in which Western scholars acquire expertise in Eastern sciences and arts, especially studying and researching Islamic civilization and culture, language and literature.
These Western scholars are also referred to as Orientalists in terminology.
In human society, they are viewed with great respect and reverence in academic and political circles of the West and the East due to their scholarly depth, research dedication, and deep knowledge of Oriental studies. The research and theories of these Western scholars (Orientalists) are considered the final word in Eastern and Islamic issues, and their words are seen as a final judgment...
History and Stages of Orientalism
The history of Orientalism is very old. It was started systematically in the thirteenth century AD when they decided to teach books of Eastern sciences and arts in other universities of Europe.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Orientalism began to spread rapidly. People in the West became very interested in studying Islamic and Eastern sciences, and the number of Orientalists began to increase. Until the seventeenth century AD, the King of France began to preserve and write Arabic history. The process of translating Arabic books into the languages of the Western people began, so that a distorted face of Islamic history could be presented to the world.
A new era began in 1801. From this, the armies of Europe occupied Muslim countries, subjugated Muslims, and the people of Europe presented a new style of education to the Muslims. This educational system was presented to the world as the best, so that the style of education of the people of the East and the Muslims could be shown. Because the Muslims were subjugated, they accepted their style of education. On the other hand, the scholars of the West (Orientalists)
began to try to distance Muslims from their Islamic beliefs in their method of education. They could not distort the Quran, Hadith, and Islamic jurisprudence, so they prepared translations of these sciences and presented them to the Ummah in the wrong way. They distorted Islamic history and highlighted oppression, barbarism, and inferiority in it. This series continued until 1925, so that the translations of Islamic books were changed so that Islamic history could be distorted.
A new era began from 1925 to 1972, in which these distorted Islamic history and incorrect translations of Islamic books, etc., were collected and presented as religion in other regions, and Islam was declared an old and outdated religion (God forbid). And it was presented that if you study this prepared religion (which was named New Islam), you will progress in the world, otherwise you will remain a victim of decline and oppression.
From 1974 to 2001, a new mission began in which they introduced an educational system in the name of a successful style of education, which made it quite difficult for Muslims to remain with complete faith and beliefs. At the same time, unfortunately, the Muslim Ummah and the people of the East began to be influenced by the education system presented by the scholars of the West and the Orientalists, and this education system began to spread rapidly in Eastern nations. As a result, the Eastern society became unaware of its Islamic history and religious sciences and fell victim to their education system.
From 2001 to the present, efforts are being made to create Islamophobia, and the propagation of distorted translations by Europe and religious books written by Orientalists is still ongoing, but alas! They are not gaining popularity.
In short, when centuries of hard work did not seem to bear fruit, efforts were made to defame the religion of Islam, and the titles of ancient and outdated were given so that the Ummah would read and become familiar with their distorted translations of religious books, but nothing was achieved.
Yes, some people with weak faith or addicted to the love of wealth and status became victims.
(To be continued)