For Lust Of Knowing: The Orientalists And Their Enemies

The publication of Edward Said’s hugely influential Orientalism in 1981 called into question the entire history of the Western study of Islamic culture. Said’s book condemned his scholarly tradition as an institution that presented inaccurate and demeaning representations of Islamic peoples, and came to dominate academic thinking.

But what is Orientalism, who were the Orientalists, and how did Western scholars of Islamic culture become known as agents of European imperialism? In this groundbreaking history, Robert Irwin answers these questions with the colorful story of the motley crew of the intellectuals and eccentrics who bridged the gap between the Islamic world and the West. By analyzing such diverse sources as Ancient Greek perceptions of the Persians, a portrait of the first Western European translators of Arabic, and the contemporary Muslim world’s perception of the Western study of Islam, Irwin affirms the value of the Orientalists’ legacy.

Dangerous Knowledge is an enthralling history, a bold argument, and an urgent redress of our conceptions about the relationship between the East and the West.