ABSTRACT
Discussion of Orientalism in recent years has been heavily infl uenced by the
work of Edward W. Said (1935-2003). He was a diaspora Palestinian who
had been born in Jerusalem during the British Mandate in Palestine, lived for
some years in Cairo, and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. His
higher education was at Princeton University and then at Harvard University,
where he received a doctorate in English literature in 1964. His active career
as a university professor was in the department of English at Columbia
University. Although an Episcopalian who married a Quaker, Said was a
defender of Islamic civilization and the political cause of the Palestinians.
