ABSTRACT
When Edward Said published his critique of Oriental studies (Orientalism, 1978) many of those who wrote on topics connected with the Middle East and its cultures felt that they had to respond to his arguments. He argued that many of the writers on the Middle East had found it difficult to avoid regarding the area and its people as exotic and essentially “other” from the point of view of the West, and that they incorporated colonialist assumptions in their treatment of the cultures of the area. Frequently he points to the negative stereotypes which Western scholars used when describing the people and practices of the region, and he suggests that these have their basis in the very unequal power relations which existed at that time, and indeed continue to exist today, between the West and the Middle East. Then of course one has to take into account the long history of conflict between the European countries and what was regarded as the threatening power of Islam, a conflict which extended over many centuries and which actually resulted in physical conflict on many occasions. Using the tools of the literary theorist, Said showed how difficult as a result was an objective treatment of the Middle East, and he argued that if an accurate picture is to be constructed it must involve an awareness by the writers themselves of the position from which they are writing. That is, they should acknowledge that they are not approaching the issues with complete scientific detachment but that they themselves are part and parcel of an ideological system which is bound to affect how they set about their work. This does not mean that it would be impossible to write accurately and well on the Middle East, but rather that, if such writing is to be possible, the writers must make the effort to understand how what they say and what they examine are aspects of the culture which they inhabit, a culture 1144which is strongly characterized by negative attitudes to different customs and practices.
