Part 1, The Scope of Orientalism: Projects Summary and Analysis

This section examines the operational aspects of Orientalism and how wrong it can be. The line drawn between the East and the West had profound effects upon Europe even though it was the West that was encroaching on the East and not the opposite. The term Orientalism is the term used to designate the Western approach to the East as well as the collection of thoughts, dreams, and images the West has of the East. Both were forms of Western encroachment upon the East.

From the early days, Islam was close to Christianity both geographically and culturally. Islamic lands were close to Biblical lands, and even in the 1500's, Islam threatened European Christianity. The term Orient was taken to mean the Islamic world until about the eighteenth century. India was not...