One of the major changes in consciousness brought about by the movement which became known as the ‘Nahda’ was in Arab intellectuals’ perception of their place, and that of their countries and societies, within the world. This is often reduced to the question of their changing relationship with Europe – with some justification, for it was with Europe that they had the most intense and sustained contacts, and through Europe that they initially derived much of their knowledge of the world beyond. But the abundant evidence for their knowledge of, and interest in, the non-European world outside their own lands requires, it seems to me, a restatement of the question. They needed to locate themselves within a new picture of the world, one dominated by Europe and often seen by them through European eyes, but not in fact reducible to the continent of Europe itself.