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Orientalism in Crisis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

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In order to dispel “the iron curtain of false enigmas,” of which Claude Roy speaks, it is urgent to undertake a revision, a critical reevaluation of the general conception, the methods and implements for the understanding of the Orient that have been used by the West, notably from the beginning of the last century, on all levels and in all fields.

This is an imperative of every exact science, which aims at understanding. And yet the resurgence of the nations and the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America, in the last two generations, was required in order to provoke a prise de conscience, tardy and frequently reticent, of an exigency of principle become an unavoidable practical necessity, precisely due to the decisive influence of the political factor, i.e., the victories achieved by the various movements of national liberation on a world scale.

Type
Notes and Discussion
Copyright
Copyright © 1963 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1. On the general history of traditional orientalism, more particularly in the Arab and Islamic field, is an abundant bibliography, notably: V. V. Barthold, La découverte de l'Asie, histoire de l'orientalisme en Europe et en Russie, Fr. tr., Paris, 1947; nothing in the Encyclopédie de l'Islam, nor in the Encyclopedia Britannica; "Orientalistika," Soviet Encyclopedia, Moscow, 1951, Vol. IX, 193-202; Giovanni Vacca, "Orientalismo," Enciclopedia italiana di scienze, lettere ed arti, Rome, 1935, vol. XXV, 537; G. Levi della Vida, "Per gli studi arabi in Italia," Nuova Antologia, Dec. 1912, 1-10; A. Bausani, "Islamic Studies in Italy in the XIXth and XXth Centuries," East and West, VIII, 1957, 145-155 and Journal of Pakistani Historical Society, V, 1957, 185-199; Z. M. Holt, "The Origin of Arabic Studies in England," al-Kulliyya, Khartum, 1952, No. 1, 20-7; A. J. Arberry, Oriental Essays, London, 1960; M. Horten, "Die Probleme der Orientalistik," Beiträge zur Kenntnis des Orient, XIII, 1916, 143-61; G. Germanus, "Hungarian Orientalism—Past and Present," Indo-Asian Culture, VI, 1957, 291-8; L. Bouvat, "Les Hongrois et les études musulmanes," Revue du monde musulman, I, 1907, No. 3, 305-24; Naguîb Al-'Aqiqi, Al-moustachriqoûn, Cairo, 1947; Youssef A. Dagher, Dalîl al-A'âreb ilâ ‘ilm'al-koutoub wa fann al-makâteb, Beyrouth, 1947, bibl. trav. étrangers, 150-60, Arabes, 161-7; Y. A. Dagher, Fahâress al-maktaba al-'Arabiyya fî'l-khâfiqayn, Beyrouth, 1947, 105-12; Y. A. Dagher, Massâder al dirâssa al-adabiyya, vol. II, 1800-1955, Beyrouth, 1955, 771-84; J. Fueck, Die arabischen Studien in Europa, Leipzig, 1955; etc.

2. "Orientaliste," Grand Larousse encyclopédique, Paris, 1963, VII, 1003-4.

3. This is the famous book of the master from Berlin: Paideia, Die Formung des griechischen Menschen (I, Berlin-Leipzig, 1934), thus synopsized by M. Guidi, "No broadening of the historical horizon can change anything of the fact that our history starts with the Greeks (…). Evidently, this history cannot have the whole planet for its theatre, but only the "hellenocentric" peoples (…), since it is they who have taken from the Greeks the conscious principle of the true Kultur (…). It is not at all difficult to draw the practical consequences from this theoretical formula: the absolute and central value of antiquity, as the eternal and unique source of the constitutive principle of our culture, and, consequently, as the force of formation and education. Total humanism." (M. Guidi, "Trois conférences sur quelques problèmes généraux de l'orientalisme," Annuaire de l'Institut de philologie et d'histoire orientales—volume offert à Jean Capart, Brussels, 1935, 171-2.)

4. Our italics. They point out well the reference to one's own self, i.e., to Europe.

5. M. Guidi, op. cit., 171-80. He defined thus orientalism in 1954: "The scholar from the Orient, or orientalist worthy of this name, does not limit himself to the knowledge of certain ignored languages, or who can describe the foreign customs of some peoples, but he is the one who unites rather the study of certain sides of the Orient to the knowledge of the great spiritual and moral forces which have influenced the formation of human culture, the one who has been nourished on the lesson of ancient civilizations and who has been able to evaluate the role of the different factors which have participated in the constitution of the civilization of the Middle Ages, for example, or in the course of the modern Renaissance." ("'Ilm al-Charq wa târikh al-'oumrân," Al-Zahrâ ‘, rabie awwal 1347 H., August-September 1928, quoted by Y. A. Dagher, Massâder…, 771.)

6. On the definition of "europeocentrism," cf., among others, J. Needham, "Le dialogue entre l'Europe et l'Asie," Comprendre, No. 12, 1954, 1-8; equally, the preface of our Egypte, société militaire, Paris, 1962, 9-13.

7. R. Schwab, "L'orientalisme dans la culture et les littératures de l'Occident moderne," Oriente Moderno, XXXII, 1952, Nos. 1-2, 136.

8. A. J. Arberry, op. cit.

9. Y. A. Dagher, Massâder …, 779-80.

10. J. Berque, "Cent vingt-cinq ans de sociologie maghrébine," Annales, XI, 1956, No. 3, 299-321.

11. "The advanced studies, and in particular Oriental, philological and histori cal studies, are they not, on the contrary, the most valuable auxiliary of the colonial expansionist policies of Italy?" (A. Cabaton, "L'orientalisme musulman et l'Italie moderne," Rev Md. Mus. VII, 1914, No. 27, p. 24); the moving postscript of Lawrence in The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (London, 1926), showing how he was caught himself at his own game, is known: "Damascus had not seemed a sheath for my sword, when I landed in Arabia; but its capture disclosed, the exhaustion of my main springs of action. The strongest motive throughout had been a personal one, not mentioned here, but present to me, I think, every hour of these two years. Active pains and joys might fling up, like towers, among my days: but, refluent as air, this hidden urge re-formed, to be the persistent element of life, till near the end. It was dead before we reached Damascus;" "The French nation works, accumulates. From its adventurous consuls to its utopian designers of railroad lines, to its moved travelers, a Lamartine, a Barrès, it edifies in the Orient a work, of which the Champollions, Sacys and Renans erect the scientific counterpart. In this period the Arabs neglect their own past, and stammer their noble language. Contemporary orientalism was born from this vacancy. The exploration, the resurrection of such moral treasures was the chance of the erudite Christian, who as well as the Christian of the Bank concurrently revived the wasted space and filled the warehouses (…). For instance, look at the Arab tribe, at beduinism in general, Orientalism approaches them through three great political thrusts: the phase of our ‘Arab Bureau,' in Algeria, until about 1870; the phase of the ‘revolt in the desert,' the triumph of British agents in the Near East; the contemporary petroleum expansion." (J. Berque, "Perspectives de l'Orientalisme contemporain," Ibla, XX, 1957, 220-1); in 1822, the founders of the "Société Asiatique" pledge themselves to "permit to the historians the explanation of the Antiquities of the peoples of the Orient," and to collect a "valuable documentation on the diplomatic operations in the Levant and the commercial operations in all of Asia;" among the questions posed to the orientalists, at Lyon, let us point out the following: "Is it in the interest of the Europeans to demand that treaties give them the right of residence in the interior of China, in order to buy themselves cocoons and silk directly from the producers; in order to establish spinning factories, and to engage in business in general? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the coming of Chinese coolies into foreign countries?" (Texts quoted by J. Chesneaux: "La recherche marxiste et le réveil contemporain de l'Asie et de l'Afrique," La Pensée, No. 95, Jan.-Feb. 1961, 4-5.)

12. On ethnist typology, cf. M. Rodinson, "L'Egypte nassérienne au miroir marxiste," Les Temps Modernes, No. 203, April 1963, 1859-65.

13. J. Berque and L. Massignon, "Dialogue sur Les Arabes," Esprit, XXVIII, 1960, No. 288, 1506. On the relationship between orientalism and colonialism, these words from L. Massignon, "I myself, strongly colonial at the time, wrote to ‘him about my hopes for a coming conquest of Morocco by arms, and he answered me approvingly (letter No. 1 from In-Salah, Oct. 2, 1906). Let us admit that Morocco then was in a terrible state. But fifty years of occupation, without Lyautey and his high Franco-Moslem ideal, would have left nothing that was essential." ("Foucauld in the desert before the God of Abraham, Agar and Ismaël," Les mardis de Dar el-Salam, 1959, p. 59.)

14. Precise criticisms in University Grants Committee: Report of the Subcom mittee on Oiental, Slavonic, East European and African Studies (London, H.M.S.O., 1961), under the presidency of Sir William Hayter; "Modern Far Eastern studies are a closed book in almost every other history or social science faculty." (p. 38) "The more inward looking characteristics of the language departments and their lack of interest in modern studies and languages have contributed to a number of unfortunate results." (p. 46), etc. A very recent selection, Etudes d'orientalisme dédiées à la mémoire de Lévi-Provençal (2 vol., Paris, 1962), groups sixty-one articles, only eight of which deal with the modern period, and three are of a bio-bibliographical nature related to it.

15. J. Chesneaux, La recherche…, 5.

16. Omar Al-Dassoûqui, Fî-'l-adab al-hadîth, 3rd edit., Cairo, 1954, 325-6; Y. A. Dagher, Massâder…, 779; N. al-Aqîqi, op. cit., 207-9; Mohamed Hussein Heykal, 'Hayât Mo'hammad, preface to the 2nd edit. (6th edit., Cairo, 1956), 60-1; Anouar al-Guindi, Al-adab al-'Arabi al-'hadîth fî ma'rakat al-mouqâwama wa'l-tagammo' min'al-mou'hît ila'l-khalîg, Cairo, 1959, 621-4; then : Al-fikr al-'Arabi al-mou'âsser fî maarakat al-taghrîb wa'l taba'iyya al-thaqâfiyya, Cairo, s.d.c., 1962, 271-85, etc.

17. Particularly the "Institute of Arab Manuscripts," directed by Prof. Salah Eddine al-Mounajjed, attached to the Arab League; the review Magallat al makhtôutât al-'Arabiyya, which has been published in Cairo since 1955; the creation of the new "Institute of Islamic Research," at the University Al-Azhar, under the direction of Prof. Abdallah al-'Arabî (Al-Ahram, Nov. 23, 1961); the effort of restoration undertaken by the Ministry of Culture and National Guidance of Egypt, mainly under the impetus of Fat'hi Radouân, Hussein Fawzi and Tharwat ‘Okâcha, must be mentioned; similar efforts in Syria and Iraq, in particular. In Egypt, the existentialist philosopher ‘Abd al-Ra'hman Badawî has undertaken, since 1940, a gigantic work of publication and has given the impetus to many works on Moslem thought, while the great philologist, Mourad Kâmel, authori tatively cleared the ground in the Coptic, Ethiopian and Semitic field.

18. J. Berque mentions it at length, critically, both in Le Maghreb entre les deux guerres (Paris 1962), and in his lectures at the Collège de France. Equally, J. P. Naish, "The Connection of Oriental Studies with Commerce, Art and Literature during the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries," Journ. Manch. Eg. and Or. Soc., XV, 1930, 33-9; J. Chesneaux, "French Historiography and the Evolution of Colonial Vietnam," in D.G.E. Hall, Historical Writing on the Peoples of Asia—Historians of South-East Asia, Oxford-London, 1961, 235-44.

19. Cf. M. Khalidi and O. Farroûkh, Al-tabchîr wa'l-isti'mâr fî'l-bilâd al ‘Arabiyya, Sayda-Beyrouth, 1953.

20. On this idea, cf. R. Makarius, La jeunesse intellectuelle d'Egypte au lendemain de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale (Paris-The Hague, 1960), and our article "La vision du problème colonial par le monde afro-asiatique," publ. in Cahiers inter. de sociologie, vol. 35, 1963, 145-56.

21. Jacques Berque, who stands as the friend of Arab renewal and the link between our cultures, did not fail to honor several of our intellectuals. I thank him myself for the mention he made, many times, of our works—par ticularly those of Mahmoûd al-'Alem and myself, as well as of the narrators and novel writers of the Egyptian realist school—both in his lectures at the Collège de France, in "L'inquiétude arabe des temps modernes" (Rev. des Et. Islamiques XXVI, 1958, No. 1, 87-107, Les Arabes…, p. 102).

22. Yet it was Renan in France who theorized on the differentiation between semitism and aryanism, the peoples of the first group being inferior, in every respect, to those of the second group (cf. Histoire générale et système comparé des langues sémitiques, 1st part, Paris, 1855); D. Kimson is influenced by it in his Pathologie de l'Islam et les moyens de le détruire (Paris, 1897). This theory has since been continuously combated by all the thinkers and scholars of the Arab world.

23. P. 10-11; a critical analysis of this book is not our purpose here.

24. Le Maghreb entre deux guerres, Paris, 1962, 8.

25. Perspectives…, p. 237.

26. Exposé of the theoretical results in "Expression et signification dans la vie arabe," L'Homme, I, 1961, No. 1. 50-67.

27. Report of the Interdepartmental Commission of Enquiry on Oriental, Slavonic, East European and African Studies, London, H.M.S.O., 1947; commen tary by A. J. Arberry, op. cit., pp. 240-9, analysis and balance sheet in Hayter Report, 6-40.

28. Hayter Report, 45-52.

29. Hayter Report, 53-63. General P. Rcndot, who studies "Les Etats-Units devant l'Orient d'aujourd'hui" (in Orient, 1957, No. 2, 19-52; No. 3, 31-80), points to the role of the foundations, of the Language and Near-Eastern Area School, attached to the American Embassy in Beyrouth, and the two American universities of Beyrouth and Cairo (the latter, we should note, being the only establishment of higher learning authorized in the U.A.R.); the statement of the reasons given by the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), for enlarging its study program on the modern Orient, is expressed thus: "1) To make the greatest possible number of Americans acquainted with the Near East; 2) To encourage the idea that the United States have a vital interest in the present and future developments in this area; 3) to constitute an elite group of intelligent Americans, experts in the questions of the Near East." The judgement of the author on the work accomplished is, however, most reserved. Cf. R. Bayly Windsor, "Arabic and Islamic Studies in the U.S." (in Middle East Forum, No. 31, June 1956, 19-22).

30. "An Interpretation of Islamic History," Cahiers d'histoire mondiale, I, 1953, 39-62.

31. "Pour l'étude des sociétés orientales contemporaines," in Colloque sur la sociologie musulmane—Actes, 11-14 Septembre 1961 (Brussels, 1962): "The fact that we have congregated here to speak of Oriental societies in the absence of our Oriental colleagues is an anomaly (…), which must be meditated upon. Since our interpretations lead us, I think, beyond the political state of affairs, bringing us to a questioning of the methods of our discipline, and, perhaps of its object." (p. 85): "The regrettable absence of our Oriental colleagues among us does not correspond, as might be thought, to a political situation, but to a profound uneasiness, corresponding to the nature itself of the society we are studying, in its relations with ours;" yet "we are not wrong in being such as I describe us." (p. 457).

32. "Arâ'wa chata'hât ‘annâ wa ‘an târikhinâ," Al-Ahram, Dec. 21, 1962.

33. It must be pointed out, notably: "Le problème des échanges culturels," in Etudes Lévi-Provençal …, I. 141-51, which gives a résumé of the theses of the volumes edited by the author, particularly Unity and Variety in Moslem Civilization (Chicago, 1955), and, with W. Hartner, Klassizismus und Kulturverfall (Frankfurt, 1960); "An Analysis of Islamic Civilization and Cultural Anthropology," in Actes Coll. Bruxelles, 21-71.

34. In one page alone—where the author laments: "Alas! the semantic anarchy is only too real. And the escape, far from the facts, into verbalism, all too frequent…" The following errors may be pointed out: al-'hiyâd al-îgâbî (positive neutralism), which since 1959 has been substituted by 'adam al-in'hiyâz (non-commitment), has not been made to disappear because the first expression was "judged obsolete" and the second "considered to be more satisfactory," but rather because of the new orientation of Egyptian policies, after the Bandoeng period, at the moment of the repression of 1959 (cf. our Egypte…, 219-42); "cadres," translated by itârât in North Africa, is not called milâk in the Orient, but simply, kâdr; "structure," as every philosophy student, every intellectual from the Arab countries knows, is called tarkîb in philosophical terminology, but never haykal, gihâz or nizâm; one learns, with the greatest stupefaction, that it was the speech by M. Abdallah Ibrahim, on April 6, 1959, which opened "the road to a modern Arab language in which words correspond to reality" (and before?); and to quote niqâbât (trade unions), in use since 1908, in Cairo, al-gihâz al- assâsi (infrastructure), in Egypt, al-tarkib al-assâsi, while al-tarkib al-'ilwî designates "superstructure," these two last terms have been in use since 1940-1945, among Marxist intellectuals of the Orient, engaged in the struggle for liberation and national edification (L'arabe moderne, Paris 1960, 360). Cf. n. c. by M. Rodinson in Cahiers de l'Orient contemporain, No. 50, 1952.

35. "Those countries that intend to accede to history and make history—says J. Berque—probably have not even now chairs of modern history in their faculties." (Dialogue …, p. 1508). This text, which dates from 1960, seems to ignore the work in modern and contemporary history carried on at the University of Cairo for the past two generations, as well as in Damascus, Bagdad and Alexandria. In just one issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Historical Studies (Cairo, I, 1951, publ. in 1952), 77 pages in 194 are devoted to contemporary history (article by M. M. Safwat and by G. E. al-Chayyâl). Chairs of modern and contemporary history exist in the faculties of letters and political science, in particular. These, of course, are examples, without pretending to exhaust the subject. Cf. criticism of contemporary Arab historiography by A. G. Chejne, "The Use of History by Modern Arab Writers," in Middle East Journ., XIV (1960, 4, 382-96).

Let us point to the fact that a great effort at understanding was made in European countries not directly engaged in traditional colonialism: in Germany, cf. L. Rathmann, "Zur Widerspiegelung des antiimperialistischen Befreiungs bewegung der arabischen Völker in der bürgerlichen deutschen Historiographie," Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, Berlin, X, 1962, No. 3, 548-74); in Spain, F. Cantera Burgos, "Los estudios orientales en la España actual," Oriente Moderno, XXXV, 1955, No. 1, 236-47, etc.

36. Perspectives de l'Orientalisme…, 218-32. Same theme, at the Conference of Brussels: "Orientalist sociology should aim at integrating itself in the oriental societies, not by knowledge formerly tied to colonial expansion, but through a contribution to the analysis, that is, to the construction from within." (Actes…, 458-9); H. Kruse-Elbeshausen, "Islamic Studies in Post-War Germany," Islamic Culture, XXVI, 1952, No. 2, 51-6; on Spain, F. Cantera Burgos, "Los estudios orientales en la España actual," in Oriente Moderno, XXXV, 1955, No. 1. 236-47; on Belgium, G. Ryckmans, "L'orientalisme en Belgique," Revue gén. Belge, 1947, No. 23, 724-38; on Italy, E. Rossi, "Near Eastern Studies in Italy," Middle Eastern Affairs, VIII, 1957, No. 2, 57-60; on Finland, P. Aalto, "Les études orientales en Finlande," Archiv Orientalny, 1951, No. 19, 79-84; A. Abel, "Approches critiques d'une étude sociologique du monde musulman contemporain," Etudes (Brussels), I, 1962, Nos. 1-2, 3-16; etc.

37. Islam and Modern History, Princeton, 1960; in the same spirit : "A great number of Christians, in addition to the author, would be profoundly happy if a Moslem writer should undertake a similar study on contemporary Christianism." This book overflows with interesting analyses and gives an overall view of Islamic reality in Africa as well as in Asia.

38. The budget of one sole university institute in the United States—the "Near Eastern Center" of the University of California in Los Angeles— is six times the annual budget of a particular small European country.

39. Several Arab professors hold teaching positions in various American universities, while others direct research departments.

40. The analysis of the "articles and studies" of the "table of contents for years 1957-1962" of the new modernist review Orient gives clear indications about this subject: four autochtonous authors out of nearly seventy-five; it is true that a good part is constituted by the presentation of texts on the literature, thought, religion and politics of our countries. But these are materials of study for an analyst who remains transcendent.

41. "Problems of Middle Eastern History" (Washington, 1956), in Studies on the Civilization of Islam (London, 1962, 342-3); the author does not want to take into consideration the historical and sociological research work carried out in the Middle East (p. 339-40), except Introduction to the History of Education in Modern Egypt, by J. Heyworth-Dunne (London, 1938). The important work of W. Montgomery Watt, Islam and the Integration of Society (London, 1961), based on the theories of K. Mannheim, is silent on recent Arab works; M. Rodinson points out the most serious in his "Bilan des études mohammadiennes" (in Rev. Historique, fasc. 465, Jan-Mar., 1963), 169-220.

42. On the academic level, two works by J. Austruy, who theorizes on the homo Islamicus, on the basis of a total ignorance of the Arab language and culture: Structure économique et civilisation—l'Egypte et le destin économique de l'Islam (th. Dr., 1960), then L'Islam face au développement économique (Paris, 1961). On the side of journalism, J. and S. Lacouture decree in the matter of culture and religion: "May the author be forgiven for having approached this subject, not reading Arabic?"; then, referring to certain omissions: "We are dealing here only with ‘national' culture"… (L'Egypte en mouvement, 2d. ed., Paris, 1962, 306-343); yet, the work abounds in good pieces. At the same time, S. Lacouture publishes an Egypte (coll. "Petite Planète," Paris, 1962), in which literature, thought, esthetics, etc., are judged peremptorily, which singles out foreign writers living in Egypt who are totally unknown to the public. Of course, these examples could be multiplied… "Consider only the question of literatures. A non-European, who might visit the great reading room of the British Museum or the Bibliothèque Nationale, and ask himself what this enormous mass of books is good for, would be considered a dreadful barbarian. But there are in the world other literatures of more or less equal span, such as, for instance, Chinese literature, of which the average European, even the educated, does not understand a single word. Is he not in his turn a barbarian?" (J. Needham, Le dialogue…, p. 3, n. 1). C. Bremond, in a quick study on "Les Communications de masse dans les pays en voie de développement" (in Communications, II, 1962, 56-67), judges the overall problem on the basis of reports of European experts, without any reference to an autochtonous work, of any country whatsoever.

43. A first selection of his studies and essays will be published soon : Islam, idéologie, marxisme.

44. "When at this date (1950) I decided to orient my research towards the history of the Chinese proletariat and the Chinese working-class movement in the wake of the October Revolution and World War I, it was essentially a sort of Pascalian bet for me, expressing the conviction that it was possible and necessary at the same time to constitute in a truly scientific discipline the study of the contemporary history of China ("Recherches sur l'histoire du mouvement ouvrier chinois," in Mouvement Social, No. 41, Oct. 1962, 1-12). The choice of the central theme of research "the workers' movement" and not "the national move ment" issued from the problematic of European Marxism.

45. The author disposes both of a library unique in the world of works and documents relating to science and technology, as well as of groups of collaborators who surround him at the "Caius and Gonville College," of which he is the principal: Wang-Ching-Ning, Lu-Gwei-Djen, Ho Ping-Yü, Kenneth Robinson, Rs'ao T'ien-Ch'in. The following volumes have already been published: vol. I: Introductory Orientations (Cambridge-London, 1954); II: History of Scientific Thought (1956); III: Mathematics and Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth (1959); IV (A): Physics and Physical Technology-Physics (1963).

46. W. Z. Laqueur notes that the new central periodical of Soviet orientalism Sovetskoe Vostokvedenie, appeared in April 1955, the month of Bandoeng; he points out the decisive role of A. I. Mikoyan, B. G. Gafurov (at the same time member of the Academy of Sciences and the Central Committee of the C. P.), N. A. Mukhtidinov and A. F. Sultanov, all of them leaders of non-European origin, and he designates some publications that he thinks important, namely: Contemporary Persia, Contemporary Syria, the book by E. A. Lebedev on Jordan (1956), that of A. N. Kotlov on the Iraqi Revolution (1958), of I. P. Belaev, American Imperialism in Saudi Arabia (1957), and of M. F. Gataulin, Agrarian Relations in Syria (1957), etc. (The Soviet Union and the Middle East, London, 1959, 168-86). The most important publications on neo-orientalism in the socialist countries are: M. Perlmann, "The Study of the Islamic Middle East in the Soviet Union 1940-1956" (in Report on Current Research, 1957, 17-26); B. G. Gafurov, "Immediate Tasks of Soviet Oriental Studies" (in Vestnik Akademii Nauk, 9, 1957); A. N. Mukhtidinov, K novym uspekham sovietskogo vostokvedenia (Moscow, 1957); M. Guboglu, "40 ans d'études orientales en U.R.S.S. 1917-1957" (in Studia et Acta Orientalia, I, 1958, 281-316), in which he speaks of the "crushing in the Trotzkyite manner of the ‘mode of Asian production,' in 1934" (p. 295); "La prima conferenza Pansovietica degli Orientalisti, Tashkent, 4-11 June 1957" (in Or. Mod. 38, Feb. 1958, 202); W. Z. Laqueur, "The Shifting Line in Soviet Orientalogy (in Problems of Communism, 5, 1956, 20-6); R. Loewenthal, "Russian materials on Islam and Islamic Institutions, a Selective Bibliography (in Der Islam, XXXIII, 1958, Nos. 1-2, 280-309); then: "Russian Materials on Arabs and Arab Countries, a Select. Bibl." (in idem, XXXIV, 1959, 174-87); "Dix ans d'études orientales en Pologne" (in Rocz. Orj., 20, 1956, 7-14); D. Sinor, "Dix années d'orientalisme hongrois" (in Journal Asiatique, 239, 1951, 211-37); Les actes des journées scientifiques d'orientalisme, Praha-Dobríš, 20-25 June 1949; J. Reychman, "Les études orientales (islamiques) en Pologne" (in Stud. et Acta Orient., II, 1959, 161-87); J. Kabrda, "Les études orientales en Yougoslavie" (in Arch. Or. 25, 1957, 146-55); J. Blaskovic, "Les buts, l'organisation et l'activité de l'école orientalistique Tchécoslovaque" (in Stud. et Acta Or., 2, 1959, 61-9); K. Petráček, "Les études arabes et islamiques et la sémitologie en Tchécoslovaquie" (in Arch. Or., 19, 1951, 98-107); J. Rypka, "L'Orientalisme en Tchécoslovaquie" (in Arch. Or. 19, 1951, 15-26); M. Guboglu, "Contributions roumaines aux études orientales" (in Arch. Or., 24, 1956, 459-75); D. Zbaritel, Die Orientalistik in der Tschechoslovakei, Prague, 1959; etc.

47. "Christianity and the Asian Cultures" (in Theology, LXV, 1962, 1-8).

48. "There were long centuries of preparation during which Europe was assimilating Arab teaching, Indian thought and Chinese technology;" "Europe is not interested in the inventions which have made these voyages (of the explorers) possible. The compass and the stern-post rudder, originally from China; the multiple masts, from India and Indonesia; the latin artimon sails due to the sailors of Islam;" "frequently one hears talk to the effect that the Europeans alone had discovered the whole rest of the world. A limited conception, and not at all true before the Renaissance. Bactrian Greeks did not discover the Chinese; on the contrary, it was the Chinese who discovered the Greeks (in the person of Tchang Tchien about 125 B.C.). Two centuries later, Kan Ying penetrated as far as the Persian Gulf, that is, a lot farther West than any Roman had traveled East. At the end of the Ming dynasty, the Chinese flag could be seen flown everywhere, in the Pacific and the Indian Ocean, from Zanzibar to Borneo, and Borneo to Kamtchatka;" "The idea one hears expressed quite frequently, namely, that it is due to European civilization that the true historic sense was developed, is altogether inadmissible. The honor rather reverts to Chinese civili zation, whose 24 historic dynasties, beginning in 90 B.C., form a body of work by historians without equal anywhere. (…) Even if one persists in considering ‘historical sense' as ‘philosophy of history,' the European contributions were also not the first, since Ibn Kaldoun lived three centuries before Vico;" "One cannot accept the thesis, according to which it was from Europe that the idea of making one single society of the human race radiated. The Confucean proposition, ‘between the four seas all men are brothers,' dates back to the fourth century B.C. In India, Kabir was only one of the voices in the choir of poets and prophets of human solidarity;" "Certain European scholars consider that modern science and technology, in their victorious radiation across the whole world, have been accompanied by a secularized form, which has branched out, mutilated, from European civilization. They assert, not without sadness, that the European system of religious values has been rejected by all the national independence movements of Asia and Africa. Since, for these thinkers, Christianity is inseparable from the spirit of modern science; it provided, so to speak, the intellectual climate for its evolution. In accepting such theories, one was not far from admitting the predication for a new crusade, in order to impose European religious ideas on other cultures. Its flags could well bear the sign of the cross, but they would be born by capitalism and imperialism. But what precisely are the philosophical elements inseparable from science and technology, this is what no one has as yet been able to determine." (Le dialogues…) Since then the deeply human encyclica, Pacem in terris, of John XXIII has marked the will of catholicism to put an end to this vision of things.

49. "A. I. Mikoyan's Speech at the 25th International Congress of Orientalists" (in Problemi Vostokvedenia, 1950, No. 5, 3-6). The (disinterested) aim of orientalism is that of "the military engineer studying the offensive or defensive works of the enemy: its destruction," said Goguyer in his translation of Ibn Mâlik's Alfiyya (quoted by L. Massignon, Mardis de Dar el-Salâm, IX, 1958, 59); etc.

50. K. Mueller, "Der Ostblok und die Entwicklungsländer," Das Parlament, July 12, 1961, 397-411.

51. Exposé in Colloque sur les recherches des instituts français de sciences humaines en Asie, org. by the Foundation Singer-Polignac, 23-31 Oct. 1959 (Paris, 1960), 39-41.

52. The theses established in Oriental Despotism have been severely criticized, particularly by E. E. Leach, "Hydraulic Society in Ceylon" (in Past and Present, 1959, No. 15, 2-29); J. Needham, "The Past in China's Present" (in Centennial Review, IV, 1960, No. 2, 164-5); J. Chesneaux, La recherche …, 12, No. 5. A recent lecture by the Hungarian scholar F. Tokei, Sur le "mode de production asiatique," at C.E.R.M. (Paris, June 1962, 35 pages), on the basis of a recent text by Marx, Formen, die der kapitalistischen Produktion vorgehen: Grundrisse der Kritik der politiachen Oekonomie. Rohentwurf (Berlin, 1953), inaugurates a new moment of Marxist research on this problem.

53. Marx-Engels, The First Indian War of Independence, Moscow, 1960, 36-37. It is an entirely different problem than "mutual fault" based on the theory called the "reciprocity of perspectives"…

54. Remarkable theoretical report by F. Althusser, "Contradiction et surdé termination," then "Sur la dialectique matérialiste," La Pensée, No. 106, 1962, 3-20, and No. 116, 1963, 5-46. Several studies, to be published in 1963-64, formulate the first lines of our concept of civilization, national-cultural, of social evolution in the Arab world; the first, "Problematica del socialismo nel mondo arabo," in Nuovi Argomenti (61-66, 1963-64, 141-83).

55. According to our opinion, the theoretical basis of the Sino-Soviet di vergencies consists in the refusal as a matter of principle by the Chinese leaders of any kind of perpetuation of "europeocentrism" in Marxist theory and in revolutionary strategy. Already, in 1955, Georg Lukács wrote: "In the course of their march towards modern civilization, in their effort to liquidate the residues of their own Middle Ages, countries such as India follow a road which gives a place at least partially to socialism. It is entirely conceivable that the original characteristics of these social transformations will express themselves through new literary forms, which could not be reduced to abstract schemata." (Die Gegenwarts bedeutung des kritischen Realismus, 1955, Hamburg, sub. Wider den missver standenen Realismus, Fr. trans. by de Gandillac, Paris, 1960, 137).

56. J. Chesneaux, La recherche…, 11-16.

57. "The 21st Congress of the C.P.S.U. and the Tasks of Orientalogy" (in Probl. Vostokv., I, 1959, 18-25); also M. Mancall, "The 21st Party Congress and Soviet Orientalogy" (in J. Asian Studies, XIX, 1960, No. 2, 18-25).

58. Enrica Collotti-Pischel, in Cina, India ed Egitto e la "fase di transizione," rightly points out the geographic and historical affinities of the Arab and Moslem researchers with their European colleagues, while the gap deepens as soon as China is approached (Problemi del Socialismo, VI, 1963, No. 2, 193-213). Her book, La rivoluzione ininterrotta (Turin, 1962) constitutes the most sympathetic effort undertaken by European Marxism to understand the Chinese vision of history.

59. Colloque sur la recherche, cf. note 51.

60. The latter, in his remarkable lectures at the Sorbonne, namely: L'Orient philosophique: généralités, définitions; Missionaires et philosophes; Sinophiles et Sinophobes (stencilled issues, Paris, 1960-62).

61. Fung Yeou Lan, History of Chinese Philosophy, Peking, 1937, Princeton, 2 vol. (1952-3) and J. Needham, Science and Civilization…, vol. II.

62. Under the impetus of the rector Cheikh Moustapha ‘Abd al-Râziq (1882- 1947), the method of history of Moslem philosophy was renovated, particularly in his Tamhîd lî târîkh al-falsafâ al-Islâmiyya, Cairo, 1944. Cf. works by ‘Abd al-Rahmân Badawî, ‘Abbâs al'Aqqâd, ‘Osmân Amin, Mohammad Youssef Moussa, Ibrahim Madkoûr, Isma'îl Mazhar, Mohammad ‘Abd al-Hâdi Aboû Rîda, ‘Omar Farroûkh, etc. Cf. Al-fikr al-falsafi fî mi'at ‘âm (Amer. Univ., Beyrouth, 1962), pp. 9-70, 102-241, 298-392; our review of "How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs," by De Lacy O'Leary (London, 1951), in Al-Magalla, I, 1957, No. 4, 125-7, etc.

63. Paul Sweezy, The Present as History, New York, 1953.

64. Cf. Acts of the conference Probleme des Neokolonialismus und die Politik der beiden deutschen Staaten gegenüber dem nationalen Befreiungskampf der Völker April 5-8 1961, Leipzig), 2 vol. The text quoted is from the article by Mancall.

65. J. Chesneaux established (in La recherche…, 10-11) the following approxi mate table from the 20th Congress of Orientalists (Paris, 1948), to the 25th, held in Moscow, in 1960:

66. The Past… (in Centennial Review, IV, 1960, No. 3, 308).

67. La Revue d'histoire économique et sociale de l'Orient, dir. by Cl. Cahen (in Leyden since 1957), deals primarily with the classical periods. In the sum mary of the main Marxist or near-Marxist historical journals of Western Europe—Past and Present (Oxford), Recherches internationales (Paris), Studi Sto rici (Rome)—the contemporary Orient continues to occupy a largely secondary place. The English Marxists (namely Lawrence and Wishart Publishers) devote much more attention to it, notably R. Palme Dutt, The Crisis of Britain and the British Empire (London, 1957), Problems of Contemporary History (1963), the works of J. Woddis on Africa, etc.

68. Quoted several times in the preceding notes.

69. On this institute, cf. Probl. Vostokv., 1960, No. 6, 221 sqq.

70. Colloque sur les recherches

71. H. Passin, China's Cultural Diplomacy, London, 1962, 107-15.

72. In the United States, it is interesting to note that the "main emphasis has been put on six ‘critical' languages, which are Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Portuguese and Russian; however, eighteen other Slav and Asian languages have been selected to receive attention," says the Hayter Report (p. 55), which formulates its own conclusions for Great Britan, p. 92-99.