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The concept of Oriental despotism allowed early modern Europeans to distinguish themselves from the most powerful and impressive non-European civilizations of the Ottoman Middle East, Persia, India, and China on grounds that were neither fundamentally religious nor linked to sheer scientific and technological progress but were rather political and moral.   

The concept of Oriental despotism allowed early modern Europeans to distinguish themselves from the most powerful and impressive non-European civilizations of the Ottoman Middle East, Persia, India, and China on grounds that were neither fundamentally religious nor linked to sheer scientific and technological progress but were rather political and moral.   

The French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) situated India within a global context of history and cultural exchange. He helped create a recognizable entity "India," in the Western imagination by studying selected texts and focusing on a romanticized ideal of India as an Oriental paradise. Voltaire's motivation was primarily the Enlightenment attack on the Catholic Church and, more specifically, Voltaire's claim that many of the most important Christian rituals had their origin in Hindu rituals.<ref>Jyoti Mohan, "La Civilisation la plus Antique: Voltaire's Images of India." ''Journal of World History'' 2005 16(2): 173-185. Issn: 1045-6007 Fulltext: in History Cooperative, Project Muse and Ebsco</ref>

The French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire (1694–1778) situated India within a global context of history and cultural exchange. He helped create a recognizable entity "India," in the Western imagination by studying selected texts and focusing on a romanticized ideal of India as an Oriental paradise. Voltaire's motivation was primarily the Enlightenment attack on the Catholic Church and, more specifically, Voltaire's claim that many of the most important Christian rituals had their origin in Hindu rituals.<ref>Jyoti Mohan, "La Civilisation la plus Antique: Voltaire's Images of India." ''Journal of World History'' 2005 16(2): 173-185. Issn: 1045-6007 Fulltext: in History Cooperative, Project Muse and Ebsco</ref>

The Western use of the harem as a metaphor for aspects of Western life appears as early as 1721, in Baron de Montesquieu's widely-read ''Persian Letters.'' Lewis (2004) studies historical attitudes toward Ottoman women expressed in 19th-century writings by European women as well as the Ottoman women themselves. Lewis tracks the determination by these different women to emancipate Ottoman women. In her book, Lewis shows how the Western woman author was able to successfully print and sell unique accounts of harem women who were forbidden to Western men. In this way, harem literature was monopolized by European and Ottoman women.

The Western use of the harem as a metaphor for aspects of Western life appears as early as 1721, in Baron de Montesquieu's widely-read ''Persian Letters.'' Lewis (2004) studies historical attitudes toward Ottoman women expressed in 19th-century writings by European women as well as the Ottoman women themselves. Lewis tracks the determination by these different women to emancipate Ottoman women. In her book, Lewis shows how the Western woman author was able to successfully print and sell unique accounts of harem women who were forbidden to Western men. In this way, harem literature was monopolized by European and Ottoman women.

===German scholars===

===German scholars===

In 1808, [[Friedrich Schlegel]] (1772-1829) published his ''Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier'' (1808). This work distilled his long study of Sanskrit and Indian literature and introduced evidence and hypotheses regarding the affinities between Sanskrit and the languages of Europe, especially Greek, Latin, and German. This kinship had earlier been suggested in the writings of British Sanskrit expert Sir [[William Jones]]. Schlegel's work also explored Indian and Oriental philosophies and suggested that these, like the language, had been transmitted to Europe in the remote past. In fact, there was a growing interest in Indian civilization, symbolism, and religion in the Romantic era, and interest was also visible in the ideas - often derived from etymological research - of Franz Bopp, Joseph Görres, and Friedrich Creuzer. These writers probed the area of comparative mythology with particular eagerness. Accurate or not in its speculations, German Orientalism was significant in part because it contributed to the ideological formation of a German identity in the 19th century, and not just where the emergence of the anti-Semitic notion of an "Aryan Race" is concerned. In this, the Germans' imaginative explorations were rather distinct from those of the British scholars whose views of India were often gained and conditioned by the colonizing experience. Schlegel modeled his studies on the humanistic project of the Renaissance, but predicated on the assumption that all European cultures were united around a Germanic core originally influenced by the Asian East.<ref>Chen Tzoref-Ashkenazi, "India and the Identity of Europe: the Case of Friedrich Schlegel," ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 2006 67(4): 713-734. Issn: 0022-5037 Fulltext: 1. Project Muse and Ebsco</ref>

In 1808, [[Friedrich Schlegel]] (1772–1829) published his ''Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier'' (1808). This work distilled his long study of Sanskrit and Indian literature and introduced evidence and hypotheses regarding the affinities between Sanskrit and the languages of Europe, especially Greek, Latin, and German. This kinship had earlier been suggested in the writings of British Sanskrit expert Sir [[William Jones]]. Schlegel's work also explored Indian and Oriental philosophies and suggested that these, like the language, had been transmitted to Europe in the remote past. In fact, there was a growing interest in Indian civilization, symbolism, and religion in the Romantic era, and interest was also visible in the ideas - often derived from etymological research - of Franz Bopp, Joseph Görres, and Friedrich Creuzer. These writers probed the area of comparative mythology with particular eagerness. Accurate or not in its speculations, German Orientalism was significant in part because it contributed to the ideological formation of a German identity in the 19th century, and not just where the emergence of the anti-Semitic notion of an "Aryan Race" is concerned. In this, the Germans' imaginative explorations were rather distinct from those of the British scholars whose views of India were often gained and conditioned by the colonizing experience. Schlegel modeled his studies on the humanistic project of the Renaissance, but predicated on the assumption that all European cultures were united around a Germanic core originally influenced by the Asian East.<ref>Chen Tzoref-Ashkenazi, "India and the Identity of Europe: the Case of Friedrich Schlegel," ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 2006 67(4): 713-734. Issn: 0022-5037 Fulltext: 1. Project Muse and Ebsco</ref>

===British thought: Disraeli===

===British thought: Disraeli===

[[Benjamin Disraeli]] (1804-1881), a popular novelist and politician (later prime minister), was outspokenly philo-Semitic. He was a romantic who embraced his own Jewishness (although he had become a member of the Church of England as a young teenager) and in culture, habit, and political policy followed a pattern of Orientalist (spiritual, intuitive, and emotional rather than rational and practical) behavior. He clearly believed that Orientalism, rooted in Turkish and Semitic - both Arabian and Jewish - tradition, if supported and protected by the colonial powers, could offer much of value to the Christian West. Fueled by contemporary ethnology and race theories, Disraeli argued that Jews were a superior, "aristocratic" race destined to become the spiritual and intellectual guides for modern Europe. Enabling such claims was Disraeli's skillful manipulation of Orientalist discourse, whereby he routinely reversed its stereotypical privileging of West over East. Following the example of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1847 satiric response to Disraeli in the story "Codlingsby,"; however, Schweller (2006) argues that Disraeli's "strategy of reversals" ultimately failed because it did not adequately comprehend traditional Western associations and meanings of "aristocracy," a fundamental misunderstanding that, for Disraeli's political enemies and critics, exposed him yet again as a foreigner, an Oriental, and a Jew.<ref>Ivan Davidson Kalmar, "Benjamin Disraeli, Romantic Orientalist." ''Comparative Studies in Society and History'' 2005 47(2): 348-371. Issn: 0010-4175 Fulltext: in Cambridge Journals;  Russell Schweller, "'Mosaic Arabs': Jews and Gentlemen in Disraeli's Young England Trilogy." ''Shofar'' 2006 24(2): 55-69. Issn: 0882-8539 Fulltext: in Ebsco</ref>

[[Benjamin Disraeli]] (1804–1881), a popular novelist and politician (later prime minister), was outspokenly philo-Semitic. He was a romantic who embraced his own Jewishness (although he had become a member of the Church of England as a young teenager) and in culture, habit, and political policy followed a pattern of Orientalist (spiritual, intuitive, and emotional rather than rational and practical) behavior. He clearly believed that Orientalism, rooted in Turkish and Semitic - both Arabian and Jewish - tradition, if supported and protected by the colonial powers, could offer much of value to the Christian West. Fueled by contemporary ethnology and race theories, Disraeli argued that Jews were a superior, "aristocratic" race destined to become the spiritual and intellectual guides for modern Europe. Enabling such claims was Disraeli's skillful manipulation of Orientalist discourse, whereby he routinely reversed its stereotypical privileging of West over East. Following the example of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1847 satiric response to Disraeli in the story "Codlingsby,"; however, Schweller (2006) argues that Disraeli's "strategy of reversals" ultimately failed because it did not adequately comprehend traditional Western associations and meanings of "aristocracy," a fundamental misunderstanding that, for Disraeli's political enemies and critics, exposed him yet again as a foreigner, an Oriental, and a Jew.<ref>Ivan Davidson Kalmar, "Benjamin Disraeli, Romantic Orientalist." ''Comparative Studies in Society and History'' 2005 47(2): 348-371. Issn: 0010-4175 Fulltext: in Cambridge Journals;  Russell Schweller, "'Mosaic Arabs': Jews and Gentlemen in Disraeli's Young England Trilogy." ''Shofar'' 2006 24(2): 55-69. Issn: 0882-8539 Fulltext: in Ebsco</ref>

Proudman (2005) presents a detailed critique of Said's representation of Disraeli as the archetypal Orientalist. Far from functioning as a producer of knowledge about the East that undergirded imperialism, Disraeli remained consistently sympathetic to Islam, both in his 1847 novel ''Tancred'' and in his political involvement with the Balkan crises of the 1870s. The novel, published one year after the division of the Tory party, was primarily a critique of British liberalism, in which Disraeli used a romanticized vision of the Orient to attack the values of post-Enlightenment Europe. Said, in failing to take into account Disraeli's political environment, committed factual errors that included erroneously holding him responsible for the occupation of Egypt in 1882.<ref>Mark F. Proudman, "Disraeli as an 'Orientalist': the Polemical Errors of Edward Said." ''Journal of the Historical Society'' 2005 5(4): 547-568. Issn: 1529-921x Fulltext: in Ebsco</ref>

Proudman (2005) presents a detailed critique of Said's representation of Disraeli as the archetypal Orientalist. Far from functioning as a producer of knowledge about the East that undergirded imperialism, Disraeli remained consistently sympathetic to Islam, both in his 1847 novel ''Tancred'' and in his political involvement with the Balkan crises of the 1870s. The novel, published one year after the division of the Tory party, was primarily a critique of British liberalism, in which Disraeli used a romanticized vision of the Orient to attack the values of post-Enlightenment Europe. Said, in failing to take into account Disraeli's political environment, committed factual errors that included erroneously holding him responsible for the occupation of Egypt in 1882.<ref>Mark F. Proudman, "Disraeli as an 'Orientalist': the Polemical Errors of Edward Said." ''Journal of the Historical Society'' 2005 5(4): 547-568. Issn: 1529-921x Fulltext: in Ebsco</ref>

* Dirlik, Arif. "Chinese History and the Question of Orientalism," ''History and Theory,'' Vol. 35, No. 4, (Dec., 1996), pp.&nbsp;96–118  [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0018-2656(199612)35%3A4%3C96%3ACHATQO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-9 in JSTOR]

* Dirlik, Arif. "Chinese History and the Question of Orientalism," ''History and Theory,'' Vol. 35, No. 4, (Dec., 1996), pp.&nbsp;96–118  [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0018-2656(199612)35%3A4%3C96%3ACHATQO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-9 in JSTOR]

* Hamilton, Alistair, and Francis Richard. ''André Du Ryer and Oriental Studies in Seventeenth-Century France'' (2004)

* Hamilton, Alistair, and Francis Richard. ''André Du Ryer and Oriental Studies in Seventeenth-Century France'' (2004)

* Huggan, Graham. "(Not) Reading Orientalism," ''Research in African Literatures'' vol 36#3 (2005) 124-136 in Project Muse

* Huggan, Graham. "(Not) Reading Orientalism," ''Research in African Literatures'' vol 36#3 (2005) 124–136 in Project Muse

* Irwin, Robert.  ''Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism and Its Discontents.'' (2006). 416 pp.   

* Irwin, Robert.  ''Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism and Its Discontents.'' (2006). 416 pp.   

* Jun, Helen H., “Black Orientalism: Nineteenth-Century Narratives of Race and U.S. Citizenship,” ''American Quarterly,'' 58 (Dec. 2006), 1047–66. in [[Project MUSE]]

* Jun, Helen H., “Black Orientalism: Nineteenth-Century Narratives of Race and U.S. Citizenship,” ''American Quarterly,'' 58 (Dec. 2006), 1047–66. in [[Project MUSE]]