"Orient" began to develop negative connotations following the publication of the ground-breaking work Orientalism by Edward Said. Following the ideas of Michel Foucault, Said emphasized the relationship between power and knowledge in scholarly and popular thinking, in particular regarding European views of the Islamic world. Said argued that Orient and Occident worked as oppositional terms, so that the "Orient" was constructed as a negative inversion of Western culture. Said's account de-emphasize the works of "Orientalists". Many genuine contributions to the study of Eastern cultures made by Westerners during the Enlightenment and Victorian eras. While many distortions and fantasies certainly existed, the notion of "the Orient" as a negative mirror image of the West cannot be wholly true because attitudes to distinct cultures diverged significantly. In any case it is a logical necessity that other cultures will be identified as "different", since otherwise their distinctive characteristics would be invisible, and that the most striking differences will hold up the mirror to the observing culture. Orientalists have provided a huge amount of information about ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Hittite, ancient Persia, whose materials predate the beginning of Islam. What they found out in orient was the matrix, from which later Hebraism and Hellenism sprang. As Erasmus initiated Renaissance in 15th century, orientalists ushered us in a new era of "Oriental Renaissance" by which later daughter civilizations, especially Hebraism and Hellenism would be properly evaluated and fathomed.

"Orient" began to develop negative connotations following the publication of the ground-breaking work Orientalism by Edward Said. Following the ideas of Michel Foucault, Said emphasized the relationship between power and knowledge in scholarly and popular thinking, in particular regarding European views of the Islamic world. Said argued that Orient and Occident worked as oppositional terms, so that the "Orient" was constructed as a negative inversion of Western culture. Said's account de-emphasize the works of "Orientalists". Many genuine contributions to the study of Eastern cultures made by Westerners during the Enlightenment and Victorian eras. While many distortions and fantasies certainly existed, the notion of "the Orient" as a negative mirror image of the West cannot be wholly true because attitudes to distinct cultures diverged significantly. In any case it is a logical necessity that other cultures will be identified as "different", since otherwise their distinctive characteristics would be invisible, and that the most striking differences will hold up the mirror to the observing culture. Orientalists have provided a huge amount of information about ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Hittite, ancient Persia, whose materials predate the beginning of Islam. What they found out in orient was the matrix, from which later Hebraism and Hellenism sprang. As Erasmus initiated Renaissance in 15th century, orientalists ushered us in a new era of "Oriental Renaissance" by which later daughter civilizations, especially Hebraism and Hellenism would be properly evaluated and fathomed.

orientalism, oriental renaissance, Mesopotamia, Edward Said, ancient Near East