Journal of Al-qadisiya in arts and educational sciense

Abstract

Over successive historical eras, the East
witnessed the influx of great numbers of
European travelers who tried their best to
unravel its talismans and secrets. The East
always represented mystery and magic for
the Europeans. Despite the numerous studies
that tackles the European travelers, they
neglected important and basic sides of these
travels, especially the development of the
concept of the East in the European thought.
In addition, these studies lacked a
comprehensive view because of the difficulty
to access all the travels and the intermingling of the studies over the successive periods;
hence, there arose the importance of the
present study.
The study, which draws heavily on
original sources, falls into an introduction
and three sections which deal with these
travels respectively. The sections begin
tackling the pioneers who started the
exploration of the East – the mysterious
world – through the interest in the universe
and its philosophy. Then, they move to the
development of the European thought, viz.
the Middle Ages , or the age of faith, during
which the East became an enemy and a
competitor after the spread of the Arab
Islamic civilization; thence, appeared the
East/West ideology that is related to the
self/other binarism. The third phase dealt
with in the sections of the study is that which
tackles the East as an arena of the political,
economic, and religious competition.
European travelers of various backgrounds,
nationalities , and objectives started roaming
the East; politics intermingled with religion
and exploration. Each phase is characterized
by specific features represented partially by
the travellors.