Arabian Nights: Shaping of Western

Arabian Nights: Shaping of Western Perspectives Through Literature

Long before the invention of the internet, the world relied upon literature to gain knowledge about other cultures. As such, the writings of novelists, poets, journalists, and research writers whose own, and often limited experiences, together with their own personal views on culture, politics, and religion served as the basis for shaping many a reader's mind regarding foreign cultures and traditions. This shaping of the mind, which Edward W. Said contends was most prominently shaped through colonial and post colonial literature, are the images and the understanding by which most Westerners today still perceive the East, and most specifically the near Eastern Arab Islamic Muslim culture (Said, 1979). It is a prevailing stereotypical image and understanding that has been created for the Westerner, first, through the use of language in literature from a place of "intellectual authority over the Orient within Western culture (p. 19)." The intellectual authority over the Orient, according to Said, helped to reinforce the Westerner's own identity as one superior to that of the Easterner's, and, thusly, in the mind of the Westerner, made the West more powerful than the East, especially given the history of the West's geographical imperial expansion (pp. 54-55). These prevailing stereotypical images and Western understanding of the Orient are in part what Said defines as Orientalism.

Said's concepts of Western Orientalism, the West's intellectual authority and its "relationship of strong to weak (p. 39)" as gained from literature are examined in this essay using the work of Captain Sir Richard Burton, in his the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Burton was born to the English privileged class; he was the son of a retired lieutenant colonel, and his early education was conducted in Italy and France (Zipes, 1991). Later, he attended Trinity College in Oxford (expelled in 1842), and he became fluent in foreign languages (Zipes). By way of his experiences in foreign countries and his academic training, Burton eventually became proficient in twenty-five languages and fifteen dialects (Zipes). He enrolled in the British Army, which led him to India where he worked as a subaltern officer (Zipes). He spent eight years in India, but he resigned from the Army when some of the work he was involved in became "too controversial (Zipes, p. vii)." He lived with his mother in France from 1850 to 1852, and during that time he wrote four books on India (Zipes).

Later, Burton became a traveler and explorer, and "was the first westerner to visit forbidden Moslem cities and shrines (Zipes, pp. vii-viii)." He took at least two exploratory trips along the Nile, but went to America in 1860 to pursue his research of the American Seventh Day Adventist, Brigham Young (Zipes). In 1861, he married into an aristocratic family, and accepted a post as consul, in Fernando Po, a Spanish island off the coast of West Africa (Zipes). From 1864 to 1868, he served as a British consul in Santos, Brazil, and, from 1868-1871, he held a post as consul in Damascus, Syria (Zipes). His last post before his death in 1890 was in Trieste, Italy (Zipes).

Jack Zipes (1991) says that Burton's "unexpurgated translation of William Hay McNaughten's Calcutta II edition (1839-42)," is considered one of the finest works on what has subsequently (in the West) become known as One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, or Arabian Nights (p. vii). Zipes is perhaps one of the few authors who have rewritten the book for Western readers based on Burton's translation, who discusses the fact that Burton indulged in plagiarism while writing his translation of McNaughten's work (p. viii). A fact reported by Zipes, but one that is absent in more recent biographies on Burton by such authors as Edward Rice, whose 2001 book, Captain Sir Francis Richard Burton: A Biography, portrays Burton an explorer, a spy, as was as an accomplished author and translator whose "Arabian Nights lead the reader to see that in Burton's view sex, for women as well as men, was not an uncomfortable duty for the propagation of the race but a pleasure to be enjoyed with enthusiasm and vivacity (Rice, p. 6)."

Whether or not Rice is referring to the race of the characters in Arabian Nights, or the race of the reader of the stories, remains unclear; but it is exactly this kind of interpretation of Burton's work as it is read by the Western reader (Rice in this case) that is the subject of this essay. Said (1991) writes:

"Many terms were used to express the relation: Balfour and Cromer typically used several. The Oriental is irrational, depraved (fallen), childlike, "different"; thus, the European is rational, virtuous, mature, "normal." But the way of enlivening the relationship was everywhere to stress the fact that the Oriental lived in a different but thoroughly organized world of his own, a world with its own national, cultural, and epistemological boundaries and principles of internal coherence. Yet what gave the Oriental's its intelligibility identity was not of his own efforts but rather the whole complex series of knowledgeable manipulations by which the Orient was identified by the West. Thus, the two features of cultural relationship I have been discussing come together. Knowledge of the Orient, because generated out of strength, in a sense creates the Orient, the Oriental, and his world. In Cromer's and Balfour's language the Orient the Oriental is depicted as something one judges (as in a court of law), something one studies and depicts (as in a curriculum), something one disciplines (as in a school or prison), something one illustrates (as in a zoological manual). The point is that in each of these cases the Oriental is contained and represented by dominating frameworks (p. 54)."

Whether or not the intent of Burton's work, as Rice says, was, in at least one way, to demonstrate to the Western reader "that that in Burton's view sex, for women as well as men, was not an uncomfortable duty for the propagation of the race but a pleasure to be enjoyed with enthusiasm and vivacity (Rice, p. 6)," it served as the "framework" said mentions by which the West perceives the Orient and the Oriental, and because it would be used as an element of comparison to self by the reader, creates a "sense" of the Oriental that is not necessarily consistent with Oriental culture, traditions, values, or religious or personal morals.

While Burton was clearly, according to Rice, a man who was deeply interested in cultural eroticism as denoted by Burton's works in that regard, including the Arabian Nights, but, too, the Anaga Ranga and Kama Sutra "which he discovered (Rice, p. 6)," Burton was influenced in other ways as a result of his own experiences in politics, religion, and by his own European ethnicity. These influences are like an onion-skin layer over his work in Arabian Nights, and serve to create the sense and image of the Oriental that allows the Westerner to see his self in a place intellectually and culturally superior to the Oriental, creating a barrier to equality between the East and the West that would allow the West to see and understand the Oriental as a partner, or an equal, in society, politics, religion, and world affairs.

This essay will explore the ideas and philosophies of other scholars who reject Said's ideas on Orientalism. Some of those scholars will seemingly be the most unlikely persons of opposition, such as Ibn Warraq (2007), who holds that Said's Orientalism is, by way of putting European imperialism at the center of his perspective on Orientalism, is the one who, in the end, is creating the barrier between the equality that is being sought between the East and the West today.

These ideas and philosophies will be examined in relation to Burton's interpretation and annotations in One Thousand Nights and One Night, and begins with a literature review of the existing literature on Orientalism, and, for comparison, other adaptations and interpretations of Burton's work. The history of the origins of collection of stories told by the character Shahrazad that comprise the Arabian Nights will be explored so that on the basis of origin some understanding of the place of the work in the life of the Oriental can be better understood. This is necessary to understand how, taken out of the context of overall meaning in which it was intended to be read, can impact the perception and understand of Orientals as a people when read by readers (Western) who read without the benefit of having traveled to, or experienced the Orient themselves.

The sensitive and emotional issues of savage slavery as depicted in the stories in conjunction with an exploration of the condition and savagery of slavery perpetrated against people of other cultures by the West will be examined here and used as a comparison that will demonstrate that in this regard, at least, not only is the West an equal offender as transgressor of human rights, but that the West maintains a blindness towards that aspect of its own history, while at the same time through these timeless works of imperial expansion authors like Burton, continue to hold the East out as different and offensive for the same acts of cruelty and barbarous slavery as were committed in the past by the West. This will reveal the bias of the West and how it has come to embrace the stereotypical imagery and ideas of the Oriental.

In conclusion, the essay will briefly recount the points made throughout the essay overall, but will also offer analytical ideas as to how, understanding Orientalism as a product of the colonial and post colonial West, how the East and the West might move forward and achieve the cultural equality necessary to build a safe and productive global community and environment of co-existence through mutual respect, understanding, and equality.

ONE

Literature Review

It is only in conjunction with other works which specifically address the subject of Orientalism that one begins to identify markers of Orientalism in Captain Sir Richard Burton's interpretation of the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (Burton, ). Works by authors like Edward W. Said, who spent much of his life studying and analyzing Orientalism; are tangential to the broad range of perspectives that help the reader of Thousand and One Nights understand Burton's need to appeal to a Western audience, his lack of cultural knowledge -- even though he was experienced in travel among the cultures of the Orient. Burton's interpretation is through Western eyes, and there is much that is misconstrued, especially if we do not know the author himself, and his motivations for presenting themes and characters in the way that he does.

Said, as an expert on the subject of Orientalism, has much to contribute to this essay, but that does not mean that we accept Said's conclusions without question, or the other contributing Orientalists, because, having read the stories of Thousand and One Nights, we might not agree with all the different views of the Orientalists as it pertains to Burton's interpretation of the stories in the books.

This literature review is a compilation of the existing works by different authors in support of the Orientalist's theories and conclusions as they might be applied to Burton's Nights. Also, existing works, by authors who challenge Said's conclusions, and those of other Orientalists. These authors provide us with the ideas that help to create a broader perspective, and to decide if Burton was indeed attempting to influence his reading audience in a way that presented the culture of Arabs and Muslims in a negative way, effectively stereotyping Arabs and Muslims as inferior to Westerners.

This list may be added to, and some works replaced depending upon the availability of the resource material.

Said, Edward W. (1979). Orientalism, Vintage Books, New York, NY. This book might be called the premier work on Orientalism, and it does as much to help the reader understand Orientalism, as it provides provoking thoughts that might cause the reader to challenge certain of Said's ideas. In this book, Said focuses on Western literature and authors, novelists and poets alike, such as Balfour and Cromer, who wrote in colonial and post colonial periods and covered subject matters, creative or otherwise, that involved their own impressions of the Orient, and especially their impressions of the Islamist or Muslim.

Said contends that the language of the colonial and post colonial, nineteenth century novelists, poets, and authors was purposeful in creating negative stereotypes. Said writes, "Knowledge of the Orient, because generated out of strength, in a sense creates the Orient, the Oriental, and his world. In Cromer's and Balfour's language the Orient the Oriental is depicted as something one judges (as in a court of law), something one studies and depicts (as in a curriculum), something one disciplines (as in a school or prison), something one illustrates (as in a zoological manual). The point is that in each of these cases the Oriental is contained and represented by dominating frameworks (p. 39)."

Said, Edward W. (1993). Culture and Imperialism, Vintage Books, New York, NY. This book follows Said's Orientalism, and it further explores that subject in relationship to Western imperialism, and from the political perspective and advantage as the colonizer of the Orient.

Said explains it this way, "Yet it bears repeating that no matter how apparently complete the dominance of an ideology or social system, there are always going to be parts of the social experience that it does not cover and control. From these parts very frequently comes opposition, both self-conscious and dialectical. This is not as complicated as it sounds. Opposition to a dominant structure arises out of a perceived, perhaps even militant awareness on the part of the individual and groups outside and inside it that, for example, certain of its policies are wrong. As the major studies of Gordon K. Lewis (Slavery, Imperialism, and Freedom) and Robin Blackburn (the Overthrow of Colonial Slavery 1776-1848) show, an extraordinary amalgam of metropolitan individuals and movements -- millenarians, revivalists, do-gooders, political radicals, cynical planters, and canny politicians - contributed to the decline of and end of the slave trade by the 1840s. And far from there being a single unopposed British colonial interest running directly from say, the Hanoverians to Queen Victoria, historical research that might be called revisionist or oppositional has shown a variegated contest of interests. Scholars like Lewis Blackburn, Bill Davidson, Terrence Ranger, and E.P. Thompson, among others, premised their work on the paradigm given by the cultural and political resistance within imperialism (p. 240)."

In other words, there is the "resistance within imperialism" that disallowed the notion of the Oriental as an equal, a partner, or even as the rightful owners or heirs of colonized space. It is, therefore, possible to imagine how Orientalism would flow from the cultural and political perceptions to be reflected in the literature, the Western interpretations of Oriental culture and life.

Rice, Edward (2001). Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: A Biography, De Capo Press,

Warraq, Ibn (2007). Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism, Prometheus Books, New York, NY. In this book, Ibn perhaps reveals his self when he chooses not on the basis of Said's arguments or points to challenge certain of Said's arguments; but chooses instead to challenge as many points of argument or conclusions as Said posits, demonstrating Ibn's own brand of "resistance." If at first glance one is taken aback by the fact that Ibn, a scholar of Middle Eastern studies, and Zipes, Jack (1991). Arabian Nights: The Marvels and Wonders of the Thousand and One Nights, Penguin Books Ltd., USA, 1991.

Notes

NOTES

Said, Orientalism (1979) p. 19 -- Orientialism -- "intellectual authority over the Orient within Western culture."

Said, Orientalism (1979) p. "To criticize orientalism, as I did in my book, is in effect to be a supporter of Islamism or Muslim fundamentalism (p. 331)."

Said, Orientalism (1979) "But more than this, since the middle of the eighteenth century, there had been two principal elements in the relation between East and West. One was a growing systematic knowledge in Europe about the Orient, knowledge reinforced by the colonial encounter as well as by the widespread interest in the alien and unusual, exploited by the developing sciences of ethnology, comparative anatomy, philology, and history; furthermore, to this systematic knowledge was added a sizable body of literature produced by novelists, poets, translators, and gifted travelers. The other feature of the Oriental-European relations was that Europe was always in a position of strength, not to say domination. There is no way of putting this euphemistically. True, the relationship of strong to weak could be disguised or mitigated, as when Balfour acknowledged the "greatness" of the Oriental civilizations. But the essential relationship, on political, cultural, and even religious grounds, was seen -- in the West, which is what concerns us here -- to be one between a strong and a weak partner.

Many terms were used to express the relation: Balfour and Cromer typically used several. The Oriental is irrational, depraved (fallen), childlike, "different"; thus, the European is rational, virtuous, mature, "normal." But the way of enlivening the relationship was everywhere to stress the fact that the Oriental lived in a different but thoroughly organized world of his own, a world with its own national, cultural, and epistemological boundaries and principles of internal coherence. Yet what gave the Oriental's its intelligibility identity was not of his own efforts but rather the whole complex series of knowledgeable manipulations by which the Orient was identified by the West. Thus, the two features of cultural relationship I have been discussing come together. Knowledge of the Orient, because generated out of strength, in a sense creates the Orient, the Oriental, and his world. In Cromer's and Balfour's language the Orient the Oriental is depicted as something one judges (as in a court of law), something one studies and depicts (as in a curriculum), something one disciplines (as in a school or prison), something one illustrates (as in a zoological manual). The point is that in each of these cases the Oriental is contained and represented by dominating frameworks. Where do these come from?

Cultural strength is not something we can discuss very easily -- and one of the purposes of the present work is to illustrate, analyze, and reflect upon Orientalism as an exercise of cultural strength. In other words, it is better not to risk generalizations about so vague and yet so important a notion as cultural strength until a good deal of material has been analyzed first. But at the outset one can say that so far as the West was concerned during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, an assumption had been made that the Orient and everything in it was, if not patently inferior to, then in need of corrective study by the West. The Orient was viewed as if framed by the classroom, the criminal court, the prison, the illustrated manual. Orientalism, then, is knowledge of the Orient that places things Oriental in a class, court, prison, or manual for scrutiny, study, judgment, discipline, or governing.