Arab modernists deployed ancient Middle Eastern myths to signify modernity

Evidence

Massignon saw what he did as the synthesis of two roughly opposed quantities, yet it is the peculiar asymmetry between them that troubles one, and not merely the fact of the opposition between Europe and Orient. Massignon’s implication is that the essence of the difference between East and West is between modernity and ancient tradition. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 690 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Modernist Arab poets deployed ancient myths against Islamic tradition to signify Western modernity — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:…, 268; Orientalist scholarship framed East-West difference as modernity versus ancient tradition — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 690; Modernist mythic method orders chaotic contemporary history into form

Broader Connections

• Orientalist scholarship framed East-West difference as modernity versus ancient tradition #complicates (0.78) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 690