Britain secretly subsidized Arabic newspapers and textbooks to spread Orientalist ideas

Evidence

Richard Burton, in his famous (or notorious) translation of The Arabian Nights (1885–8), had pointed out that Britain now ruled over the greatest empire of Muslims ever seen and he thought that this ought to have led to a much greater interest in Muslim languages and cultures. This indeed was what might have been expected. Yet Major C. M. Watson, a member of the Imperial Institute, put the paradox plainly in a letter to Sir Frederick Abel in 1887: ‘Although England has greater interests in the East than any other European country, yet for some unexplained reason, she is the most behindhand in encouraging the study of modern oriental languages.’ — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 313 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: British official dossier linked its own foreign policy to Muslim radicalization — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1427; Britain sponsored its own pan-Arabism to defuse Arab nationalism — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 891; British officials publicized the Semitic ideal but suppressed its real-world realization — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 690 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• British imperial power over Muslims did not translate into oriental scholarship #complicates (0.76) — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 313