British imperial power over Muslims did not translate into oriental scholarship
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
Categorization
- SEED: A working angle: imperial competence and imperial curiosity are not the same thing — an empire can rule without understanding.
- XREF: connects to: Stereotyping of Muslims was constrained by England’s inability to challenge the Ottomans — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 140
Related
- Britain neglected Oriental studies while France and Germany led the field (similarity 0.81)
- Ottoman advances drove European study of Islam through fear (similarity 0.80)
- Western study of Islamic texts long ignored living Muslims and their culture (similarity 0.79)
- German Orientalists led the field despite Germany having no Arab empire. (similarity 0.79)
- Imperial control depended on constantly refined knowledge of the Orient. (similarity 0.79)