Jewish orientalists studied Islam free of Europe’s civilizing-imperial mindset.

Evidence

In conclusion, Jewish orientalists of the nineteenth century, and there is a galaxy of names that can be added to these remarks, functioned under an entirely different set of assumptions than did their Christian counterparts. For Geiger, Graetz, and Goldziher, their own pariah status within Europe was a constant reminder that no matter how strong their own identification with Germany and Hungary respectively, they could not approach the Near East with the same Europeanist mind-set as Christian scholars. They could not be the intellectual vanguard of powers that denied them their rights as human beings. They shared no sense of a mission civilisatrice. This alienation became all the more apparent when they considered the relatively benign treatment Jews were afforded under Islam, especially when compared to their fate under Christianity. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 373

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in outsider perspectives enabling clearer analysis — parallels theorizing about marginality and objectivity (standpoint theory).