Seventeenth-century Europeans did not yet dream of dominating the Muslim East

Evidence

In the seventeenth century Ottoman power was still great. Commercial and diplomatic exchanges with the Porte were coupled with regular military clashes involving mostly Dutch and Ottoman ships in the Mediterranean, but also in the Atlantic. There is no evidence that seventeenth-century Europeans dreamed of dominating the Muslim East. If they did they would have had to be satisfied with a dream. Dutch emissaries in Constantinople plotted to obtain commercial privileges by the grace of the sultan, not to influence the course of his government. Economically the Ottomans could still easily match the West. Militarily, they continued to be an ever increasing threat. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 181

Categorization

• XREF: Directly complicates the Said thesis that Orientalism was from its start an instrument of European domination — here, orientalist imagery flourished when the Ottomans were actually stronger. Connects to any historiography that pushes the origin of dominance-oriented orientalism later. — connects to: Eighteenth-century Europeans ranked Islam as a civilization on par with Christendom; Europeans regarded Ottomans as equals before Orientalism’s hierarchy emerged — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 110; Stereotyping of Muslims was constrained by England’s inability to challenge the Ottomans — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 140 (+2 more)
• SEED: Angle: ‘Orientalist imagery thrived not from power but from awe’ — testing the material/base vs cultural/superstructure gap in how stereotypes emerge.