The term Orient originally meant the Islamic world immediately east of Europe

Evidence

The Orient, literally the sunrise, meant above all that which lay immediately to the east of Europe, and for a very long time the terms orient and oriental, in West European usage, in fact meant the Islamic world. Levant, another word for sunrise, was even more restricted. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 2065

Categorization

• DEFINE: Etymology of ‘Orient’ and ‘Levant’, both tracing to ‘sunrise’.
• SHARE: A linguist friend would enjoy the sunrise etymology shared by Orient and Levant.