Orientalists

e can’t be accused of imperial ambitions whenever we publish an article.

Most of Irwin’s book is a rewarding and often amusing history of the study of Islamic culture, mainly Arabic. It’s worth noting that, as in many similar cases — Sir William Jones’s work on Sanskrit springs to mind — the serious study of the history of Islam and of Arabic was principally carried out by Western scholars, and we wouldn’t know as much as we do now about the subject were it not for the endeavours of orientalists. Irwin says, for example, that Arabic was being printed in Europe as far back as the 16th century, with the printing, in 1514, of a book of hours with an Arabic typeface. The first printing press in the Arab world, however, was the Bulaq press, established as late as 1822.