MEMRI translate an article by the Kuwaiti author Ahmad Al-Baghdadi on why muslims should be grateful to Western orientalists:
“What is important during the period [of study] is that when they [Arabs studying in the West] read, the students are given an opportunity to compare the complexities of Western thought with the primitive nature of Arab and Islamic thought, as compiled by the scholars on each side. On top of this, they [the Arab and Muslim students] come to know the enormous body of scholarship by [Western] Orientalists in Islamic and [Arabic] literary studies, [which these Orientalists accomplished] by way of translation, or by exact scholarly philological editing, or by critical methodology.
“For a simple proof of this, let any serious reader take any book about Islamic civilization by an Arab Muslim author and a book by one of the Western scholars – say, ‘Al-Hadara Al-Islam’ [Islamic Civilization] by Grunebaum. [3] Or compare any book on the history of the Islamic state with books such as those by Wellhausen and Brockelman. [4] Even in writing about Islamic jurisprudence, they [i.e., Western scholars] are much better than the Muslim experts in Islamic jurisprudence, on both the analytical and the critical level.
“Regarding the area of my own research, I found that the book ‘The Rules of Government'(‘Al-Ahkam Al-Sultaniyyah’) by Al-Mawardi was discovered by a German Orientalist, and that libraries in the Western world contain unique Arabic and Islamic manuscripts, well-catalogued so that the researcher can easily locate the information. [These libraries also contain] many books of our heritage, which, were it not for the West and the efforts of the Orientalists, the Muslims would never know exist. Thanks to this intellectual heritage, the West was able to master the East, as it still does. […]
“If Arab scholarly institutions had an inkling of sense, there would be serious contacts and efforts to translate [into Arabic] many of the impressive volumes in the field of Islamic and [Arabic] literature studies. Unfortunately, however, this is prevented by the religious oppression on the part of the Ministries of Awqaf [i.e., religious endowments] and religious associations and institutions that prevent the translation of many impressive scholarly studies.
“In short, we are talking to the ignoramus graduates of religious educational institutions or Arab universities that are devoid of learning – those [graduates] who cover up their ignorance by accusing Orientalism of conspiring against Islam or distorting its image. [We are telling these ignoramuses] that had it not been for the efforts of a group of Orientalists in religious, literary, and historical studies, we would never have known much of the heritage in which we take pride – and without making any effort to discover it. Nay, it has come to us readymade, on a silver platter, thanks to the efforts of those Orientalists. We don’t have to look far for an example.
“Let us ask ourselves: How much effort have the Arabs expended in deciphering the Pharaonic Rosetta Stone, and how much effort have the Orientalists expended on this? Were it not for the efforts of those Orientalists who were fascinated by Pharaonic civilization, the world would never have known how to read hieroglyphics.
“The problem of the Arabs is that they suffer from a compounded ignorance – namely, they are ignorant of their own ignorance.
Nowadays of course, thanks to Edward Said’s book, the term Orientalism carries all sorts of negative correlations about stereotyping and racism, so it’s good to see an Islamic writer acknowledge the debt that scholarship owes to Western orientalists.
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