Orientalism and the Middle Ages

Translation: Abla Awwada Year of publication: 2012 Edition: 1 Number of pages: 301 pages Cover: Hardcover Publisher: Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority This book discusses the relationship between Europe in the Middle Ages and the East, through the study of Western literature, architecture, and language history, thus revealing a crisis in Western civilization identity. The definition of medieval culture has long carried the seeds of conflict between the West and other nations. Advancing human theories claimed that medieval culture, including Gothic architecture and medieval romanticism, was the result of foreign external influences; particularly Eastern influences. Similarly, 17th and 18th-century archaeologists searched for Phoenician origins of British culture and linked Druid priests to ancient civilizations. This book reveals a model in which the past appears as if it reflects foreign Eastern lands mostly, which raises questions about the purity of Western cultural origins.