Orientalisms in the interpretation of Islamic philosophy

Muhammad Ali Khalidi

The recent death of Edward Said has reignited the be(.~omc the learned and sacred language of all Muslim debate as to whether his landmark work Orientalism countries~ that is all.'! 1n Rcnan's view, although the still has something to teach us about the study of Arabsirnparted a national character to their religious Arab-Islamic civilization, In this artide, I will argue creations. poetry, architecture and theological sects, that Said's central thesis in Orientalism has a direct they showed little originality in philoS(}phy, Indeed, explanatory role to play in our understanding of the 'The true Arab genius, characterized by the poet.ry work produced in at least one area of scholarship about of the Kasidas and the eloquence of the Qur'an, is the Arab and Islamic worlds, namely Arab~IsIamic absolutely antithetical to Greek philosophy:' Rather, philosophy from the dassical or medieva.1 period. Greek philosophy was introduced to Arab-Islamic Moreover. I will claim that it continues to play this civilization thanks to a combination of Persian and role not only for scholarship produced in the West by Syrian Christian initiative. TJ. De Boer expresses a Western scholars but also within the Arab world itself similar viewpoint in The History (~l Philosoph)' in After recalling some traditional varieties of Oriental­ Islanl: ism in the study of Islamic philosophy, I will go on Oriental Wisdom. Astrology and Cosmology de~ to isolate some neo-Orientalist theses and positions. livered over to Muslim thinkers material of mHny Then I will identify what I call 'oriental Oriental ism' kinds. but the Form, the formative principle, came in the study of Islamic philosophy, which originates in to them from the Greeks. In every case where the Arab world itself, In conclusion, I will speculate it is not mere enumeration or chance ("oncatena­ as to why Orientalism persists in scholarship about tion that is taken in hand, but where an attempt, is the Islamic world, more than a quarter of a century made to arrange the Manifold according to positive or logical pOJnts of view, we may conclude with after Said first unmasked it Finally, I will distinguish all probability that Greek influences have been at two accounts of Said's interpretive stance and attempt work.:! to justify a particular reading of his philosophical framework, Among these early students of Islamic philosophy in the West, departures from Greek philosophy we,re Traditional Orientalism often considered misunderstandings rather than iImo~ Traditional Orientalism is not di~'t1cult to find among vations; they even attributed to Islamic philosophers a the first European scholars who studied Islamic phil­ failure to understand the Greeks. rather than ('on sider osophy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, It that they might harbour different views from their can be summarized in the form of a few salient theses illustrious predecessors. Moreover, this attitude took that were prevalent among such scholars as Ernest. on a racial dimension in Renan, as when he contrasted Renan, TJ. de Boer, w.G, Tennemann, and others, For Aryan rationalism with Semitic religious sensibjlity, the sake of brevity, I will omline three. charging that. the Arabs are inherently incapable of Renan is well known for having consid.ered the producing original philosophy and have inherited what. fslamic philosophical corpus as entirely derivative of rational ity they have from the Aryan Greeks, Greek and Hellenistic philosophy. Thc view held by Though not absent in recent Western scholarship, him and others was that Islamic philosophy was Greek thi.s attitude is less common among scholars writing philosophy in Arabic letters, As he put it: 'This phil­ in the twentieth century, Still, clear traces remain. osophywas written in Arabic. because this idiom had To cite just one example, E.U, Rosenthal claims that the reason F:irabI views democracy more favourably of God, among others, were often taken up without than Plato .is that he has mi.ssed the irony implicit i.11 acknowledgement. Socrates' mock praise of democracy. The possibility A third thesis prevalent among traditional Ori­ that FarlibT holds different views from Plat() on inde­ entalists is that philosophy .in [slam was dominated pendent grounds is scarcely even con sidered. In fact. by the struggle between revelation and reason, and when Rosenthal allows himself to speculate that Farabr obsessed with the dichotomy of intellect (caql), on may have differed fmm Pl ato, he holds that 'tt is not the one hand, and tradition or revelation (naq/), on impossible' thal' he has taken his views from Aristotle the other. This feeds into the conception of Islamic - despit.e the fact that Aristot lets Politics was almost philosophy as a ddensive enterprise, embattled and certainly not known in the Islamic world during the encircled, rather than one that fashioned its own intel ­ classical period, and never reached these philosophers' lectual space. This amorphous thesis is bard to refute Apparently, even a nonexistent Greek text is a more briefly, but anyone with a passing acquaintance with likely source of ideas than the creative faculties of the the content of Arab-Islamic philosophy will know Islamic philosophers themselves. that there is much more to thi s diverse tradit.ion than Another early Orientalist thesis is that philosophy a cultural war with orthodoxy. These philosophers did held a marginal place in Islamic culture as a whole, not see themselves as involved in a struggle as mu ch and was restricted to a sma ll group of elite free­ as in an atrempt to exam ine the relationship between thinkers. Some scholars who admit the originality of revelation and reason. an enterprise they of [en shared these thjn kers nevertheless maintain that their i nnova ­ with the theologians - despite their differences of tive contributions were largely disregarded since they opinion . Moreover, it is not even accurate to say never went further than a minuscule audience. Renan that the theologians were uniformly more literalist nr is again the IOCUJ classicus: 'The philosophers in Islam orthodox than the philosophers, as the philosophers were iso lated men, ill regarded, and persecuted .. :.5 The themselves were often at pains to point out. 6 To the claim is sometimes supported by the esotericism of extent that the problematic of intellect and revelation the lslamic philosophers themselves, since the major did fi gure in the work of the Islamic philosophers, it figures in the tradition clearly he.ld thm their views did so no more than in medieval Christian philosophy, and doctrines should be revealed only to a class of or indeed in early modern European philosophy. One intellectuals who alone could grasp their subtleties need look no further than the 'Letter of Dedication' and abstruse deductive- arguments. But one should not to Descartes' MeditaTions for a vivid impression of take this as an indication of the actual influence of the fragile tension between the theologians and phil­ philosophical ideas, since their indirect impact took osophers in seventec11Ih-century Fran ce? many forms . First, numerous Arabic terms were coined A more recent twist. to the traditional Orienta list expressly to denote philosophical concepts, includ­ tendency in the study of Islamic philosophy is provided ing such llbiqu_itous terms as kamryyah (quant ity). by the work of Henry Corbin. Corbin opposes the ka}:/Iyyah (quality), wu;tld (existence), dhal (essence), three theses that I have identified as being distinctive jawhar (substance). and so on. Second, given the seam­ of traditional Orient.list interpretations of Islamic less links between philosophy and natural science, philosophy: its alleged derivativeness, marginality, including medicine - which was firmly grounded in nnd conflict with religion. But he continues to view notions of form "uld matter, the four clements, sub­ Islamic philosophy as monolithic and essentially dif­

stance, ~~ssencc and accident M .. , philosophical doctrines ferent from Western philosophy. Moreover, like some and theories penetrated the culture at large thanks to of the traditional Orientalists I have di scussed, he links the centrality of medical theory and ptact"' •. Third, the 'essence' of Islamic philosophy to certain ethnic many es tablishment figures in Islamic history for­ characteristics and cu lturaJly uniform traits. Corbin mulated their mainstream attitudes, at least in part, conc urs with Renan in regarding th e genius of the in reaction to the views of the philosophers. Such Muslims as residing primarily in the spiritual rather central thinkers as al-Ash'arT, al-Gh.zall, 'Ibn J:!azm, than the rational realm,S But rather than conclude that al-Shahrastan!, Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Khaldon Islamic philosophy is therefore unoriginal, he takes frequently occupied themselves in responding to the the spiritual dimension as its defining characteristic, philosophers, in the process borrowing their ,'ontepts setting it apart from other philosophical traditions: and in heriting their problematic. Finally, philosophical 'In Islam, above all, the history of philosophy and the views OIl such matters as the best tbrm of government, history of spirituality are inseparable:' More impor­ Ihe relation between faith and reason, and the nature tantly, he regards this allegedly dominant spiritual ten-

26

I dency as a positive attribute, valorizing i. and setting by experts. Oliver Leaman seems to regard this as it up as the main contribution of Islamic philosophy. the pre-eminent manifestation of Orientalism in the For him, Islamic philosophy represents a system of clirrent study of Islamic philosophy, attribut.ing it to thought dominated by mysticism, a critique of rational· Leo Strauss and his followers. As Leaman puts it: ism, and an attempt to transcend the logi.c.1 methods The assumption is that Is'Jamie philosophy shou'ld inherited from the Greeks. Corbin also characterizes not be regarded as philosophy primarily, but more this philosophy as 'Oriental philosophy'. trading on as a code which needs to be cracked in order to the ambiguity in the Arabic adjective ishraqi (which discover Ihe opinions of the philosophers. It is seen is usually translated as 'ilIuminationisC rather Ihan as a form of literature which disguises the- real op in­ 'eastern' or ·Oriental' ). ions of its writers. and it is the job of the interpreter to find out what these real opinions are, to pierce Therefore, although Corbin dissents from traditional the laye rs of conceahlH:.',nt and uncover the genuine Orientalists in that he regards Islamic philosophy as beliefs of the author." being origina l. he concurs with them in considering it to be essentially different in nature from \Vestern Leaman regards this as 'Orientalism at its worst', philosophy, and in holding that it is stamped by the adding that, ethnic character of the thinkers who were instrumental It implies that the philosophers in the Islamic world in its development (in his case, Persians not Arabs). could not really be tho ught of as philosophers just Corbin writes that Islamic philosophy .is fundamentally like philosophers everywhere eise, but should be a prophetic philosophy: 'A prophetic philosophy pre· r~gardcd as capable only of a less.er and inferior activity, using philosophi cn l Janguage to present supposes a type of thought wh ich does not allow itself unoriginal views in convoluted ways. 15 to be bound either by the historical past. .. , or by the limits imposed by the resources and laws of rational But it seems to me that this misu nderstands the intent Logic:'o In addition, this type of philosophy is esoteric of Straussianism. Although the Straussi.n mode of and its 'esoteric meaning is not something one can interpretation that Leaman criticizes gjves ri se to a n construct with the su pport of Logic or a battery of syl· overly narrow view of ls.1amic philosophy and has logisms'.l1 Moreover, he insists: 'The significance and often led to gross distortions, it is only fai r to add continuance of philosophical meditation in Islam can that the method is typically applied across the board. be truly grasped only so long as we do not attempt to That is to say, Straussians read Farab! in this manner see it, at any price, as the exact equjvaJent of what we no less than Plato or Machiavelli. This makes it dif· in the West have for our part called "philosophy" over ficult to maintain that their method of interpretation the last few centuries:12 Though Corbin v.iews Islamic is particularly Orientalist in character, since Strauss philosophy positively, his interpretation distorts it by and hi s followers regard persecution to be a hallmark portraying it as ex.elusively mystical and anti-rationalist of all philosophical writing and consider philosophy in nature, and represents it as being essentially alien to be engaged in a constanr struggle with religion, in and difficuh to communicate to outsiders ,1) Christendom and the Islamic world alike. As such, they claim that philosophers in both traditions needed Neo-Orientalism to hide thei r true views, which can only be d,iscerned These views, at' least in their ext.reme versions, have by rcading between the li nes and divining what these declined in prominence, but there is another attitude, philosophers were really trying to say. In short, it

very much in the spirit of Orientalism, that continues does 110t seem useful to characterize (In attitude as to play a central role in the study of Islamic phil· Orienta list if it is equally applicable to the Occident. osophy. Though it may not appear overtly Orientalist in At best, the attitude is Orientalist in practice because character, and may indeed seem opposed to (raditional in the case of Isl amic philosophy this method is more Orientalism, the net result of this a.ttitude is to al ienatc widespread and is applied to the exclusion of others. and exoticize Islamic philosophy and to downplay its At one point, the Straussian mode of interpretation was role as philosophy. dominant among those who studied Islamic philosophy Before describing the trend I have in mind, I wi ll in the United States. Thi s meant that this became by distinguish it from another tendency wi1h which it is far the most common way of reading these texts in the sometimes confused. Some scholars proceed from the West, which led ultimately to an exoticization of the notion that philosophy in the Islamic world was so per· texts. The overall effect of the dominance of Strauss's secuted that the outward meaning of the text remains method when it came to Islamic philosophy may have hidden and can only be divined through a dose reading led to a kind of Oriental ism in practice, even though

27 .-.-----_.. __ ._-_ . the intention of the Strau ssians was to apply their in the interprelation of Islamic philosophy, but those mel hod to all philosophical writi ng. Nonetheless, the who study it ought to engage in the kind of interpretive fact remains that Slrauss and his followers did not see e nterprise that one, fi nd s in other areas of the history the Islamic philosophers as different in this respect of philosophy. To be sure, there is no broad consensus from non·Islamic philosophers. today on what the method of history of philosophy There is another, more pervasive, tendency than the ought to be when it comes to the Western tradition. Straussian one among scholars of Islamic philosophy, But what character.izes most works of scholarship which .is more properly Oriemalist in charaelef. in the history of philosophy is a serious attempt to Although related 10 the attitude Ihat Leaman identifies, assess the intellectual strengths and weaknesses of it .i s imporlantly distinct from it; indeed, many of its Ihe tex ts. Such work is conspicuously absent in the practitioners are staunch opponents of Straussiani sITL contemporary study of the history of Islamic phil· There is a prevalent predisposition among those who osophy. Strictly speaking, what passes for SCholarship study medieval Islamic philosophy today to regard in Islamic philosophy today is usually neither what their fi eld of scholarship as an exercise in editing one would consider history of philosophy, nor indeed and comparing manuscripts. ascertaining their order what is thought of as intellectual history. That is to say, of composition, paraphrasing texts, tracing lines of there is also little attempt to reconstruct the historical influence, and so on. Although such scholarly work is contex t of these texts, t.o situate them ,in their i nte1 ~ important and shou ld not be neglected, it cannot be a lectual milieux. to relate them to the social, political substitute for the more substantive endeavour of critical and religious debates of their time. and so on. engagement with the texts. And engagement means Interesti ngly. some of the most prominent contem­ reading the texts as works of philosophy: assessing pOr'dry stude-nls of Islamic philosophy have dillgnosed the ir arguments, uncovering their underlying assump­ this problem lucidly. but do not appear to have taken tions. and understanding their overall projects. That is the steps necessary to overcome it. For example, not to say that one school of reading should dominate Muhsin Mahdi wriles:

One of the strangest criti cisms that continues to be made by some of the representatives of the older, historical , and philological tradition of Islamic studies in the \Vest has to do with the va lidity of at!.empts to think or reth ink the t.houghts of a ph ilosopher such as Alfarabi, Avicenna, or Aver­ roes. This means that one can treat'. their though t historically, bi ographically, soc iologicall y, and so forth - Ihat is good scholarship. BULto thi nk philosophically when dealing with the works of these phiJosophcrs, that is sa id nOI to be scientific. This view makes no sen se of c,oufse. 16

After saying thaI the 'concentrated analytical and interpretive ethos' is lacking in the study of hlamic philosophy, Mahdi adds that when he began seriously studyi ng Islamic philosophy, 'This seemed to me to be the task of the neW generation of students who occupy Ihemselves with Islamic philosophy: they must start with ... understanding the predicament in which they find Ihemselves and figure a way out: 17 But he never explains why 'the new generation of students' did not in fact carry this oul. Similarly, Di mitri Gutas, a scholar who represents an opposing camp among scholars of Islamic philosophy, issues an indictment of 'Arabist historians of philosophy' who have failed 'lO present the results of Iheir research. first, to historians of philosophy in a

28 • systematic and rationalized way that will exploit the from one people to another'. I. Nouruddin adds that common points of reference and contact, and second, some scholars 'expend much effort in finding faults to their colleagues in Arabic and Islamic studies in a within the Islamic philosophical system. rather than way that will make manifest the relevance of Arabic using their impressive abilities to develop a better philosophy to Islamic intellectual life in gcneraL'lB understanding of the amalgamation and legacy that Again. Gutas puts his finger on the problem. but does have been left by the Islamic philosophers.' Needless not hazard an explanation as to why thjs task has not to say, exclusive attention to "understand[ing] the trans­ been undertaken. Both scholars. central figures in the mission of knowledge' and 'understanding the legacy contemporary study of Arab-Islarnic philosophy. seem left by the Islamic philosophers' is closely related to to shift onto others the burden of initiating a change what I have been characterizing as the neo-Orientalist in the way the subject is studied. attitude. which is interested merely in tracing lines of Although both Mahdi and Outas are surprisingly influence and producing reverential paraphrases. By silent on what makes their discipline unwilling to contrast, a thoroughgoing assessment of what is 'new engage with the philosophical content of the texts under in the Islamic sciences' and an objective examination StUdY1 we can speculate as to why the unphilosophical of the 'faults' of Islamic philosophical theories would manner of interpretation continues to dominat.e in the indeed bc closer to the critical practice of the history study of fslamic philosophy. The main impediment to of philosophy. philosophical engagement with these texts is the fact The fact that Islamic philosophy is studied neither that Islamic philosophy is generally not studied in as history of philosophy nor as intellectual history departments of philosophy in the West. Those who are has led to its being viewed as a col1ection of ossifIed engaged in studying it are either trained outside phil­ artefacts of a bygone civjlization rather than as a set of osophy departments. or. if not. are employed outside ideas that are worth engaging with intellectually. The them. Many (if not most) have appointments in depart­ effect of this dominant, mainly philological. tendency ments of Middle Eastern (or Near Eastern) languages. is Orientalist t()r two main reasons. The first. is that it This reduces the opportunity, either in their research regards Islamic philosophy as essentially different from or teaching, to engage with these texts as philosophical Western philosophy. in that it is not worthy of active texts. Mon.~over, for the student who wants to special­ philosophical appraisal and evaluation. Though many ize in medieval Islamic philosophy in the West today, of the practitioners of this type of reading seem to it is almost impossible to do so within a department think that they are doing their subject matter It favour of philosophy. This presents formidable institutional by treating it with such reverence - as though they dare obstacles to a philosophical examination of the works not intrude upon the philosophers' arguments - the of med.icval Islamic philosophy and goes a long way outcome is to exoticize and alienate the texts, Another to explaining why such forms of scholarly engage­ reason that this t.endency is Orienta list in character is ment are conspicuously absent:. Indeed. it also shows that it leaves the impression that Islamic philosophy, why, despite their keen awareness of the problem, more so than Western philosophy. is inaccessible to Mahdi and Outas do not themselves appear to take a wider public and can only be read and studied by the necessary steps to address it One should not leave: those who have the requisite mastery of a number of the impression that every single piece of scholarship languages, religious traditions, and so on. This. in on Islamic philosophy has this character; indeed. one turn. is partly responsible for the continued exclusion could cite notable exceptions to this attitude, But it of Islamic philosophy from the Western canon. does suggest that serious structural impediments make it difficult to get around the prevailing tendency that I Oriental Orientalism have identified as 'neo-Orientalist'. Some recent work on Islamic philosophy by Arab­ While these scholars identify the problem and Islamic writers can also be classified as OrientaHst, characterize it accurate1y, other writers seem to miss despite the apparent oddity of applying the label to the point entirely in describjng the Orientalist tendency thinkers from the 'Orient'. which is why I am calling in studying Islamic philosophy. In an article on 'Oricn­ it 'orient.al OrientaHsm'. The main proponent of this talism and Islamic philosophy' in a standard reference attitude is the Moroccan scholar Mul)ammad 'Abid work, Ubai Nouruddin criticizes Western scholars al-Jabia (Mohammed 'Abed al-Jabri), whose influ­ 'who arc morc interested in finding something new in ential writings on the so-called 'Arab mind' have the Islamic sciences than in attempting to understand generated considerable debate in the Arab world and the transmis.sion of the corpus of human knowledge also received some attention in the West.2H One tinds

29 in labirf's work a thoroughgoing reductionism that socio-politica l role, he is also attributing a similar considers what he calls 'Arab reason' to be a unified view to these philosophers themselves, name.ly that the wbole whose only mode of thought is the 'analogy of substance of their work is unimportant compa red [0 the the unknown aiter the known' (qiyt/s al-ghi:J 'ib 'ala socio-political function Ihat they wanted it to perform. al-shi:Jhid).21 J~birl writes: Indeed. the cognitive material contained in these texts is, according to him, highly repetitive and not innova­ This irrespon.sible practice of analogy has become the invariable element (the constant) that regu­ tive in the leas!.'· Echoing traditional OrientaJism, he lates the movements within the structure of Arab wriles: 'All the Muslim philosophers' creative activity reason. This eJement stops time, suspends evolu ~ centred around one problematics, which is usually fion and creates a permanent presence of the past referred to as the problematics of 'reconciling reason inside the game of thought and inside the affective and transmission:" He regards philosophy primarily domain. thus feeding the present with ready-made as a 'mi Iitant ideological discourse' dedicated to the So lulions.22 service of science and defending rationalism against This move to reduce an entire intellectual tradition to a kind of irrationalist religious traditi.onalism.:!!! For a single manner of reasoning. which is stagnant and reasons that seem to have more to do with contem· inert by natUJe. is strongly reminiscent of Oriental ism porary polemics in the Arab world and debates with of a traditional sort, and JabirT does lillIe to dispel this proponellls of political Islam, JabirT relegates the entire initial imprcssion_ He supports his reductionist thesis Islamic philosophical corpus to a single ideological by saying that 'theoretical thinking in a given society function , at a given lime constitutes a particular unity endowed A second aspect of Jobin's reading, which is quite with its own armature inside of which the different' literal.1y Orientalist in character, is the claim that there movements and tendencies blend in, so to speak:2.1 But is a split among Islamic philosophers between those despite his attempt to justify this thesis by saying that in the Eastern provinces, whose work was dominated a similar kind of unity of thought could be attributed by a kind of anti-Tatlonalist mysticism, and those to, say, Greek philosophy, Jabir! regards Islamic phil­ from the Western regions, who exemplify progressive osophy to be inferior to Western philosophy in its static rarionaJism and are the most effective representatives and inert characte,f. He puts this quite unequivocally; of Ihe 'militant ideological discourse' that he favours. '10 other words, what we call "Islamic philosophy" did On his account, the split occurred as a result of not enjoy a continual and renewed reading of it s own the contributions of Ibn STill! (Avicenlla): 'With his history like Greek philosophy or like Ihe European Eastern philosophy~ Avicenna consecrated a sp'irituaJ­ philosophy from Descartes until now:" Though he ist and gnostic trend whose impact was inslrumental acknowledges thaI Arab-Islamic thought in the realm in the regression of Arab thinking from all open of science did evolve and produce innovations, he rationalism ... to a pernicious irrationalism: 29 That claims that these a.dvances in the sciences did not have was the fate of philosophy in the East, but. luckily an impact on philosophy. rationaHsm asserted itself in the Islamic West. accord­ Explicit discussions of the 'Arab mind' or the 'struc­ ing to Jabirr.30 He speculates as to why the West ture of Arab reason' are nowadays somewhat rare 'in became rationalist while the East stagnated in a kind serious Western scholarship - despite the persistence of irrational philosophizing, but the explanation rests of such assumptions in political consciousness and in on a facile reading of the relationship between phil­ 3 popular discourse. Therefore one is dismayed to find osophy and science. ! Not surprisingly, the chauvinism these phrases so casually deployed by a contemporary thaI emerges in }fibir!'s privileging of the Arab-Islamic Arab thinker with such weak justification. But Jabiri's West over the inferior East has met with a degree oriental Orientalism goes further, in at least two ways . of resistance in some discussions of his work in the , Firsl, his readings of classical Islamic philosophy are Arab world, and his response has been unrepentanl. concerned only with what he calls its 'ideological In some instances. j t has served merely to exacerbate content' 10 the exclusion of its 'cognitive content'. By the problem: his own admission, he has no interest in the arguments I wish thaI: all those who accuse me of being preju­ and theories of these philosophers, but is rather focused d,iced [fa '{I,y_yub. chauvinism] in favour of the ra­ on 'the ideological funclion (socio-pol.itical) to which tionalist \Vest and against the mystical East (as they the author or aUlhors of this thought subordinate thc put it) would recognize that Ibn SIn:l" with whose cognitive material!2s JabirT is not only dismissing the philosophy I said, and repeat, Ibn Rushd made a substance of Islamic philosophy in favour of its alleged break, is himself from Ihe 'far east', from Bukhara.

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I the land of the Persians. He [Ibn Slna], the gnostic what we term the 'West' is more shot through with physician aI·Rilzl, and al-GhalaIr all belong to an external influences than conventional taxonomies 'east' that lies far beyond the area that extends from would have us believe." As Edward Said observed in the [Atlantic] Ocean to the [Persian] Gulf, whose beating heart is: Egy pt." Culture and imperialism, we all need to situate our history and tradition in a 'geogmphy of other identities. This response is more incriminating than Jabirf's peoples, cultures, and then to study how, despite their original attempt to distinguish West from East, in differences, they have always overlapped one another, that it seeks refuge jn a kind of ethnocentrism that through unhierarchicaI in.fluence. crossing, incorpo­ pits Arabs against Persians, insinuating that the ethnic ration, recollection, deliberate forgetfulness, and of origins of Ibn Srnil, Ghazalr and al-RazI were respon­ course~ conflict: 'The fact is', he concludes, 'that sible for their alleged irrationalism. This is quite we arc mixed in with one another in ways that most literally an Orientalist reading of Islamic philosophy, national systems of education have not dreamed Of.'36 since it defines an 'Orient' within the Orient, whos.e The hybridity of the Western philosophical tradition borders lie somewhere to the east of Mesopotamia. We and its interpenetration with Islamic philosophy is a have come full cit'de back to the cultural essentialism more useful interpretive framework than the antago­ of traditional Orientalism, but unlike Renan, J.birT nistic one that JabirI espouses. attributes to Persians rather than Semites an incapac­ ity for logical thought, and unlike Corbin he does not Bacon or Foucault? view this allegedly Persian irrationalism in a positive I have outlined three genres of Orienta list interpreta­ light. tion of Islamic philosophy: a traditional sort dominant labirr's reading of Arab-Islamic philosophy is lit­ in the heyday of Orientalism, a more covert variety that erally Orienta list both in attributing the deadening continues to prevail in the study ofIslamic philosophy influence on Islamic philosophy to Persia and central today, and a home-grown version that is manifest .in Asia, and in a more extended sense: namely, in its the work of at least one contemporary Arab scholar. reversion to a one~dirncnsjonal view of Islamic phil­ In doing so, I have argued that the latter two modes osophy as being incapable of evolving and as fulfilling of interpretation arc genuinely Orientalist in Edward a single ideological function. Ironically, JabirT himself Said's original sense, in regarding Islamic philosophy accuses an earlier generation of Arab scholars of being as essentially different from Western philosophy and insufficiently critical of Ol'icntalism in the study of in presenting it as a monolith with a single overriding Islamic philosophy, but his critique is often bizarrely character. The persisten{:c of Orientalist disc,ourse in anachronistic and ultimately misses the mark. He c.ontemporary scholarship and its incidence even in the berates MU~lafa 'Abd al-Raziq and IbrahTm Madkar, Arab world itself calls fclt a word of explanation. In Egyptian scholars writing in the 1930s and 1940s, for the conclusion to Orientalism. Said writes that 'despite lack of sensitivity to the concept of 'Orientalism' as it its failures ... Orientalism flouri shes today.'·37 He adds is currently used, without ever acknowledging the fact that, 'It is ". apparent, I think, that the circumstances they were writing several decades before Edward Said making Orientalism a continuingly persuasive type published Orientalisrn (1978). Although Said's name of thought will persist: a rather depressing matter on goes unmentioned in Jabirf's essay, he accuses these the whole.':;' scholars of not going far enough in criticizing Oriental­ Said predicts the persistence of Orienta list discourse ist readings of Islamic philosophy. He charges that they presumably because of the intransigence of the power stilI talk in terms of reinserting Islamic philosophy relations that he identified as informing Orientalism into the Western tradition, rather than showing it as in the first place. Despite the demise of colonialism surpassing medieval Latin philosophy." Presumably, of a traditional variety, the web of power relations it surpasses it only in terms of its ideological content that continues to govern the relationship between the rat.hqr than its cognitive content - since he elsewhere West and the Middle East still largely reinforces and is regards all medieval philosophy as of a piece.'" reinforced by Orientalist discourse. The phenomenon Yet rather than trying to demonstrate that Islamic can be glibly summed up in the slogan 'Knowledge philosophy is somehow superior, we would be well is power.' But, rather than rest with this glib slogan, I advised to take a leaf from the work of the earlier want to suggest that there are in fact two readings of generation of Arab scholars whom JabirI excoriates, this phrase, which might be identified respectively with Their call to reinsert Islamic philosophy into the Francis Bacon and Michel Foucault. On the Baconian Western canon serves as a refreshing reminder that understanding of the slogan, knowledge is instrumental

31 •

in the projection of power, its perpetuation, and sus­ Yet rather than betraying a kind of simple-minded tenance; it both fceds and is fed by the exercise of relativism, ( take this as an admission that no single power. However, 011 the Foucauldian view. there is no account of 'the Orient' (or indeed of a subject as such thing as knowled.ge beyond what various systems large as Islamic philosophy) could claim finality or of power disseminate as t.heir vision of reality. In my comprehensiveness, That is not to suggest, howeveT. view, Said is more of a Baconian than a Foucauldian that there could not be better and worse accounts of on this score. That is to say. he is interested in the way such subjects as Islamic philosophy, Arabic calligraphy in which the acad.emics and the think-tanks conspire or Mamlnk architecture. What renders some accounts in the. project.ion of power .-. namely by misinterpret­ better than others is not a sitnple matter to determine, ing. misrepresenting, misinforming, and omitting what and is likely to be domain-specific. I have been arguing does not fit into their world-view. Despite his obvious in this article that an account of [slamie philosophy debts to Foucault, Said generally sees power-laden that analyses its central arguments and interrogates discourse as a distort.ion of a fuller and more accurate them is superior to one that merely indicates the prov­ picture. not just as one more assertion of a will to enance of its principal theories. Different standards power, whose only possible response is another. As he and guidelines arc undoubtedly more suitable when it puts it in the introduction to Orientalism: comes to different subject matters and disciplines. In all cases, the accounts that we consider to be accurate, Perhaps the most important task. of all would be to perceptive, and marked by superior understanding are undertake studies in contemporary alternatives to Orientalism. to ask how one can study other cul­ likely to be ones that are not warped by being in the tures and peoples from a libertarian, or a nonrepres­ service of hegemonic power or colonial domination. sive and nonmanipulative, perspective, But then one Finally, one migbt wonder why, given this expla­ would have to rethink the \vhole complex problem nation f()r the persistence of Orientalism, which is. of knowledge and power,-w premissed on asymmet.ries of power, a species of Orientahsm finds its home in the writings of an Arab At the end of the work, he explains that 'one way scholar, based in the Arab world, writing on Arab­ of opening oneself to what one studies in or about the Islamic philosophy. I will conclude by suggesting that Orient is reflexively to submit one's method to criti~ these very same power relations do not just infect cal scrutiny.'40 Elsewhere, he has written that a 'full scholarship in the West, but have repercussions for intellectual process' involves 'historically informed the way that Arab scholars view their own intellectual research, as well as the presentation of a coherent and traditions. Many contemporary Arab intellectuals seem carefully argued line that has taken account of altern a­ to feel the need to set up their own version of the tives.'4! The possibility of non~coercivc interactions enlightened West within Arab-Islamic history largely that lead to more nuanced, responsive and empathic because of an overwhelming sense of defensiveness interpretations is precisely what makes me think that and inferiority vis-a.-vis the We,st. In addition, they Said docs not embrace the more nihilistic aspects of sometimes seem wholJy fixated on their differences Foucault - and is what makes him hold out hope for with political Islam and regard this as the pre-eminent more meaningful intellectual engagements between the confrontation of their time, distorting their own intel­ West and the Middle East based on a more equitable lectual traditions in order to fight this cultural war, power relationship, at least partly because that is the confrontation that For the sake of completencss, I should add that looms largest in the mind of the West. This is not an some interpreters of Said have considered him to be attempt to blame our own Orientalist discourse on the propounding a kind of cultural relativism. Indeed, West. but rather a suggestion that the power relations there is evidence in his work that may suggest as much. that continue to define the West's relationship to the in 11 well-known passage in Orientalism he writes: Middle East have a ripple effect that influences not just It is not the thesis of this book to suggest that there Western discourse but Arab discourse as welL is such a thing asa real or twe Orient (ls'lam~ Arab, or what.ever) ... On the contrary, ] have been arguing Notes that 'the Orient' is itself a constituted entity. and I am grateful to Tarif Khalidi, Diane Riskedahl, Peter that the notion that there are geographical spaces Hallward and an anonymous referee for comments on earlier with indigenous. radi(:aHy 'different' inhabitants versions of this article. I would also like to thank audiences who can be defined on the basis of some religion, at the Conference in Homage to Edward Said. Universitc (.'ulturc, or racial essence proper to that geographical Paris 7-Denis Diderot, September 2004, and at the Civiliza~ space is equally a highly debatable idea. 42 tion Sequence Program Forum at the American University

32 of Beirut, February 2005, for helpful feedback. The research 15. Ibid., p. 1146. and writing of thi.s artkle were made possible in part by a 16. Muhsin Mahdi, 'Oriental ism Imd the Smdy of Islamic summer grant from the University Research Board of the Philosophy', Journal of Islamic Studj~ rs 1, 1990, p. 93, American Uni versity of Beirut 17. Ibid. L Ernest Renan, Averroes et I'Averroisme, Calmann Levy. 18 . Dimitri GUlas, 'The Study of Arabic Philosophy in the Paris, 1882, p. 90: original emphasis (my translation). Twentieth Century: An Essay on the Historiography of 2. Ibid. A ....J.bic Philosophy'. British Journal oj Middle EaSler" 3. TJ. De Boer, The Hi:uory of Philosophy in Islam. trans. Studies 29, 2002, pp. 5"'{;. Edward R. Jones, Dover, New York. 1967 ( 1903), pp. 19. Ubai Noomddin, 'Orientalism and Islamic Philosophy', 10- 1 t. He also writes: 'The earliest Muslim thinkers in E. Craig, eC .. Rout/edge Encyclopedia 0/ Philosoph.y, were so fuJly convinced of the superiority of Grce.k Routledge, London, 1998. knowledge that they did not doubt that it had attained 20. I will confine myself for the most part to quoting from to the highest degree of certainty, The thought of making the English trans!<\tion of a seie.ction of hi s work, Mo­ farther and independent investigations did n.ot readily hammed 'Abed al-labri, Arab-Islamic Philosophy: occur to an Odt~ntal, who cannot. imagine a man without A Contemporary Critique, University of Texas Press, a teacher as being anything else [han a disciple of Satan' Austin TX, 1999. Despite problems with the transla­ (ibid .. p. 28). tion (which however was approved by the amhor), the 4. E.U . Rosenthal, cd., Averroes' Comme1ltary on Plato's pieces collected in this ed.ition arc generally representa­ Republif, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1966 tive of Jab-irT's extensjve l"orpUS in Arabic, ch.ictly his (1956), especially pp. 293-4. four-volume Naqd ai-'Aql al- 'Arabr and al-Turl1th wal­ 5. Renan, Averroes et I'AYerTot:s-me. p. 173. l!atlmhah, Where necessary, I wm also make reference 6. For instance, Ibn RllShd (Averrocs) points out: 'the Mus­ to some of JahifT's unlranslatcd writings in Arabic. lims arc unanimous in holding tbal it is nOl obligatory 21, al-lahri, Arab-Islamic Philo sophy. p. 19. either to lake aU the expressions of {he Law in their 22. Ibid., p. 22. apparent meaning or to extend them aU from their appar­ 23. Ibid .. pp. 32- 3. ell!' meani.ng by interpretation .• Ibn Rushd. The Dcd slve 24. Ibid., p. 39. TreoTl',\'C'. trans. G. Hourani, in Nledieval Political Phil­ 25. Ibid., p. 36. m'ophy, cd. R Lerner and M. Mahdi. Cornell University 26. Ibid., pp. 38-9. Press, hhacll, 1963, p. 170. 27. Ibid., p. 38. 7. Descartes' Lelter, which is addressed to the Dean and 28. Ibid .. p. 55. Faculty of Sacred Theology at the University of Paris, 29. Ibid., p. 58. bet.rays a great. deal of anxiety both about being accused 30. Ibid., p. 60. of innovation (hence his illsistence that his arguments 31. See ibid., pp. 121-2. Indeed, evell be.fore Ibn Srnn sup­ are not new), and about venturing wHh reason into the posedly distinguished the mystical East from the rational province of faith (to which he responds by saying that West. JabirT finds faith with the work of Fl1rll.bY (in the faith is m,tde stronger if the anti-religious arguments can east) whose account of the virruou ~ city is aJJegcd\y too be rebutted with rational ones). closely bound to hi s historical circumstances to be of 8. There is an almost diametric opposition when it comes much use (see e.g. ibid., pp. 56, ](4), and whose nco­ to the way in which Renan and Corbin m::lke the link Platonism is nol sufl'icienrly rigorous (see, e.g .• ibid .. pp. between ethnicity and philosophical style, For Remm, 96, 99). Greek philosophy penetrated islam thanks to the ' Per­ 32. l:Iasan J:tanafI and Mu~ammad ' A.bid al -JabirT. Ifiwar sian spirit, represemed by the Abbasid dynasty' (A"'e r­ al-Mashriq wal-Maghrib: Talfhi Sil<;ilat al-Rudad wal­ roes er I'Averroi:fme, p. 91), whicb was rationalist in MIINliqashiJr, Cairo: Maktabat MadbOlT, 1990 (my trans­ character, in contrast to the 'lyricism and prophetic ism lation). The reference to Egypt is included presumably of rhe inhnbitants of the Arabian peninsula' (ibid., pp. because these remarks occur in an exchange wit.h an 90- 91). For Corbin, it is the Persian influenc.e (mediated Egyptian writer. largely through ShT'ism) that is central to the anti~n\tion · 33. Mui)aJl1Jl1ad . Abid al-Jabiri. 'AI.. .lstishr~q fil-Fnlsat'ah alism and esotcricism of Islamic philosophy, He writes: Manhajan wa Ru'yatan',in Al-1'ura.th wal-Ifadathah: 'the fate of philosophy in Islam ... cannot be studied DirOSa! wa Munilqashtu, Markaz Dirasiit al ~ Wi~dah a!­ i_ndepertdent!y of the sjgnifi(.~ance of Shiism', which he ' ArabIyyah. Beirut. 1991. considers to have arisen and nourished in a di stinctively 34. See al-Jabri. Arab-Islamic Philosophy. p. 4 L Persian cultural milieu. Henry Corbin, Hinory of h · 35. Here and elsewhere, 1 deploy the term' Western' not as lamie Philosophy, trans. Liadain Sherrard, Kegan Paul, an essentializing adjective, but mere ly as a convenient Londoll, 1993 (1964), p. 4; see also pp. xvii, 19- 21. label for the educational curricula, acade-mic institutions, 207. and so on, of contemporary Western Europe and North 9. Ibid., p. xvi. America. 10. Ibid., pp. 24-5. 36. Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism, Knopf. New II. Ibid., p. 25. York, 1993. pp. 330-3 1. 12. Ibid., p. >v. 37. Edward W. Said, Orientalism. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 13. Corbin's exegesis of Islamic philosophy abounds in London, 1978, p. 322. Arabic and Persian terms that are supposedly untrans­ 38. Ibid., p. 326. latable and can only be fully grasped by those who know 39. Ibid., p. 24. the relevant languages, 40. Ibid., pp. 326-·7. ,14. o.liver Leaman, 'Orientalism and Islamic Philosophy'. 41. Edward W, Said, 'The Politics of Knowledge', Raritan in S.H. Nasr and 0. Leaman, cds, History oj Islamic 11, Surnme,r 1991. pp. 17- 31. Philosophy, Routledge. London, 1996, p. 1145. 42. SakI, Orienta/ism, p. 322.

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