Early Orientalism The history of western notions about Islam is of obvious scholarly as well as popular interest today. This book investigates Christian images of the Muslim Middle East, focusing on the period from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, when the nature of divine as well as human power was under particularly intense debate in the West. Ivan Kalmar explores how the controversial notion of submission to ultimate authority has in the western world been discussed with reference to Islam’s alleged recommendation to obey, unquestioningly, a merciless Allah in heaven and a despotic government on earth. He discusses how Abrahamic faiths – Christianity and Judaism as much as Islam – demand devotion to a sublime power, with the faith that this power loves and cares for us, a concept that brings with it the fear that, on the contrary, this power only toys with us for its own enjoyment. For such a power, Kalmar borrows Slavoj Zizek’s term “obscene father”. He discusses how this describes exactly the western image of the Oriental despot - Allah in heaven, and the various sultans, emirs and ayatollahs on earth – and how these despotic personalities of imagined Muslim society function as a projection, from the West on to the Muslim Orient, of an existential anxiety about sublime power. Making accessible academic debates on the history of Christian perceptions of Islam and on Islam and the West, this book is an important addition to the existing literature in the areas of Islamic studies, religious history and philosophy. Ivan Kalmar is a professor at the University of Toronto. His main work has addressed parallels in the image of Muslims and Jews in western Christian history. Routledge Islamic Studies Series This broad ranging series includes books on Islamic issues from all parts of the globe and is not simply confined to the Middle East. 1 Historians, State and Politics in 6 The Regency of Tunis and the Twentieth Century Egypt Ottoman Porte, 1777-1814 Contesting the Nation Army and Government of a Anthony Gorman North-African Eyâlet at the End of the Eighteenth Century 2 The New Politics of Islam Asma Moalla Pan-Islamic Foreign Policy in a World of States 7 Islamic Insurance Naveed Shahzad Sheikh A Modern Approach to Islamic Banking 3 The Alevis in Turkey Aly Khorshid The Emergence of a Secular Islamic Tradition 8 The Small Players of the Great David Shankland Game The Settlement of Iran’s Eastern 4 Medieval Islamic Economic Borderlands and the Creation Thought Afghanistan Filling the Great Gap in European Pirouz Mojtahed-Zadeh Economics S.M. Ghazanfar 9 Interest in Islamic Economics Understanding Riba 5 The West and Islam Abdulkader Thomas Western Liberal Democracy versus the System of Shura 10 Muslim Diaspora Mishal Fahm al-Sulami Gender, Culture and Identity Edited by Haideh Moghissi 11 Human Conscience and 15 Political Liberalism in Muslim Muslim-Christian Relations Societies Modern Egyptian Thinkers on Fevzi Bilgin al-ḍamīr Oddbjørn Leirvik 16 Shari’a Compliant Microfinance 12 Islam in Nordic and Baltic S. Nazim Ali Countries Göran Larsson 17 Muslim Women Online Faith and Identity in Virtual Space 13 Islam and Disability Anna Piela Perspectives in Theology and Jurisprudence 18 Early Orientalism Mohammed Ghaly Imagined Islam and the Notion of Sublime Power 14 Producing Islamic Knowledge Ivan Kalmar Transmission and Dissemination in Western Europe Edited by Martin van Bruinessen and Stefano Allievi Early Orientalism Imagined Islam and the Notion of Sublime Power Ivan Kalmar First published 2011 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business © 2011 Ivan Kalmar The right of Ivan Kalmar to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data [to follow] ISBN 978-0-415-78276-0 (hbk) ISBN 978-0-203-15480-9 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Bookcraft Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire To Diane: I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold, Or all the riches that the East doth hold. Anne Bradstreet, 1612–1672 Gottes ist der Orient! Gottes ist der Occident! Nord- und südliches Gelände Ruht im Frieden seiner Hände. God’s is the East! God’s is the West! Northerly and southerly lands Rest peacefully in His hands. Goethe, West-Eastern Divan The Other holds a secret – the secret of what I am. Jean-Paul Sartre* * Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and nothingness: a phenomenological essay on ontology, ed. Hazel Estella Barnes (New York: Pocket Books, 1992), 475. Contents Illustrations xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction. The Lord: God, King, Father 1 1 The Obscene Father: Allah, Jehovah, and the oriental despot 9 2 Orientalism: what has and what has not been said 18 3 Proto-orientalism: ancient and medieval views of the East 30 4 The abduction from Asia: the fall of Constantinople and the beginning of modern orientalism 40 5 The Turks of Prague: the mundane and the sublime 44 6 Rembrandt’s Orient: where Earth met Heaven 56 7 The sublime East: the soft orientalism of Bishop Lowth 67 8 The sublime is not enough: the hard orientalism of G. F. W. Hegel 76 9 Letter and Spirit 88 10 The Lord’s command is greater than the Lord 94 11 The All-seeing Eye 106 12 The bad shepherd: pastoral government and its oriental discontents 111 13 Sex in Paradise: what suicide fighters die for 120 x Contents Epilogue on the value of submission: a eulogy for soft orientalism 129 Appendix: Table of contents of Rycaut’s Present state of the Ottoman Empire 135 Notes 138 Bibliography 159 Index 170 Illustrations 1.1 Eugène Delacroix, The Death of Sardanapalus, 1827. Oil on canvas, 392 × 496 cm. Louvre, Paris. 17 2.1 Postures of Prayer (Part II.). Illustration by the author from Edward William Lane, An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (London: Nattali, 1846), 110. 28 3.1 Isidore of Seville, Map of the World. Illustration attributed to the author, from the printed edition of Etymologiae (Augsburg: E. Zainer, 1472), Book XIV, Section 3. 35 3.2 Limbourg Brothers, The Emperor, c. 1412–16. Illumination on vellum, detail from folio 22 recto of the manuscript Les Très Riches Heures de Jean de France, Duc de Berry. Musée Condé, Chantilly. 37 3.3 Benozzo Gozzoli, c. 1445–50. Procession of the Magi (detail), 1459–62. Fresco. La Capella dei Magi, Palazzo Medici-Ricci, Florence. 38 5.1 Rafael, The School of Athens (detail). Fresco. Stanza della Segnatura, Stanze di Raffaello, Museo di Vaticano. 46 5.2 Vanity. Wood. Orloj, Old City Hall, Prague. 48 5.3 Luxury. Wood. Orloj, Old City Hall, Prague. 48 5.4 The Philosopher and the Archangel Michael. Wood. Orloj, Old City Hall, Prague. 49 5.5 Abbildung der auf dem altsädter Rathhause zu Prag im Jr. 1490 von dem prager Astronomer und Lehrer der Mathematik Magister Hanusch verfertigten und in den Jahren 1552 bis 1557 durch Johann Táborský wieder hergestellten astronomischen Kunstuhr (detail). Etching by Aloys Czermak and Wilhelm Kändler, Prague: I. Blatt, 1837. 50 5.6 Hans Holbein, Jr., The Ambassadors, 1533. Oil on oak, 207 cm × 209.5 cm. National Gallery, London. 51 5.7 St. Wilgefortis, 17th century. Loreto Prague, Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows. 53 6.1 Rembrandt, Saul and David, 1655–60. Oil on canvas, 130.5 × 164 cm. Mauritshuis, The Hague. 57 6.2 Pieter Lastman, Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael, 1612. Oil on panel, 48 × 71 cm. Kunsthalle, Hamburg. 58 xii Illustrations 6.3 Rembrandt, The Raising of Lazarus, c. 1630. Oil on panel, 96.2 × 81.5 cm. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 59 6.4 Rembrandt, St. John the Baptist Preaching, 1634/35. Oil on canvas, laid down on oak, 62.7 × 81.1 cm. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. 64 6.5 Rembrandt, St. John the Baptist Preaching, 1634/35 (detail). Oil on canvas, laid down on oak, 62.7 × 81.1 cm. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. 64 6.6 Rembrandt, Raising of the Cross, 1633. Oil on canvas, 96.2 × 72.2 cm. Alte Pinakothek, Munich. 65 11.1 United States one-dollar note, with the Eye of Providence. 109 Acknowledgments In researching and writing this book I have benefited from the advice of a large number of colleagues and students, not all of whom is it possible to mention by name. Some commented on certain parts of the work alone, and others on the entire book in its various stages, but none is responsible in any way for its errors and shortcomings. I would like to single out, in particular, Suzanne Akbari, Veronika Ambros, Etienne Balibar, Bryan Cheyette, Sander Gilman, Ben Gidley, Lewis Gordon, Sharon Graham, Jonathan Hess, Paulo Leming Horta, Rudolf Klein, Michael Lambek, Michael Levin, Stanislav Marušák, Nabil Matar, Paul Mendez- Flor, Walter Mignolo, Derek Penslar, James Renton, Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, Burkhard Schnepel, Santiago Slabodsky, Alberto Toscano, Hagai van der Horst, Daniel Varisco, and Giuseppe Veltri.