


Robert Irwin's history of Orientalism leads from Ancient Greece to the present. He shows that whether making philological comparisons between Arabic and Hebrew cataloguing the coins of Fatimid Egypt or establishing the basic chronology of Harun al-Rashid's military campaigns...

Irwin asks key questions about the history of academic orientalism, the importance of the study of Arabic and Islam, the role of imperialism and the influences of zionism and anti- semitism on academics working in this area. He combines historical research with personal and anecdotal...