Dr. Ahmad Raza, Hafiz Muhammmad Ameen Saeedi

Abstract

The term “Orientalism” later known as “Oriental Studies,” began in reference to the study of languages and cultures of the so-called Orient. Although initially focused on the ancient and modern Near East, the term “Orient” was indiscriminately used for all of the Asian civilizations encountered by Europeans in their eastward imperial and colonial expansion. The term is derived from the Latin oriens, in reference to the direction of the rising sun or the east. The study of Islam and Muslim cultures during the medieval period in Europe was primarily apologetic. Oriental scholars translated religious, historical and literary texts from Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, and Chinese, but most of these translations are not considered critical editions.

Modern Orientalism in an academic sense begins in the 18th century. In 1734 George Cell translated the holy Quran and criticized over the holy Quran due to   Modern Orientalism sense. He wrote:  Several if which stories or some circumstances of them are taken from the old and New Testament, but many more from the apocryphal books and traditions of the Jews and Christians of those ages, set up in the Koran as truths in opposition to the scriptures. That Muhammad was really the author and chief contriver of the Koran is beyond dispute…however they differed so much in their conjectures as it the particular person who gave him such assistance; that they were not able, it seems, to prove the charge; Muhammad, it is to be discovered.