Homer's Turk: How Classics Shaped Ideas of the East PDF
Preview Homer's Turk: How Classics Shaped Ideas of the East
HOMER’S TURK Homer’s Turk How Classics Shaped Ideas of the East Jerry Toner HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England 2013 Copyright © 2013 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Toner, J. P. Homer’s Turk : how classics shaped ideas of the East / Jerry Toner. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978- 0- 674- 07314- 2 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Orientalism— Great Britain— History. 2. Orient— Historiography— Great Britain— History. 3. Orient— Description and travel— Early works to 1800. 4. Classical literature— Infl uence. 5. Travel writing— Great Britain— History. 6. Historiography— Great Britain— History. I. Title. DS61.85.T66 2013 950.072'041—dc23 2012031914 For Anne Contents Preface ix Part I Contexts 1 Classicizing Orientalisms 3 2 The Uses of Classics 28 3 Classics and Medieval Images of Islam 49 Part II Texts 4 Traders and Travelers 73 5 Gibbon’s Islam 105 6 The Roman Raj 133 7 Empires Ancient and Modern 162 8 Colonial Adventures 198 Part III Afterwords 9 Screen Classics 229 10 America Roma Nova 248 Notes 271 Index 303 Preface T his book is about how En glish historians and travelers have often seen the East through the medium of the ancient past. It explores how they have turned to classical Greek and Roman sources to help them understand and construct images of Islam and what used to be called “the Orient.” It also tries to contextualize these views histori- cally, socially, and po liti cally to reveal how such circumstances de- fi ned the “oriental other” and attitudes toward it. Classics has played such a pivotal role in Western culture that it has had an extraordi- nary infl uence on how writers have seen other cultures. When faced with new worlds, it has often been to the old world that they have turned to help them understand such novelty. This is a vast topic. I have chosen to focus on the effect that classics had on Eng lish views of the East. The fi rst reason for this is that trade and later imperial interests meant that for long periods En gland was at the forefront of dealing with the East. The second is that classics and elite Eng lish education were so intertwined that it seemed natural for writers to turn to antiquity in justifying their endeavors. Even then, I have had
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