The article discusses Orientalism in Islamic perspective and sees how this trend of writing has evolved through colonial and post-colonial era. It also discusses the influence of Orientalists in European and American academia in shaping Middle Eastern Studies and Near Eastern Studies departments. The article underscores the political and colonial dimensions of the whole movement of the Orientalist methodology that still dominates research in American universities. Relationship between Orientalist scholarship and political hegemony is also highlighted. Views of non-Western scholars such as Abdullah Laroui and Anwer Abdul Malek and Abdul Latif Tibawi against Orientalist scholarship reflects how politics of knowledge in the field of Islamic Studies has always been shadowed by prejudice, racism stereotyping and biases.

([1])  Edward Said,  Orientalism  (London: Penguin Group, 2003) p.48.

([2]) Ibid.

([3]) Prof. Abdulaziz Sachadina, is currently teaching at George Mason University, USA, in the department of Religious Studies and is endowed IIIT Chair at its Washington D. C. office.

([4]) Professor Sachadina explains Orientalism in a lecture delivered at IIIT, Washington D.C. to participants of Winter Institute on January 15, 2014.

([5]) http://medlibrary.org, retrieved on June, 14, 2013

([6]) Far East includes regions of East Asia, South East Asia and Russian Far East.

([7]) Term Near East was coined from the Western perspective of European writers. The earliest use of Near East is dated 1856. In 1958, the State Department explained that the terms “Near East” and “Middle East” were interchangeable, and defined the region as including only Egypt, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar.  The first official use of the term “Middle East” by the United States government was in the 1957, which pertained to the Suez Crisis. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles defined the Middle East as “the area lying between and including Libya on the west and Pakistan on the east, Syria and Iraq on the North and the Arabian Peninsula to the south, plus the Sudan and Ethiopia.”

([8]) Tahir Ramdane and Merah Saud, ‘Between Orientalists and Al-Jazeera: Image of Arabs in the West (Comparative Inquiry)’ International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, Vol.1 No. 4, April 2011. p. 64.

([9]) The Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, Vol 31, No. 1, July 1997 , available at[url=http://fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/Bulletin/laroui.htm]

([10]) Dallal, Ahmad, ‘Study of Islam in American Scholarship: Persistence of Orientalist Paradigms’ 2012, available at http://web.stanford.edu/dept/france-stanford/Conferences/Islam/Dallal.pdf, p. 9.

([11]) Ibid.  p.12.

([12]) Schacht’s ground breaking publications are ‘Origins of Mohammadan Jurisprudence’ (1950) and ‘An Introduction to Islamic Law’ (1964).

([13] ) Edward Said, Orientalism.

([14]) Jawad, Ahmad, (2012). ‘The Great Orientalist Bernard Lewis’ Outstanding Honors Thesis Paper, University of South Florida, p. 108. Available at http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1107&context=honors_et

([15]) Ahmad Dallal is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Arabic and Islamic Studies Department at Georgetown University, Washington D.C.

([16]) Dallal Ahmad, ‘Study of Islam in American Scholarship: Persistence of Orientalist Paradigms’ 2012 available at http://web.stanford.edu/dept/france-stanford/Conferences/Islam/Dallal.pdf

([17]) Ibid.

([18]) Tim Mitchell, (2004). ‘Middle East in the Past and Future of Social Science’ Politics of Knowledge; Area Studies and Disciplines.ed. David Szanton, (USA:University of California International and Area Studies Digital Collection, 2004) p. 23. Available at http://www.scribd.com/doc/84255833/Tim-Mitchell-the-Middle-East-in-the-Past-and-Future-of-Social-Science

([19]) Michael Edwards is a writer and activist based in upstate New York, and the editor of Transformation.

([20]) Dr. Abdul Latif Tibawi‎,(1910–1981) was a Palestinian historian and educationalist.