Orientalism and Islam: European thinkers on Oriental despotism in the Middle East and India

Introduction: What's past is prologue ---- European views of Islam and their correlation with Oriental despotism --- Observant travelers --- Political thinkers and the Orient --- The Oriental despotic universe of Montesquieu --- Edmund Burke and despotism in India --- Alexis de Tocqueville and colonization --- James Mill and John Stuart Mill : despotism in India --- Karl Marx : the Asiatic mode of production and Oriental despotism --- Max Weber : patrimonialism as a political type.

Through an historical analysis of the theme of Oriental despotism, Michael Curtis reveals the complex positive and negative interaction between Europe and the Orient. The book also criticizes the misconception that the Orient was the constant victim of Western imperialism and the view that Westerners cannot comment objectively on Eastern and Muslim societies. The book views the European concept of Oriental despotism as based not on arbitrary prejudicial observation, but rather on perceptions of real processes and behavior in Eastern systems of government. Curtis considers how the concept developed and was expressed in the context of Western political thought and intellectual history, and of the changing realities in the Middle East and India. The book includes discussion of the observations of Western travelers in Muslim countries and analysis of the reflections of seven major thinkers: Montesquieu, Edmund Burke, Tocqueville, James and John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, and Max Weber