Gusast-i Tārīkhī va Sharq'shināsī: Persian 1403

The issue of historical discontinuity has not been raised in Iran, as it should be. More or less things have been said and written about Orientalism since about fifty years ago, but the important event that tested the possibility of dialogue between cultures was the publication of Edward Said's Orientalism book. The tone of Edward Said's book was sharp and sometimes his language was close to the language of ideology. Orientalists' opposition to this work was not unexpected. The book was not welcomed in some parts of the world and it was not taken seriously where it was expected and should contribute to historical understanding. Arab intellectuals saw it as an obstacle to their progress; Its Persian translation was not as well received as it should have been. Of course, some people approved it when they saw anti-imperialist slogans in it, but it didn't seem like they read it correctly... Edward Said's Orientalism book could have provided us with a way to know the current world and the dialogue between the two developed and underdeveloped worlds, but there is less need for this knowledge and dialogue. But what Orientalism is and where it came from, can be answered not by an orientalist but by a philosopher and cultural historian of the new age.