page_title: Oriental studies
section_title: Nineteenth century
hierarchical_section_title: Oriental studies / History / Nineteenth century
caption_attribution_description: English: Old Building of Asiatic Society on Mother Teresa Society
context_page_description: Oriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studies and Asian studies. Traditional Oriental studies in Europe is today generally focused on the discipline of Islamic studies, while the study of China, especially traditional China, is often called Sinology. The study of East Asia in general, especially in the United States, is often called East Asian studies.
  European study of the region formerly known as "the Orient" had primarily religious origins, which has remained an important motivation until recent times. This is partly due to how the Abrahamic religions in Europe originated in the Middle East, as well as the rise of Islam in the 7th century, and consequently there was much interest in the origin of these faiths, and Western culture in general. Learning from Arabic medicine and philosophy, and the Greek translations from Arabic, was an important factor in the Middle Ages.
context_section_description: With a great increase in knowledge of Asia among Western specialists, increasing political and economic involvement in the region, and in particular the realization of the existence of close relations between Indian and European languages, by William Jones, there emerged more complex intellectual connections between the early history of Eastern and Western cultures. Some of these developments occurred in the context of Franco–British rivalry for control of India. Liberal economists, such as James Mill, denigrated Eastern civilizations as static and corrupt. Karl Marx, himself of Jewish origin, characterized the Asiatic mode of production as unchanging, because of the economic narrowness of village economies and the State's role in production. Oriental despotism was generally regarded in Europe as a major factor in the relative failure of progress of Eastern societies. The study of Islam in particular was central to the field since the majority of people living in the geographical area termed 'the Orient' were Muslims. Interest in understanding Islam was partly fueled by economic considerations of growing trade in the Mediterranean region and the changing cultural and intellectual climate of the time.
  In the course of the century Western archaeology spread across the Middle East and Asia, with spectacular results. In the 1850s, for example, the French Government was determined to mount large-scale operations in Assyria and Mesopotamia to showcase its dominance in the region. An archaeological team led by Victor Place excavated the palace of the Assyrian King Sargon II in Khorsabad (formerly Nineveh), would become the first systematic excavation of the site. This expedition resulted in a pioneering publication entitled Ninevah and Assyria, jointly authored by Victor Place and Felix Thomas and published in around 1867. New national museums provided a setting for important archaeological finds, most of which were in this period bought back to Europe, and put Orientalists in the public spotlight as never before.
  The first serious European studies of Buddhism and Hinduism were by the scholars Eugene Burnouf and Max Müller. In that time, the academic study of Islam also developed, and, by the mid-19th century, Oriental Studies was a well-established academic discipline in most European countries, especially those with imperial interests in the region. Yet, while scholastic study expanded, so did racist attitudes and stereotypes of Asian peoples and cultures. This frequently extended to local Jewish and Romani communities, who were also of Oriental origin and widely recognized as such. Scholarship often was intertwined with prejudicial racist and religious presumptions, to which the new biological sciences tended to contribute until the end of the Second World War.
caption: The old building of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta, founded by William Jones in 1784
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