Preface |
ix |
I. Introduction: Looking to the East |
1 |
Asia’s “Decline”—Europe’s Arrogance |
2 |
The Great Map of Mankind |
5 |
The Power of Discourse, the Burden of Learning |
9 |
Sensing and Constructing Difference |
16 |
Spaces |
18 |
Epochs |
22 |
PATHWAYS OF KNOWLEDGE |
II. Asia and Europe: Borders, Hierarchies, Equilibria |
37 |
Asia and Europe in the Tsarist Empire |
38 |
The Ottoman Empire: European Great Power or Barbarian at the Gates? |
44 |
Asia: The Preeminent Continent? |
50 |
Character and Encyclopedia |
54 |
European Primacy and Provincialism |
58 |
III. Changing Perspectives |
66 |
Cultural Transfer and Colonialism |
66 |
Theories of Ethnocentrism |
72 |
Competition and Comparison |
77 |
Discursive Justice |
81 |
Chinese Interviews, Indian Letters |
84 |
Niebuhr’s Monkey |
89 |
IV. Traveling |
95 |
Sir John Malcolm’s Dinner Party |
96 |
A Weeping Mandarin |
101 |
Sea and Land |
109 |
East Asia: Walled Empires |
113 |
South Asia and Southeast Asia: Porous Borders |
117 |
The Near East: A Pilgrimage to Antiquity |
120 |
Adventurers and Renegades |
126 |
Scholars and Administrators |
131 |
V. Encounters |
139 |
Ordeals, Disappointments, Catastrophes |
141 |
The Mysterious Mister Manning |
149 |
Interpreters and Dialogues |
152 |
Language Barriers |
159 |
Mimesis and Deception |
162 |
A Sociology of Perception |
165 |
VI. Eyewitnesses–Earwitnesses: Experiencing Asia |
170 |
Giants and Unicorns |
171 |
Prejudices and Preconceptions |
173 |
Autopsy |
181 |
Before the Tribunal of Philosophy |
184 |
Methods of the Inquisitive Class |
188 |
Hearing and Hearsay |
196 |
Local Knowledge: Asiatic Scholarship in European Texts |
201 |
VII. Reporting, Editing, Reading: From Lived Experience to Printed Text |
210 |
The Travel Account as a Tool of Inquiry |
212 |
Style and Truth |
215 |
Anthologies, Collages, Mega-Narratives |
220 |
The Task of the Translator |
232 |
Topicality and Canonicity |
236 |
Traces of Reading |
240 |
Arts of Reading |
242 |
Fractured Representation |
251 |
THE PRESENT AND THE PAST |
VIII. The Raw Forces of History: Apocalyptic Horsemen, Conquerors, Usurpers |
257 |
Tribal Asia: Attila and the Consequences |
258 |
A Continent of Revolutions |
265 |
Timur: Statesman and Monster |
267 |
Nadir Shah: Comet of War and Patriot |
272 |
Haidar Ali: Tyrant and Enlightened Reformer |
280 |
The Modernization of Political Vulcanism |
285 |
IX. Savages and Barbarians |
288 |
Lost Savages |
289 |
Four Types of Barbarism |
298 |
The Roof of the World |
303 |
“Tartary” in Geography, the Philosophy of History, and Ethnography |
306 |
Knights and Strangers in the Crimea |
314 |
The Ethnology and Politics of Arabic Liberty |
322 |
Theories of Nomadism |
326 |
Triumph of the Settlers |
330 |
X. Real and Unreal Despots |
334 |
The Heirs of Nero and Solomon |
335 |
Montesquieu Reads Sir John Chardin |
340 |
Despotism and the Philosophy of History |
351 |
“Oriental Despotism” under Suspicion |
358 |
Anquetil-Duperron: The Despot’s New Clothes |
363 |
India: Translatio Despotica |
367 |
Despotism with Chinese Characteristics |
371 |
The Ottoman Empire: Praetorian Guards and Paper Tigers |
377 |
Ex Occidente Lux |
381 |
XI. Societies |
384 |
Solidarity among the Civilized |
385 |
Cities |
388 |
Batavia’s Colonial Sociology |
390 |
Close-Up: Urban Life in Syrian Aleppo |
393 |
Slaves |
400 |
Scholars and Aesthetes in Power |
404 |
Castes: Religious Straitjacket or Social Utopia? |
410 |
Feudalism |
424 |
Masks and Emotions |
427 |
The Birth of Sociology from the Spirit of Cultural Difference |
432 |
On Hospitality |
434 |
XII. Women |
446 |
The Cardinal Difference |
448 |
In the Realm of the Senses |
450 |
Domesticity |
456 |
Polygamy |
460 |
Labor, Liberty, and Sacrifice |
468 |
Progress and Civilization |
473 |
XIII. Into a New Age: The Rise of Eurocentrism |
480 |
Balance and Exclusion |
482 |
From Aladdin’s Cave to Developing Nation |
491 |
Decline, Degeneration, Stagnation |
495 |
From the Theory of Civilization to the Civilizing Mission |
506 |
Notes |
519 |
Bibliography |
599 |
Index |
663 |