Occidental Approach in the Historiography of Orientalists

Orientalism is a western school of thought undermining oriental people and justifying their colonialism over Oriental World. To justify it, Western writers produced a bulk of literature on orient citing them as uncivilized, under-developed and a hazard towards development. Such was their prejudice that their artists even portrayed this bias in their artwork like paintings which portrayed Arabs as mere exotic people with belly dancers. In a counter theory, Edward Said coined the term Orientalism which criticized the western school of thought and argued that theories like white supremacy over oriental people are nothing but attempts to rationalize their colonialism. This approach of historiography was not aimed at improving foundations of oriental knowledge but to present oriental people as incapable of producing literature and art, thus, rendering them unable to administer government. They deemed it their responsibility to colonize Arabs for enhancing their civilization. Thus, the relation between West and East was of colonizer and colonize