Revisiting Pro-Muslim British Orientalists

Abstract

New readings of well known Orientalists and of lesser known challengers can yield more flexible interpretations of western imperialism. A pro-Muslim trend begun by the Scotsman David Urquhart in the early nineteenth century was later expanded upon by the antiimperialist travellers and Orientalists, W.S. Blunt and E.G. Browne. While some wished to preserve an authentic and picturesque Orient under the auspice of imperialism, by the late colonial age Marmaduke Pickthall had gone so far as to promote Young Turkism as the vehicle for Islamic modernism.