Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
WESTERN LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE
MIDDLE EAST (1516-1914)
The Ottoman Turks took Constantinople in 1453
and created one of the world's largest empires.
They defeated the Mamluks in present-day
Jordan in 1516, but concentrated their efforts on
the lucrative cities of the region, such as the
holy city of Jerusalem and the commercial
centre of Damascus. The area east of the Jordan
River once again became a forgotten backwater.
Forgotten, that is, by the Ottoman Empire, but not entirely ignored by Western interests.
Indeed, the period of gradually weakening Ottoman occupation over the next few centuries
also marked an increasingly intense scrutiny by the Europeans - the British and the French
in particular.
In the preface to
Les Orientales
(1829) Victor Hugo wrote that the whole of the
European continent appeared to be 'leaning towards the East'. This was not a new phe-
nomenon. Trade between the West and the East was long established and stories of the
'barbaric pearl and gold' of Arabia soon aroused the interests of a wider public. By the late
18th century Europeans were making pleasure trips to the Syrian desert, adopting articles
of Albanian and Turkish dress, carrying pocket editions of Persian tales and penning their
own travelogues.
Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt's monumental rediscovery of Petra in 1812
led to a further explosion of interest in the region. Societies were founded for the purpose
of promoting Middle East exploration and scholars began translating Persian, Arabic and
Sanskrit texts. Many aspects of the Orient were explored in Western fiction, much of which
attracted a wide and enthusiastic readership. Indeed, by the end of the 19th century the fas-
cination with the Arabian East was, to use Edward Said's phrase, no 'airy European
fantasy' but a highly complex relationship defined by scientists, scholars, travellers and fic-
tion writers.
This is the cultural backdrop upon which the political manoeuvrings of the 20th century
were played out.
The Qala'at ar-Rabad at Ajloun was built by the
Ayyubids. In 1250 they were ousted by the Mam-
luks, a group of foreign, adolescent warriors
serving as a soldier-slave caste for the Ayyubids,
and the Mamluks ruled for the next 300 years.
