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Title: For the History Part
Review: The book contains two things: a history of Islamic scholarship in the West, and a critique of Edward Said's book "Orientalism". I'm not really interested in the latter, hence the mere four stars. I only hoped the pages for second part (one long chapter) were devoted to the first! As Irwin says in the book, the rank of Oriental scholars in the West has more than their fair share of eccentrics; and it's sheer joy to read their biographies, though short. Sir Richard Burton is only briefly mentioned (for whom you've to refer to Rice's biography), but you'll meet the good Guillaume Postel and Edward Henry Palmer. This first part of the book is especially valuable as most of the source materials are difficult to get hold of for an ordinary reader.
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