Europe and the Eastern Other
Comparative Perspectives on Politics, Religion and Culture before the Enlightenment
By (author) Hassan Bashir Texas A&M University at Qatar
Publication date:
13 December 2012Length of book:
166 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksDimensions:
239x160mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9780739138038
Europe and the Eastern Other critically evaluates and supports the argument for adopting an intercultural or comparative approach in western political theory. Hassan Bashir examines the encounters between Europeans and their eastern others before the European Enlightenment and illustrates that the West’s cultural others have played a foundational role in developing a distinct western cultural self-understanding. This analysis includes records of eyewitness accounts of European visitors in Eastern lands during the medieval and early modern periods, including William of Rubruck’s account of the Mongol lands in mid-thirteenth century, observations of the first Jesuit mission in the court of Mughal Indian emperor Akbar the Great, and circumstances in late Ming China as recorded in the journals of Jesuit missionary and scholar Matteo Ricci. This work illustrates the dynamism and complexity involved in an inter-cultural encounter and highlights the fact that cultural self-understanding is often deeply rooted in how we understand our cultural others.
This short contribution to the emerging field of comparative political theory is predicated on the need to open political theory to non-Western theorists, works, processes, and events; show how these reflect non-Western cultural dispositions; and bring more rigor to political theory scholarship and practice writ large. Bashir (Texas A&M Univ., Qatar) discusses three cross-cultural exchanges between Europeans and non-Westerners during the medieval and premodern periods. The three case studies—which focus on encounters between Europeans and Mongols in the 13th century, Europeans and the Mughals in India under the rule of Akbar the Great, and Europeans and the Chinese literati during the late Ming period—provide a sense of progression in the history of Europeans' relations with cultural others. The studies are based on a wide range of primary texts, such as official court histories, personal diaries, relevant correspondence, and eyewitness accounts left by Western representatives in Eastern lands. The volume will interest comparative political theorists. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections.