Anthony Sattin

East and West — when the twain meet

issue 19 November 2005

As far as love affairs go, the relationship between British travel writers and Islam has been both intense and long-lasting. From Orientalists such as Richard Burton and Edward Lane installed à la turque in 19th-century Cairo and Damascus to Wilfred Thesiger in the Empty Quarter, Bruce Chatwin in Sudan, Colin Thubron in Syria, Jan Morris in Oman and Egypt, Muslim ways and means have inspired some of our best travellers to produce some of their finest writing. But the nature of the exchange between these writers and their Muslim subject-matter was transformed by the destruction of the World Trade Center and the ensuing war in Iraq.

One of the most significant changes has been in the rhetoric of politicians and the press. Where once the word Muslim was preceded by adjectives such as ‘mystical’, ‘hospitable’ or ‘mysterious’, it is now linked to less flattering words, all of them associated with extremism, mostly also with violence.

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