12-05-2022
A-lecture-at-the-Faculty-of-Arts-on-the-hostile-side-of-Orientalism-AABU

As part of the activities of the Scientific Week of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Al al-Bayt University, the Department of History organized a lecture entitled “The Vartima Journey: A Hostile Model of Orientalism" in attendance of the Dean, Dr. Mohammad Al-Khatib. The lecture was presented by Prof. Fathi Al-Shawara who discussed the journey of the Italian orientalist, Vartima, to the Arabian Peninsula at the beginning of the tenth century AH. In this journey, the orientalist described the social and economic life of the Arabian Peninsula, inhabitants and tribes. Further, he accurately described Makkah Al-Mukarramah, the Two Holy Mosques, the rituals of Hajj, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah and many other cities of the Arabian Peninsula at that time.

Al-Shawara tackled the hostile side of Vartima as a model off European orientalists and some of the mistakes he made in describing the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula.