About author
Abstract. The monograph “Islamic studies in the West” by Mohsen Al-Viri is a generalizing work on history of Oriental studies from Ancient period to the end of 20th century. The author not only shows how the Western approach to the study of Islam has changed, but, at the same time, he also compares it with the Muslim approach. A separate chapter of the book is devoted to the influence of Islamic studies on the Muslim world. In this chapter, the Iranian researcher, following the tradition of “Orientalism” by E. Said, criticizes European researchers for spreading false ideas about Islam, creating an atmosphere of Eurocentrism in scientific discourse, blaming them for emergence of spirit of selfdeprecation among Muslims, and creating idea of dependence on the West. However, he points that they also had some positive influence on Muslim researchers by spreading new research methods. The work of al-Viri is interesting because it not only allows tracing the main stages of studying Islam in the West and the evolution of the image of this religion, but also because it shows how modern Eastern scholars perceive and evaluate Western Orientalism.
Keywords: Oriental studies, Islam, history of ideas, Western Islamic Studies, image of the East, orientalism.