Orientalists’ Views on the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula: A Critical Enquiry into the Journey of William Palgrave

This article sheds light on how the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula are described in the writings of the English orientalist William Gifford Palgrave (1826-1888). He depicted a lively and vibrant social image of the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula. He wrote about their religious, intellectual, moral, political and social aspects. He relied on his travelling throughout the Peninsula to discuss this society, its characteristics, its positives and its negatives. The study investigates the stereotyped image of these Arabs in line with Orientalist experiments specifically in the 19th century. It adopts historical and comparative approaches within his writings away from exaggeration in interpretation. It reveals the dominance of Eurocentrism as a conceptual framework that has had an impact on most of his writings, just like other orientalists in the 19th century. KEYWORDS Arab characteristics, eurocentrism, historical approach, orientalism