OLEO2122-OLET2123: Understanding the Arab World Edward Said describes Orientalism as a concept that “can be considered and explored as the corporate institution of contending with the Orient – contending with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, outlining it, by teaching it, resolving it, regulating it: briefly, Orientalism as a Western-style for influencing, reconstructing it, and having authority over the Orient.”[1] Said’s critique of Orientalism, as depicted by the West, Europe, and the United States, is essential in understanding the Arab World, Islam, and the Middle East. It distorts their actual reality. Said takes note of “the repertory of orientalism.” He read a book by the French poet Gerard de Nerval about his travels in Syria,