IX. Answer the fact-finding questions trying not to give a short answer, add some information to develop the idea:

1. What societies and cultures does Oriental studies embrace?

2. Where did modern Asian studies find its origins?

3. Are the scholars from the region participating in the discipline?

4. When did division of the Western world into the "West" and the "East" occur?

5. What established a sharp opposition between medieval Europe and Islamic world?

6. The Renaissance witnessed a growth in translations of Arabic texts, didn't it?

7. Was the earliest translation of the Qur'an into Latin completed in 1143 or in 1543?

8. What led to extended diplomatic relations between Europe and Asia?

9. How did Enlightenment thinkers characterize East?

10. Why did intellectual connections between Eastern and Western countries emerge?

11. When did Oriental studies become a well-established academic discipline in most European countries?

12. Who changed the nature of studies considerably?

X. Insert necessary words and expressions using those from the box:

Middle Eastern studies, (a)____________of Asian studies, is a name given to a number of (b)___________________associated with the study of the culture, politics, economy, and geography of the Middle East, an area that is generally interpreted to cover (c)__________________extending from North Africa in the west to the Chinese frontier and multiple other nations. It is considered as part of area studies taking (d)______________________ to the study of a region.

Although some academic programs combine Middle Eastern Studies with Islamic Studies, based on (e)________________ of Muslims in the region, others maintain these areas of study as (f)______________________.

In 1978 Edward Said, published his book Orientalism, in which he accused earlier scholars of a "subtle and persistent Eurocentric prejudice against Arabo-Islamic peoples and their culture", claiming (g)__________ amounted to a justification for imperialism. While other (h)________________ challenged Said's conclusions, the book soon became a standard text of (i)____________ and (j)________________.

the preponderance	literary theory	a subset		the bias
a range of nations	academic programs	academics		separate disciplines
an interdisciplinary approach		cultural studies

XI. Give the general idea of this text.

XII. Render the text using your plan.

XIII. Read the text to yourself and write the annotation: From "Oriental Studies" to "Asian Studies"

Like the term Orient, Orientalism derives from the Latin word "oriens" – "rising" and, equally likely, from the Greek word "he'oros" – "the direction of the rising sun". "Orient" is the opposite of Occident. In terms of The Old World, Europe was considered The Occident (The West), and its farthest-known extreme The Orient (The East). Dating from the Roman Empire until the Middle Ages, what is now, in the West, considered "the Middle East" was then considered "the Orient". At that time, the flourishing cultures of the Far East were unknown; likewise Europe was unknown in the Far East. However, use of the various terms and senses derived from "Orient" has greatly declined in the twentieth century.

Oriental Studies has now been replaced by Asian Studies localized to specific regions, such as, Middle Eastern or Near Eastern Studies, South Asian studies, and East Asian Studies. This reflects the fact that the Orient is not a single, monolithic region but rather a broad area encompassing multiple civilizations. The generic concept of Oriental Studies, to its opponents, has lost any use it may have once had and is perceived as obstructing changes in departmental structures to reflect actual patterns of modern scholarship.

Opponents offer various political explanations for the change. By some, the term "Oriental" has come to be thought offensive to non-Westerners. Area studies that incorporate not only philological pursuits but identity politics may also account for the hesitation to use the term "Oriental".

Supporters of "Oriental Studies" counter that the term "Asian" is just as encompassing as "Oriental" and may well have originally had the same meaning, if it were derived from an Akkadian word for "East" (a more common derivation is from one or both of two Anatolian proper names.). Replacing one word with another is to confuse historically objectional opinions about the East with the concept of "the East" itself. The terms Oriental/Eastern and Occidental/Western are both inclusive concepts that usefully identify large-scale cultural differences. Such general concepts do not preclude or deny more specific ones.

XIV. Summarize the contents of two texts in order to present academic discipline “ORIENTAL STUDY”.