Amira Ibrahim

• The history of intellectual and cultural contact between West and East is very complicated and contradictory. A long time ago, eastern culture attracted the attention of many writers, orientalists and researchers, who headed east not only to study and describe the fascinating eastern civilizations, but also to analyze their different literary, historical and scientific aspects. The new mysterious but exciting environment inspired the orientalists to record and describe what they experienced regarding the architecture, the nature and theThe history of intellectual and cultural contact between West and East is very complicated and contradictory. A long time ago, eastern culture attracted the attention of many writers, orientalists and researchers, who headed east not only to study and describe the fascinating eastern civilizations, but also to analyze their different literary, historical and scientific aspects. The new mysterious but exciting environment inspired the orientalists to record and describe what they experienced regarding the architecture, the nature and the people. The attractive eastern natural views which are distinguishable from the monotonous western environment – especially after the industrial revolution – helped them to find new prospects. The East has been coming into focus since the middle ages, when the church campaigns started to study Islam as the prevalent religion in this area. The orientalist motivations were not only religious, but also followed economic, colonial and scientific agenda, which lead to a plethora of specialized research, stories, novels and analytical studies. A close look at the orientalists’ works will provide us with an overview of eastern civilization. Therefore, their works are considered as a mirror reflecting their point of view to the east and the north of Africa, especially to pharaonic Egypt. The orientalists who travelled to the east and expressed their passion to this old civilization in their writings influenced the literary movement deeply. But what do we mean by the term orientalism? Edward Saïd has defined this term in different ways. Saïd presented and interpreted it as a way of thinking, a historical phenomenon. Defining orientalism has become a problem indeed, and now it is carrying a number of meanings which do not match. Therefore, the aim of the study is to bring into focus the most important definitions of the term orientalism from the late 17th to the mid-20th century.…