This volume highlights the role of Jewish scholars within the field of Oriental studies in the 19th and 20th century. It discusses their views of Islam and the "Orient" in the context of concepts such as orientalism, colonialism, and modernity. The analysis shows that Jewish oriental research provides a way of understanding some of the particularities of the boundaries between European frameworks of thought.
The analysis shows that their research on Islam was also informed by their own changing perspectives on the geographic borders of Europe, which not only testifies to their search for belonging but also to their objective of refuting the colonial mechanisms of these borders and untying what most of them eventually saw as a European web of Orientalism.
