Sultan's Court European Fantasies of the East

An engaging critique of Western misconceptions about the mysterious East. Edward Said's Orientalism has been much praised for its account of Western perceptions of the Orient. But the English-speaking world has for too long been unaware of another classic in the same field which appeared in France only a year later. Alain Grosrichard's The Sultan's Court is a fascinating survey of Western accounts of "Oriental despotism" in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It focuses particularly on portrayals of the Ottoman Empire and the supposedly enigmatic structure of the despot's court -- the seraglio -- with its viziers, janissaries, mutes, dwarfs, eunuchs and countless wives.. Drawing on the writing of Montesquieu, Rousseau and Voltaire, Grosrichard examines their intense fascination with the seraglio He describes the way in which they constructed a fantasized Other in contrast to their own projections of a rational society. The Sultan's Court explores the nature of these fantasies and what they reveal about the foundations of modern political thought.