Eurocentrism in Reinhart Dozy’s Spanish Islam: A History of The Muslims in Spain

Abstract

Eurocentrism is an ideology which influenced the works of Orientalists in the 19th century to elevate and raise the prestige of European culture and civilisation. Reinhart Dozy (1820-1883) was among the most famous and well-known Orientalist scholars who lived around the 19th century and he produced a majestic work on the history of Islam in al-Andalus entitled Spanish Islam: A History of the Muslims in Spain. In relation to that, the objective of this study is to analyse the influence of Eurocentrism in Spanish Islam authored by Dozy. This study wholly employed a qualitative approach via historical research method and content analysis by examining specifically the work of Spanish Islam. Results of this study argued that Spanish Islam produced by Dozy was influenced by Eurocentrism which spread in the 19th century. This is proven by the existence of Eurocentrism characteristics in the work of Dozy which ignored and degraded the values of the Muslims, characterised the Muslim community as despotic and evaluated and interpreted the history of Islam according to Western perspective and imagination. Hence, the presence of these features makes the piece Spanish Islam less authoritative as a source of reference for Islamic history and civilisation researchers.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n29p74