The Age of Discoveries and Patriotism: James Darmesteter's Assessment of French Orientalism

The rapid development of Orientalism in the nineteenth century played a fundamental role in the expansion of our prior conceptions of various religious traditions. In this article, I will analyse James Darmesteter's assessment of the development of French Orientalism. He discussed this issue in his Essais orientaux (1883a). First, I will describe the discoveries mentioned by Darmesteter. Second, I will highlight his comments about the contributions of French scholars to the development of orientalism. Finally, I will analyse the relation between the Franco–German War (1870–71) and Darmesteter's Essais. The article will show that the military vocabulary used by Darmesteter is a clear indication of the impact of the war on his writing.