In the genre of fiction known as “The Arab of the Desert,” the desert “symbolized the alleged unproductive, fossilized nature of the Arab and Muslim world,” which was in need of European stewardship. Because of their arrested development, the Arab, Turk, and African could not take care of themselves and needed outside help.

XREF: Connects to Edward Said's Orientalism and the broader discourse of colonial justification through alleged cultural superiority. SEED: Potential essay angle on how literary genres historically encoded imperial ideology and legitimated colonial intervention.

Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imag…, loc. 407