THE ORIENTALIST METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK OF BERNARD LEWIS IN HIS WORKS ON THE ASSASSINS

Abstract

Orientalist studies on Islam have long constituted a field of intellectual conflict. The interest of Orientalists in Islam was not merely scientific curiosity, but rather a reflection of the West’s image of the East, and an attempt either to understand it or to subjugate it within preconceived notions. This interest took multiple forms, ranging from deliberate distortion of Islamic history and questioning its civilization, to more balanced studies that sought epistemic fairness. Yet the impact of these studies went beyond academic boundaries, contributing to the shaping of Western public opinion and influencing political and cultural positions toward Islam and its people. Among the issues that attracted Orientalist attention were Islamic sects, seen as fertile ground for intellectual and political conflicts in Islamic history. The Assassins sect became a tool for attacking Islam itself, as exemplified by the Jewish British-American orientalist Bernard Lewis, who employed history to feed orientalist ideas aimed at undermining the Islamic system from within—not as mere historical events, but as a symbol of chaos and extremism. Given the importance of this subject, the study seeks to clarify the mechanisms of Lewis’s orientalist methodology in his writings on the Assassins, and to analyze the orientalist approach he adopted in addressing this issue.