Reversing the Colonial Gaze: Persian Travelers Abroad

Persian travelers from Iran and India traveled across Russian and Ottoman territories, to Asia, Africa, North and South America, Europe, and beyond in the 19th century. Reversing the Colonial Gaze by Hamid Dabashi offers a comprehensive and transformative analysis of these journeys, challenging the Eurocentric perspective and revealing a constellation of travel narratives that re-imagine and reclaim the world beyond colonial borders.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 410 pages
Publication date: 24 March 2022
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Persian travelers from Iran and India embarked on extensive journeys that spanned across vast territories, including Russian and Ottoman lands, as they ventured to Asia, Africa, North and South America, Europe, and beyond. Through their travelogues, these explorers reshaped the world map and challenged the prevailing colonial gaze. In his book, Reversing the Colonial Gaze, Hamid Dabashi offers a comprehensive analysis of the travels of over a dozen nineteenth-century Persian explorers. By transcending the Eurocentric narratives of travel, Dabashi seeks to reverse the colonial perspective that has been cast upon these rich travelogues. His lyrical and engaging re-evaluation of these journeys, complemented by close readings of seminal travelogues, challenges the systematic neglect of these narratives in scholarly literature. By unveiling the entirety of these overlooked or abused travelogues, Dabashi presents a groundbreaking introduction to a constellation of revelatory travel narratives that re-imagine and reclaim the world beyond colonial borders.

Weight: 550g
ISBN-13: 9781108738453
Edition number: New ed