Oriental studies
Oriental studies include Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, and peoples and their histories; in recent years the term Asian studies has mostly replaced the older term. European study of the region had primarily religious origins, which has remained an important motivation until recent times.
Oriental Studies Media
Ancient Assyrian antiquities in the British Museum. In the 19th century, the placing of spectacular antiquities in the new museums brought unusual interest from the general public to Oriental studies.
Matteo Ricci (left) and Xu Guangqi (徐光啟) (right) in the Chinese edition of Euclid's Elements (幾何原本) published in 1607
The old building of the Asiatic Society, in Calcutta, founded by William Jones in 1784
Experts inspecting the Rosetta Stone during the Second International Congress of Orientalists in London, 1874
The Women of Algiers (1834) by Eugène Delacroix is one of the earliest paintings from Western painters in the "Eastern world."