\paperw4260 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 \fs24 The path toward an understanding between West and East, on the other hand, was paved with difficulties. Nevertheless the eightee
nth and nineteenth centuries saw an explosion of interest in the exotic. From Europe, a host of writers, adventurers, diplomats, and explorers set off in discovery of the wonders of the Orient, producing diaries, guides, collections of letters, and acc
ounts of journeys. Some were moved by a sincere thirst for knowledge, while others were drawn by the lure of romantic adventure, the prospect of easy profit, or the quest for mystical experience. A new science arose in the West, ôOrientalism.ö This was a
convenient pigeonhole in which to place not only serious scientists, archeologists, Islamists, and erudite collectors, but also writers filled with preconceptions and souvenir hunters. The Orient had a permanent grip on the Western imagination.\par
