The Orient is not only adjacent to Europe; it is also the place of Europe's greatest and richest and oldest colonies the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the other.15 The Orient is not only adjacent to Europe; it is also the place of Europe’s greatest and richest and oldest colonies, the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other