Such imageries and fictive genealogies are not exclusively found among the Arabs. In a similar fashion, Benjamin Disraeli, the leading Tory statesman and prime minister under Queen Victoria, has projected his Semitic pride by claiming the Arabness of the Jews. Disraeli considered the Jews to be an “Arabian tribe,” and the Arabs to be “only Jews upon horseback” (Kalmar 2005: xxxi). He claimed that the Arabs and the Jews are a favored race destined to receive divine …show more content…
Thereafter, Uthman had sent one of the Arab generals to accompany the Chinese ambassador on his way back during 651 CE. Subsequently, the Chinese emperor met the Arab general with generosity (Arnold 2006). This fictive incident happened in the reign of emperor Toasting from the Tang dynasty.
It states that Yazdegerd sent an envoy to the emperor of China after his defeat in the battle of Nahawand. And when the envoy had returned, he asked about what had happened. The Persian messenger retold the dialogue that he had with the Chinese emperor, which included a description of the Arabs’ conditions, and the emperor 's commentary about them and their religion. In this narrative, the emperor of China was depicted as someone who recognizes the superiority of the Arabs and …show more content…
As a result, elements of myths about China circulate broadly, albeit often in deracinated form that are removed from reality. In a context in which some Arabs view China, these elements infuse everyday conversations, providing interpretive tools while simultaneously granting the speaker and the addressee alike a modicum of ethno-religious superiority. To analyze China’s imagery in the contemporary Arabic mass media, the annual restrictions on Uighur Muslim’s fasting during the month of Ramadan is a generative case foregrounding the discursive work that is imagining China and its relation to Islam and Arabs. For this purpose, I examine 130 written comments left on three news articles published by the Saudi-funded Pan-Arab news channel Al-Arabiya’s website from the years 2012 (32 comments), 2014 (81 comments), and 2016 (17 comments). The comments are on average posted up to three days after an article has been published. Comments allow readers to respond to an article instantly, expressing their approval or disapproval of an event, asking questions, pointing out errors, giving new leads, or as in this case imagine the Other and construct fictive