***Edward Said was an international figure and created a stir in the West by challenging the stereotyped version of the East. All his books are stimulating in their contents. Those Americans who associated the term "Palestinian" with bizarre headgear and swarthiness were in a shock when Said appeared in the literary circle as a witty, cultured scholar. His writings conveyed critical examination of human values for peace and prosperity for all.***

EDWARD Said (68), Professor of Literature at the prestigious Columbia University, died on 25 September, after having suffered leukemia for number of years. If any one had asked about his health, he used to answer: " I am not going to die because so many people want me dead". He was under the "state of art" treatment of a Jewish doctor and this choice of the physician demonstrates his strength of character and trust towards persons of other faiths. Despite Jewish attacks against him for his writings, he had close Jewish friends.

Said was born in an Anglican Palestinian family that had owned property both in Jerusalem and Cairo. Although his father kept his name "Edward" after a British monarch, his father did not send him to England for his higher studies. Instead he went to the US and obtained degrees from Princeton and Harvard Universities. Prior to the entry to the University, he was educated at St. George's, an Anglican establishment in Jerusalem and also at the English private Victoria College in Cairo. Said was as much at home in French and English as in Arabic.

Said had been a controversial figure both in the Arab World and in the West. He was the most eloquent defender of Palestinian people and attacker of corrupt Palestinian leadership. Said attacked the Oslo Accord of 1993 stating that the accord would be a failure. He was found right in his view at the end because he suspected that Israel did not believe in the accord. Yasser Arafat reportedly banned his books in the occupied land while the Jewish lobby in the US wanted to deprive him of his academic post by alleging that he was an anti-semite.

Said was one of the most distinctive and original writers from the 70s to the 90s. His books illuminate the remarkable depth and breadth of his penetrating mind. His book Orientalism (1978) has exerted a galvanising influence throughout the world. In these pages Said criticised Western view of orient that had been rooted in colonialism. oriental countries were seen as "barbarous" and sources of exploitation for amassing wealth. This view finds favour with that of Karl Marx when he stated that the British introduced railways, printing presses and the telegraph in colonial India, not out of their kindness of their hearts but were motivated by their commercial interests.

His other books Covering Islam (1981) and Culture and Imperialism (1993) threw down a challenge to the think-tanks and professional institutions. The first is an attack on the Western media covering the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran and the second is a collection of essays on the perception of the East from Western writers. His last book Out of Place (1999) is a memoir that puts him both as a refugee and an "outsider". His enemies claimed that he was never a true refugee from Palestine because he was in Cairo at the time of dispossession of Palestinians. In this book he defended his position and believed in the right of return of Palestinians to their homeland, Palestine.

Like all serious academics, he wanted accuracy and was a tough master. He suffered no fools. He had no respect for sloppy journalism and had less patience with American TV anchors. He was very critical the way the Arab world imposed barriers to intellectual development. He was a source of admonition to the insulated Arab intelligentsia. It has been reported that every year more books are translated and published in Athens than in all the Arab capitals combined. This demonstrates the intellectual vacuum in the Arab world with attendant consequences on Arab people.

Said was critical to curtailment of civil liberties in the US after the September 11 attacks and found treatment of Muslims living in the US as humiliating. He opposed war in Iraq and was appalled at the looting of museums in Iraq soon after the US occupied the country. He wrote: " In the US, the hardening of attitudes, the tightening of the grip of demeaning generalisation and triumphalist cliche, the dominance of crude power allied with simplistic contempt for dissenters and 'others', have found a fitting correlative in the looting, pillaging and destruction of Iraq's libraries and museums."

Said had hidden talent as a pianist. Many visitors to his apartment had to wait to see him until he had finished playing music. He reportedly loved to play Beethoven's Moonlight. His friendship with Jewish musician Barenboim and their joint support for an Israeli-Arab orchestra was proof of his desire for Arab-Israeli reconciliation. When Barenboim was refused permission to play in Ramallah (West Bank) by Israel, Said rearranged the venue of the concert in Morocco last month.

Most Western critics of Said believe that although he was ideally placed to explain East to West and West to East, he missed his opportunity because he suspected good intentions of the West towards the East. To support their position they cite the views of the Syrian-Lebanese poet, Adnois who has warned that there exists a danger in too strong a counter position between "East" and "West". While the West has moved forward since the Renaissance period, the East had its pinnacles during the Middle Ages. Islamic culture and civilization were at their peak when Europe was steeped in darkness. Muslims conquered Spain and ruled for centuries and knocked at the gates of Vienna in Eastern Europe.

Edward Said was an international figure and created a stir in the West by challenging the stereotyped version of the East. All his books are stimulating in their contents. Those Americans who associated the term "Palestinian" with bizarre headgear and swarthiness were in a shock when Said appeared in the literary circle as a witty, cultured scholar. His writings conveyed critical examination of human values for peace and prosperity for all. Truly Said secured a historic place as one of the creative writers of the world. Many believe that the Swedish Nobel Academy was poorer in not awarding him a Nobel Prize for Literature for his breadth of vision and analytical brilliance in his writings.

Barrister Harun ur Rashid is a former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.