English Renaissance drama was enriched with oriental community issues, which later represented the starting point of Orientalism. Unlike Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, Marlowe dealt with the Orient offensively in his play Tamburlaine the Great. He tried his best to aggravate problems and depict the Orient in a horrible image. He developed his character to target Islam by claiming that the historical character Timor had committed terrifying actions against Islam. Based  on  the conflict between the Turkish empire and European nations, Marlowe constructed his literary work in a dramatic way that copes with the Europeans' perception politically and theologically. Readers and scholars can judge the unethical distortion that Islam was exposed to in Tamburlaine the Great and how Islam was deliberately attacked by Marlowe, representing it as an offensive, backward, and barbarian stereotype. Tamburlaine the Great  is  considered  an oriental drama in which Muslims are portrayed as Greek monsters. It was intertwined with numerous Greek features, including religious, cultural, social, and political components, to significantly distort Islam's image by comparing it to the Greek religion and myths. Therefore, Marlowe relied heavily on Greek features to condemn Islam, particularly regarding features uncommon in Islamic culture. He intended to distort Islam through esoteric characteristics by presenting the characteristics and dispositions of ancient Greece as Islamic. In Tamburlaine the Great, Marlowe used storytelling to portray Islam as nothing more than legendary tales replete with fantastical imagery and devoid of human principles. In addition, Marlowe emphasized trans-textual features to relate Islamic characters to those of Greek literature.

Tamburlaine the Great

 

Yilmaz describes Tamburlaine the Great as a tragic play centered on conquests, and its protagonist,  a Scythian shepherd, progressively arises to attain the position of the world conqueror. The gradual transformation in his character toward power enables him to solidify his sense of identity as the peerless, supreme master of the World, giving him the designation "the scourge and wrath of god on earth"(Yilmaz, 2018:81). Hopkins mentioned that Marlowe may have served as a spy during his undergraduate years in addition to his writing (Hopkins, 2008: 9). Considering scholars' opinions about the hidden theme of Tamburlaine the Great, Yates refers to Tamburlaine the Great as an imperial theme on a tremendous scale. The retrospective effect belongs to the interpretation of astrology; the shepherd boy, Tamburlaine, born under Venus and Saturn, is a star of love, and the latter is a star of empire. Dreams predict that Tamburlaine will become Monarch of the East, conquering one country after the other, and he does so become (Yates, 2003:121).

 

In his book History of English literature, Taine briefly explained the hero's nature in Tamburlaine the Great. He described Tamburlaine as a hero seated on a two-wheeled carriage drawn by handcuffed kings. A hero who burns towns , puts men to the sword and drowns women and children. He stayed boastful with his power and bloodthirsty until he was finally seized with an unseen illness, probably due to his hallucination of monstrous outcries against the God, whose superpower afflicts his soul, and he would gaily dethrone him (Taine, 1879:111). Bayouli explains how Elizabethans were interested in history, so their interests helped the oriental play to succeed. He also asserts that Marlowe's Tamburlaine (1587) references two significant aspects; the beginning of the Elizabethan History plays and the beginning of Elizabethan   theater  to  feature  an  Orientalist  plot  and characters. There was a prominent significance in Oriental history; it offered rich potentialities to enhance the new theatre. Its stage became much more enjoyable when it displayed Oriental heroes such as a Moorish prince, a Mongolian warrior, or a Turkish Sultan (Bayouli, 2008: 114).

 

Fahd Mohammed, a Muslim scholar specializing in Oriental Studies, came out of his perception of Tamburlaine the Great. He emphasizes that Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great (1587) emerged as a distinctly Oriental play in English literature. AL Abboud also demonstrated that the Orient was depicted negatively in Tamburlaine the Great. The distortion targeted not only the oriental figures but also ideologies via the barbaric Tamburlaine, who came from a pastoral background, not more than a shepherd thief. Then he became a power-thirsty conqueror with no limitations to restrain his rapacity (Al-Abboud, 2016: 13). Evren briefly summarizes the reality of Marlowe's work by emphasizing that it was similar to most of the Elizabethan period's works. Marlowe's approach captivated the imagination of the Elizabethan audience because he characterized Turks and Muslims as outrageous, pejorative, ridiculous, barbarous, insulting, unlearned, backward, and preconceived (Evren, 2010: 349). For this reason, all these awful depictions inspired his play to trigger the eagerness of the Elizabethan audience, who favored confrontation with the expanding Ottoman Empire and believed that the glorious East belonged to Europe. The protagonist's ethnicity is a controversial subject in the first Part of Tamburlaine the Great, as pointed out by Emily Bartels in 1991, who highlighted images of 'demonized' and ethnically charged 'barbarity' in the play(qt in Cheney, 2004: 130).

 

In 1986, Shepherd emphasized that there was a systematic fashion for plays on the stage against “Turks and other Islamic nations in late Elizabethan drama” (qt in Evren, 2010:348). Evren further comments on the fashion for plays about Turks that shepherd mentioned by explaining that the central themes of these plays aimed to show Turks as deeply offensive, like a 'brutal' Janissary Army, and the Turkish Sultans as arrogant. Moreover, these plays kept up to describe Muslims as 'infidels' and Islam as a false religion (Evren, 2010: 348). Not so long ago, Europeans during the Elizabethan period carried out fierce campaigns to distort the reputation of Islam either on the stage or in their literary works. Kitishat pointed out that the primary purpose of Tamburlaine the Great is Turk's humiliation; Christopher Marlowe attempts to diminish the Turks in Tamburlaine the Great by embellishing the story of Bayezid, who was overthrown by a half-Mogul (who also is considered half-Turkish) emperor (Kitishat, 2012: 68).

 

According to some scholars, Tamburlaine the Great showed two aspects of relations in Europe. The first is the imbalanced “relations between Europe and the Ottoman  Empire,”  and  the  second is about the balance among European nations that used to be enemies of each other before this period. According to Hertel's suggestion (Price et al., 2016), the Tamburlaine plays show the lack of proportion and relation “between England and the Ottoman Empire,” which seems imbalanced, especially the diplomatic relations. The imbalance of the diplomatic relations is distinctly abridged by the letter in which Murad III, the Sultan of the Ottomans from 1574 until 1595, accedes to a request from Elizabeth I to grant trade privileges, in which Murad III enumerates interminable inventory and a listing of the realms under his control, in preference to the superciliously acknowledging the comparatively piteous reach of the Elizabeth I's dominion. Tamburlaine the Great, as a play, focuses on Muslims in the fourteenth century; it was unfair in depicting Muslims. For instance, considering the signs that led Marlowe to underestimate the value of Islam in his play were due to the incitement among the European community against Muslims.  Cheney argued about the balance raised in Europe because of the fear of Tamburlaine, which had unified all European nations to stand against the Ottoman Empire. It is well-known that continental Catholicism, particularly Catholic Spain, was the enemy that probably Elizabethan England was afraid of much in the 1580s. However, differently, Marlowe's Tamburlaine displays for us another critical panorama on relations of the time politically and religiously, alluding that England undoubtedly shared with the other European nations the horror of a holy war recruited by the Ottoman Empire against eastern and western Europe (Cheney, 2004:73).

 

Tamburlaine the Great as a play brought Muslims to be dramatized on the stage. Schulting emphasized that despite the extensive and copious revisionism, the stereotypes in which Islam and Muslims were virtually presented at different stages of early modern England have only received transient attention. Not surprisingly, Islam in the first play was inherently spectacular in an English context. Tamburlaine was shown repeatedly on the professional stage, but previous examples indicate that its performativity progressed to the fore (Schülting et al., 2016: 118).

 

Religion in Tamburlaine the Great

 

Religion in Tamburlaine the Great has become controversial among scholars, particularly Tamburlaine's religion. Ribner claimed that Tamburlaine the Great stands in bitter dissension to all the religious principles that Anglicans, as Matthew Parker, venerated. Marlowe also behaved on a different path to turn away from theology; he must endure a relevance to a preoccupation with classical poetry that he could have developed while studying at Cambridge (Ribner, 2017:92). Park also argued that Marlowe does not care about religion. Marlowe believed that any community's dominant religion or moral system turns into corruption due to the nature of things (Park and Lorraine, 1981: 27). Slotkin (2013) is another scholar who commented on Tamburlaine's religion; he emphasized that scholars have given numerous and contradictory interpretations to the play due to the confusion caused by Tamburlaine's intentional blasphemy (Slotkin, 2013: 425). He also mentioned that Marlowe uses his characters' dramatization of religious affiliations to examine the consequences of various ideologies and not just to undermine religions or criticize current events(Slotkin, 2013:415).

 

Many scholars doubted Tamburlaine's religion as the main character in the play. Evren pointed out to the critics' estimation about Tumor's historical character that many believe he was an anti-Muslim. Therefore, most critics claim that Marlowe's Tamburlaine was an atheist according to his manipulation of religions, while other critics emphasize that the Tamburlaine character was a Christian (Evren, 2010: 325). Evren also emphasized that Tamburlaine's character was like the historical figure Timor, known in English sources as Tamerlane. He was neither a Christian nor an atheist. He was decidedly a Muslim, but according to Marlowe's plot, he was inconstant at the end of the play and refused his religion (Evren, 2010:315). Burton pointed out that the religion of Tamburlaine was deliberately changed through the play by Marlowe. It was remarkable that Tamburlaine's religious identity changed with the plays' changing circumstances. Consequently, Marlowe's contradictious representation of Tamburlaine was no more obscure than Elizabeth and her country's meddlesome relationship with the Ottoman Empire and Islam (Burton, 2005:69). Evren asserted that Tamburlaine is a Muslim:

 

If Tamburlaine were an atheist or a Christian, or if he were not a Muslim, he would not swear by the Prophet of Islam. Moreover, he would not say 'sacred Mahomet' because only the Muslims use the word 'sacred' for the Islam prophet. Throughout the play, we come across the adjective 'sacred' in various scenes, but all of them are uttered by Muslim characters like Orcanes (Evren, 2010: 325).

 

Slotkin (2014) commented on Bacon to emphasize that Tamburlaine the Great played a crucial role by breaking down the conception of a diametric opposition between Christianity and Islam (Slotkin, 2014:425). Bacon describes the aesthetic side of atheism; However, we typically conceive of "atheism" as the rejection of the concept of a creator God; charges of atheism throughout the early modern era, like those directed against Marlowe, may relate to a wide range of transgressions from religious teachings. Atheism in Tamburlaine the Great was introduced when Tamburlaine declared “daring God out of Heaven” (qt in Slotkin, 2014). Greene also asserts that the play is regarded as the first play about atheism,  particularly  when  Tamburlaine challenges God to cast him out of Heaven. Slotkin (2014) indicated that the God depicted by Tamburlaine is consistent with the beliefs of Marlowe's audience. The play's Second part delves deeper into the topic of a god that transcends the religious differences between Tamburlaine's faith and the audience's Elizabethan beliefs (Slotkin, 2014:417).

 

Burton presented his perspective of Marlowe's religion through his analysis of Bajazeth's character without consideration of any evidence or the opinions of others. He illustrated that if Tamburlaine does not recognize himself with any specific religion, his antagonist, a defeated Bajazeth, identifies himself and indicates to Tamburlaine and European Christendom as a bitter enemy in Part one (Burton, 2005: 77). With an accurate description, Slotkin judges how Tamburlaine's play stands against religion from the perspective of philosophy “The Tamburlaine plays thus encourage a Machiavellian skepticism with regard to human religious institutions and a Pyrrhonian skepticism with regard to God” (Slotkin, 2014: 434). Thus, the assertively rejecting cherished beliefs in parts one and two of Tamburlaine the Great was organized in order to raise questions. The iconoclasm of Tamburlaine smashes human religion to pose questions instead of replacing one dogma with another. Henry – Offor mentioned that the religion in Marlowe's Tamburlaine is no more than a dramatization of the conflict, religious beliefs, and Elizabethan anxieties about forbidden Catholic practices that made the theater-going public (Henry-Offor,  2015:51).

 

In Tamburlaine the Great, Muslims are portrayed as Greeks. The play was intertwined with numerous Greek features, including religious, cultural, social, and political components, to significantly distort Islam's image by comparing it to the Greek religion and myths. Therefore, Marlowe relied heavily on Greek depictions to condemn Islam, particularly regarding characteristics uncommon in Islamic culture. Some readers may have trouble understanding the connection between Orientalism and Marlowe's representation of Islam by describing them as Greeks. These interferences arose due to the oriental aspects, whose goals are considerably more enigmatic unless their influence manifests itself in the conduct of Orientals or their mind becomes constrained to orientalist dictates. In his book Orientalism, Said stated three criteria for determining the concepts of Orientalism. In the third criterion, he alluded implicitly to the relationship between myths and Orientalism. According to Said, Orientalism rests on a weak foundation of myths and lies, and the reality behind them has been concealed for fear of causing the entire structure to collapse (Said, 1979:6). As a result, Marlowe related the Islamic culture and army to Greek mythology from a Western perspective in order to portray Islam's army and civilization as unrealistic. However, Watt (1972:56-71) included a confession in his book The Influence of Islam on Medieval Europe to illustrate the Orientalists' unflattering depictions of Arabs and Muslims. He demonstrated that Europe's reliance  on Greek and Roman heritage was exaggerated due to its methodical response to Islam, while its treatment of Saracens was restrained. Watt, an educated scholar, lamented this underestimating and thought that their current mission was to rectify the erroneous emphasis and provide comprehensive apologies to the Arab and Islamic World for the atrocities done against them by Europeans. Watt's confession emphasized the superficial view of Islam, and he also stated that orientalists based their thinking on false acknowledgment; therefore, this acknowledgment suggests that Marlowe's portrayal of the Muslim army and culture in Tamburlaine the Great is comparable to that of the Greek by relying on the orientalist style that distorts facts in favor of another culture or belief. Consequently, Marlowe portrayed the Muslim army and culture in Tamburlaine the Great as Greek characteristics and implications embodied by the play's character.

 

Motives for the West's one-sided depiction of Islam

 

Baldwin (1942:403)mentioned that Islam posed a significant danger to European civilization with the Prophet Muhammad's death in 632 until the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Christendom, or significant parts of it, faced a threat posed by an opposing Islamic world. They were pivotal years in the development of European civilization, and Islam's presence profoundly influenced that civilization's essence. Jones (1942: 202)indicated that the Western image of Muhammad and his beliefs is based on second literary works rather than personal observation of the Muslim peoples; consequently, it combines both fantasy and reality of a highly prejudiced kind. While providing a relatively realistic depiction of Muslim sentiments regarding Christian ideas, Jacques of Vitry suggested, like many others, that Muslims were more accurately designated infidels than barbarians and persisted in spreading unfounded myths. Jones added that the medieval poet's knowledge of Islam was informed by clerical authorities, whose purpose was to ridicule Islamic practices and beliefs. They received these fabrications from Byzantium authors who demonized Islam(Jones,1942:203).

 

According to Baldwin, as compared to other religions, Islam is the only one to have successfully conquered vast portions of territory from Catholicism, costing them massive military losses. Moreover, in one crucial way, interactions between the Christian and Muslim worlds have maintained unchanged for several centuries. Islam has been remarkably resilient to Christian missionaries' endeavors from the time of Mohammedanism until today (Baldwin,1942:403).

 

It is obvious that the Elizabethan writers were concerned primarily about the dramatic features and ignored the honorable ones, as the former did not match the   literary   style  employed,  which  favored  everything dramatic, as its name suggests. When Marlowe wrote Tamburlaine the Great, the Islamic danger, mainly Turks, peaked. Christians instinctively embraced any literary work that showed them that Turks were not an invincible power, and this was natural. This depiction suggests that Marlowe was drawing into a widespread passion when he chose to tell Tamburlaine's tale.

 

Unintentionally and indirectly, Tamburlane helped the Christians besieged by Turks in Constantinople for a long time when he subjugated the Turks and humiliated their Sultan Bayezid. Morlowe had to make a historical fallacy and invent a figure that Christians might apply to justify their view of God as the persecutor of Islam to drive home this idea. Despite certain internal contradictions,  Tamburlaine, as a Muslim, was depicted as a brutal conqueror of his Muslim enemies, a well-versed scholar of classical literature and the religions of Greece and Rome.  However, for some reason, Christians seem to be influenced in the first part, when Tamburlaine swears to conquer the Turks and release the Christian hostages serving as captains on Muslim pirate ships.

 

Significance of the study

 

Since Tamburlaine the Great was initially performed in the sixteenth century, it is much more intriguing to evaluate and research it in depth. It is deemed notable for the following reasons: It provides scholars and researchers with the finest knowledge of Marlow's portrayal of Islam from an orientalist perspective and how he dealt with the Islamic culture and doctrines of people from various locations and religions. Second, analyzing and criticizing Tamburlaine the Great from the perspective of Easterner researchers can contribute to reflecting a different point of view that may deconstruct Marlowe's ambiguity based on the Islamic perspective of Marlowe's depiction of oriental images and plotting events in the play. Thirdly, it opens gates to new methods of studying the text and generating new concepts to comprehend Marlow's oriental commission based on his work's proof. Fourthly, few scholars have studied Marlow's Tamburlaine the Great from the perspective of Islam and its relation to the Greek depiction in the play, and there are few resources on this topic; therefore, research on this topic enriches the research field with a great deal of information about the conflict between the East and the West, Christianity, and Islam, power, and cultures. Tamburlaine the Great has history and tragedy; therefore, interpreting it from an Orientalism and Islamic viewpoint adds a crucial dimension.

 

Theoretical framework of the study

 

The theoretical framework for  studying  Tamburlaine  the Great will be the Orientalism theory by Said, as proposed in his book Orientalism (1979). This article aims to apply this theory to Marlow's Tamburlaine the Great to examine the Orientalist portrayals of Muslims in Greek mythology that appear in the play. Edward Said mentioned in his book Orientalism1979 that the Orient is deeply ingrained in European indigenous cultures. As a mode of rhetoric bolstered by universities, terminology, scholarship, symbolism, dogmas, and even former imperial beaurocracy and colonial patterns, Orientalism affirms and embodies that part contextually and even philosophically (2). As an explanation of the general meaning of Orientalism, Said defines it as a philosophical and intellectual style based on the existence and knowledge distinction between the East and the West (2). Said also discusses the term Orient as it is geographically close to Europe and hosts some of the continent's oldest, most prosperous, and storied colonies. It is also a major cultural competitor and source of inspiration for Europeans (1). Said also explains how Orientalism is based upon exteriority. Through poetry or scholarship, the orientalist offers a voice to the East, creates a vivid picture of the region, and helps Westerners understand its mysteries (20). Said asserts that his analysis of the orientalist texts was directed to highlight the hidden facts, such as the representation of Eastern cultural features contrary to the actual images of the East (21).

 

Said adds that this indication is represented in the nominally accurate material (biographies, philosophical studies, politics, scholarly articles) and the artistic text (21).

 

About his understanding of Orientalism from the theoretical point of view, Said mentions that whether they call themselves anthropologists, sociologists, historians, or philologists, all those who study or teach about the Orient in any capacity are considered orientalists (2). Said also states in his book Orientalism 1979 that the belief that European culture is inherently superior to that of every other civilization on Earth. Furthermore, there is the dominance of European views of the Orient, which reaffirm Western superiority and condemn Eastern backwardness (7). Said also indicated that the Occident has held a dominant position concerning the Orient, and this dominance has taken many forms and complexity degrees (15). He also referred to some scholars who focused on the Orient, among them Marlowe, and they used the Orient's resources to create works that helped to establish key concepts, themes, and characters (63).

This research paper explains the analysis of the Greek depiction in Marlowe’s play, Tamburlaine the Great, using Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism. In order to provide the play analysis, the authors relied on their interpretation of the text, supplemented by relevant literary theory. Primary and secondary sources are used to complete  this  research  paper.  Marlowe’s   play,  Tamburlaine  the Great, served as the primary source, while secondary materials were taken from central library books, journals, and the Internet. We used research techniques such as text criticism, biographical studies, narrative analysis,  creative writing as a research method, and internet-based research. In the first stage, we located relevant materials. Secondly, we checked the books and articles covering the subject through our reading. Thirdly, we evaluated the results for applicability. In the last stage, we considered the findings' relevance.

Marlowe's manipulation of characters in Tamburlaine the Great, inspired by the life of the central Asian emperor- Timur, is particularly effective because of the play's emphasis on the Islamic military forces in the middle ages. The play had two significant forces; Bajazeth's and Tamburlaine's. The two sides comprised Muslim fighters engaged in a power struggle between two competing empires. Although the fight between the two Islamic sects occurred three hundred years before Marlowe's play, it is noteworthy that Marlowe exploited the conflict to produce a distorted impression of Muslims. As a great playwright, Marlowe contributed to demonizing the Orient; he represented Muslims as monsters and demons, like the conflict between Tamburlaine's and Bajezeth's forces. There were many conflicts in Europe either at the same time or before; all were due to the human instinct to control others, such as the Norman conquest of Southern Italy, the German-Polish War, the Byzantine–Georgian wars, the Crusades, and the Hundred Years war. Our argumentative point is that Marlowe ignored all these historical conflicts and followed what might be called a Western intellectual invasion to embody the European hostility towards the Orient. Tamburlaine the Great was developed as an oriental play to match what Edward Said defined later as Orientalism. Marlowe and other European playwrights resorted to distorting Islam and representing it to the West as a source of evil during the early modern era. Marlowe, as an example, depended on many falsifications to represent Muslims in Tamburlaine the Great; he consciously turned to Greek myths to balance the distortion, demonization, and atheism that dominated the image. Said (1979:63) mentioned some prominent authors, including Marlowe, who depended on the Orient to enrich their production.

 

Moreover, he emphasized that they pressed on the ideological myths to advance knowledge. Consequently, depicting Muslims with Greek characteristics inspired by Greek mythology was intentional because no historical hints may interpret Marlowe's intention except Aeschylus's The Persians, which is the first demarcation between the West and the East. Marlowe, especially with his dealing with the Muslim army, resorted to Greek characteristics to bring into mind the Greek victory over the Persian army that King Xerxes Aeschylus's The Persians led. Tamburlaine the Great portrays the Muslim army     as    monstrous  and  savage.  Consequently,  we understand that Marlowe combined myth and cruelty to demonize the Muslim forces. The Turkish or Persian Muslim army was given characteristics from Greek mythology to distort its actual image. The first Greek depiction given to the Muslim army is a “ monster.” According to Asma (2011:13), “Monster derives from the Latin word monstrum, which in turn derives from the root monere (to warn).” Monsters appeared in enormous Greek literary works before they descended into English literary works. Therefore, it became most known in Greek literature. The monster is not merely an unpleasant creature but also a cultural category utilized in various scopes such as literature, politics, and religion. Moreover, not every monster is a horrible creation. Take the case of China, where dragons are beloved symbols of the country's history and culture.

 

The authors' point with the Greek depiction of monsters in Tamburlaine the Great is not the literal monsters but the metaphorical monsters, which Muslims consider an orientalist thought to distort the image of their warriors.

 

Asma (2011:13)illustrates that we must be aware of the metaphors essential in shaping our thoughts and experiences. So, borrowing Greek features to represent the Muslim army as monsters was a fashionable Christian plot to distort the Image of Muslims; it was raised in the middle ages to create numerous differences between the Muslims and Christians. When Park discussed the components of the early traditions about monsters in1981, she referred to its development by arguing that the subject of monsters was exploited in unprecedented urgency and unprecedented content for the sake of contemporary religious and intellectual developments (Honan, 2006:23). Moreover, Arjana referred to the fashion of monsters that was inspired in the medieval time from classical literature to dehumanize Muslims. Therefore, To rationalize eliminating the Muslim threat, it was necessary to represent their image as a dangerous monster. Since ancient creatures were based on Classical fantasy, we encountered “early Muslims, often called Saracens, alongside Plinian creatures like Blemmyae, Amazons, Cyclops, Panotii, and Ephiphagus,” who often reproduced into new monsters in the contemporary time (Arjana, 2015:13).

 

Using the features of monsters in Tamburlaine the Great to describe the Muslim warriors is more than considering a coincidental depiction. It is a kind of orientalist thought to distort Muslims. To clarify how Marlowe's orientalist thought was effective when he used Greek metaphorical characteristics to represent the Muslim warriors. We must highlight Mark Johnson and George Lakoff's views on the effect of metaphor. Our standard conceptual system for expressions that we think, use, and act is metaphorical in our daily life, so the concepts which dominate our thoughts are not only cases of the intellect, but they also dominate our daily life functions, including the religious and cultural matters and the mundane details. Our metaphorical concepts construct  what  we  perceive  and  respond  to  the World(Lakoff and Johnson, 2008). Undoubtedly, Marlowe contributed alongside other Western scholars and ordinary people in Europe to demonize the Muslim warriors. Asma interpreted the metaphorical concept of using the word Monster and its impact on society. According to Asma, when we call a person “monster,” people have a preconceived notion of what we mean because they have experienced something similar. They mentally impose awful, terrifying, and inhuman traits onto the person we discuss without thinking about it. Using metaphor, we can learn about one sphere of influence by examining it from another (Asma, 2011). Consequently, Marlowe's portrayal of the Muslim warriors as monstrous villains in Tamburlaine the Great exemplifies his efforts to shape the other through the nominalization of repulsive concepts and images.

 

Depicting the Muslim warriors as monsters

 

Europeans had targeted the Muslim army forces since the early Crusades. They considered the Muslim army the source of danger that may lead them to lose control of their land. For this reason, Western scholars needed to distort its value and represent it as a monster. Particularly in Tamburlaine the Great, the Muslim army was depicted in what matched the westerners' desire without considering the Muslim army's fundamental characteristics. There is no respect for the belief of Islamic people, nor even the sincere professionalism of the writer. Brown (1971:270-271)mentioned how Saracens appeared in English literature as a reference to Muslims and Arabs; they appeared in some sources as warriors and knights, princesses and queens, while in other literary works, they were no more than hybrid monstrosities and giants, but even they were presented as idols and false gods. The critical thing about distorting the Muslim warriors was based on confusion. Since the conflict was religious during the Medieval Ages, the religious mobilization carried out by the churches after the Crusades contributed to reproducing a literary work filled with mockery and dehumanizing images of the other to weaken their popularity. Consequently, some playwrights as Marlowe, depended on the negative side of Greek mythology to represent his demonization. The primary purpose of the early Orientalism towards the Muslim army lay in demonizing the Muslims. According to the background of Tamburlaine the Great, the conflict between the Muslim army was an internal affair, but orientalist thought was strongly present. Marlowe utilized the internal conflict between two Muslim forces to nominalize the European ideas about Islam, so the Greek monster was standing for representation of the Muslim army. For this reason, it was easy to manipulate the historical facts based on the play.

 

The Muslim army representation in Tamburlaine the Great  matches  the concept  of  military  Orientalism  that aims to emphasize the tendency of orientalists to depict the Muslim army as a foil to itself after the cruel conflict between the two powerful forces, Turkish and Persians. Consequently, representing the Muslim army as the Greek monsters proves how the orientalist strived to depend on a negative visualization borrowed from Greek mythology to depict the Muslim army and give them terrible images. Marlowe's purpose when he referred to Calydonian was to provide the Muslim army a monster symbol to use against them, similar to the Calydonian boar's use against the Greeks, "A monster of five hundred thousand heads, of rapine, piracy, and pillage" ((Marlowe, 2013:60)Pt1, IV.III.7-10).  As Soldan of Egypt was represented, is how anarchy is depicted when referring to Tamburlaine's army. In Tamburlaine the Great, Marlowe portrays the Muslim army as a Greek monster. We believe that Marlowe meant to distort the Muslim army by portraying it as monsters and that he resorted to weakening its representations towards the play's last act to ensure his audience that the Muslim army was as strong as the monsters and then its powers dissolved. Moreover, it could imply Marlowe's desire to colonize the Orient after portraying the East as unable to resist being exhausted by wars and conflicts.

 

Greek terrifying monsters and the muslim army

 

Tamburlaine the Great was full of illusions to the Greek myths, which never matched its structure, but it reveals Marlowe's intention to misrepresent the Muslim army in his literary work, Tamburlaine the Great. Unlike Christians, Muslims consider any non-religious characterization insulting to their religion since it does not exist in their sources. For example, comparing the Muslim army with Greek monsters or referring to their hints to the intended orientalist thought towards distortion Islam despite the common knowledge about the difference between the two nations. Paul Valery states, "The Greeks and the Romans showed us how to deal with the monsters of Asia, how to treat them by analysis, how to extract from them their quintessence. . . . The Mediterranean basin seems to be like a closed vessel where the essences of the vast Orient have always come to be condensed" (as cited in Said, 1979:250). Valery revealed the hidden thought of westerners towards Muslims. He emphasized the westerner's objectives to extract the quintessence from Muslims as a whole: consequently, it is clear that Marlowe in Tamburlaine the Great counted on monsters to misrepresent the images of the Muslim army to substitute the actual images with horrifying ones. Marlowe endeavored to represent the Greek mythical monsters in tangible reality based on the historical clashes between Persian and Turks forces to extract the basic manners of the Muslim army by depicting them as terrifying monsters.

 

Portraying  the  Muslim   army  as horrible  monsters  in English literature and Tamburlaine the Great perpetuated hatred and violence towards the Orient in the modern age. The discriminatory discourse that westerners depended on depicting the Muslim forces as backward, monstrous, dangerous, and vampire led to huge gaps between the West and the East. The horrible images that orientalists depicted have continued into the present damaging the perception of Muslim forces as violent, cruel, lascivious, and ignorant as a reference to the modern western writings that distorted Islam based on the terrifying images of medieval times. Deeb (2014:157)illustrates that orientalists in the eighteenth century continued to reproduce traditional clichés of Islam in their Western writings, which repeated all the negative images of the early medieval periods and touched them to Islam. Undoubtedly, the horrible depiction of either Muslim figures or the Muslim army as monsters in medieval times had encouraged orientalists to perpetuate the term monster on the Muslim army and the Prophet of Islam. For example, the tragedy of Mahomet in 1736 by the French playwright and philosopher Voltaire reflected the term a monster on the Prophet of Islam. Palmira, one of the play's main characters, rejects Muhammad, considering him a monster who is a bloody savage and infamous seducer. Therefore, the horrible depictions resulted from accumulated abuses targeting Muslim forces since Marlowe's time. Marlowe strived in Tamburlaine the Great to exploit the fantasy of Greek mythology to misrepresent the Muslim army. He presented the Muslim army with terrifying Greek monsters like Typhon and Hydra.

 

Characterizing the Muslim army as typhon

 

In Tamburlaine the Great, Marlowe referred to the terrible Greek monster Typhon while describing the Muslim army and its leaders. Typhon was one of the most horrible and deadliest creatures in Greek mythology. According to Hard (2003), the myth of Typhon was almost undoubtedly of prior origins than that of the war between the gods and the monsters that had never been referred to it in Hesiod's Theogony. Moreover, Typhon was foremost awful to these enemies of Zeus. Considering the background of Typhon reveals the orientalist thought of depicting the Muslim army with this monster. Typhon was horrible; consequently, Marlowe selected this monster to represent a terrifying image to European society about the Muslim army and how they were in the previous centuries. On the opposite side, Typhon was defeated by Zeus and his thunderbolts. Therefore, Marlowe compared the terrible monster to the Muslim army to address strangeness and then the overthrown of Muslim forces as well. Marlowe may also refer to the inferiority of Islam, as Typhon was inferior when Zeus defeated it. For this reason, Marlowe's play was welcomed by Westerner audiences. The Greek depictions of  the  Muslim  army  in Tamburlaine the Great were represented through the characters' discourse to inspire Western audiences or readers to get familiar with the horrible images of Islam that the Western playwrights misrepresented. Marlowe's orientalist tactics were headed through assimilating comparison. In Part one of Tamburlaine the Great Act II, Scene VI, he emphasized his orientalist thought of depicting the Muslim army as monsters and particularly as Typhon when he referenced the Battle of the Giants through Cosroe, who considers himself as the king of Roman gods and Tamburlaine as his giant foe “What means this devilish shepherd to aspire/With such a giantly presumption” ((Marlowe, 2013:35Pt1, II, VI.1-2). According to Brown, the giants used to describe the Saracen monster (Saracen -Arab or Muslim, especially at the time of the Crusades) as a weird freak of nature. However, the reiterated embodiment of mixed-race cruel human Saracen titans within romance after romance.

 

Consequently, She-giants and giant children, who can be dubbed monstrous families, have long been depicted and represented, providing a creative alternative for the visibility of “the existence of monstrous races” (Brown, 1971:260).

 

Consequently, the immortalization of the Saracen monster was an orientation to misrepresent the Arbs and Muslims. Likewise, Cosroe characterized Tamburlaine as the Greek monster- Typhon when he said, "But as he thrust them underneath the hills." Marlowe intended Typhon because no monster in Greek mythology was buried under the hills except Typhon, who is a terrible monster with one-hundred heads, and this is enough evidence referenced to contemporary politics. Marlowe hinted to his audiences that the most horrible Muslim monster, Tamburlaine, would lose his majesty, as Typhon lost his power when the Roman God Jupiter defeated him.

 

Representation of Muslims as the monster -Typhon targeted the Timurid army and the Ottoman army to elucidate targeting the orientalist thought that led to representing the Muslim army monstrously. For instance, Bajazeth, the Muslim Ottoman army leader, was depicted indirectly as Typhon. Bajazeth described his wife Zabina and her boys as the most monstrous mother, more than Hercules, so having a wife and her children are similar to monsters means the father also was a monster. “Zabina, mother of three braver boys,/ Than Hercules, that in his infancy,/ Did pash the jaws of serpents venomous Than all the brats y-sprung from Typhon's loins” (Marlowe, 2013:48)Pt1, III, III.130-136).

 

Marlowe, in this passage, made Bajazeth address his wife in an indirect way in which audiences or readers inspire this kind of distortion through generalization. In addition, the comparison between Zabina and Typhon's loins refers to the cruelty that Marlowe worked on to represent Muslims much crueler than any other nation or even more than the Greek monsters. In addition, Marlowe had   Bajazeth   refer   to   himself   as  Typhon  when  he depicted Zabina as the mother of the three more courageous lads; therefore, Typhon portrays Bajazeth, and Zabina represents Echidna. Echidna spawned a family of horrific creatures by mating with Typhon, an equally monstrous creature like herself. Orthos, Kerberos, and the Lernaean Hydra are the three who were undeniably her children (although Hesiod's text has ambiguity) (Hard, 2003: 62).

 

Depicting the Muslim army as Hydra

 

It was apparent that Marlowe in Tamburlaine the Great addressed the Muslim army through many monsters. According to the text of Tamburlaine the Great, Typhon, the terrible monster, was used much more to represent the Persians, while Hydra was used to represent the Turkish. Ridpath (2018:78)mentioned that The Hydra was a Greek monster; It was a monster with several heads descended from the monster Typhon and the Echidna, who was half-woman and half-serpent. Now, Since it was known that Hydra was a Greek monster, it helps us to figure out the intended purpose of using the Greek monsters to characterize the Muslim leaders and their followers. When Bajazeth wanted to show off his army, he compared it with the monster Hydra. Hydra appeared closer to the Turkish army in the play, either throughout Bajazeth's speech or Tamburlaine's Second Part. Marlowe stated the answer to his purpose of depicting the Muslim army as Greek monsters through “Bajazeth Now shalt thou feel the force of Turkish arms, Which lately made all Europe quake for fear”((Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great: Part One)Pt1, III, III. 165-166). Marlowe manipulated his own words to raise the incitements against Muslims by presenting a confession to his audiences through the Muslim leader that Europe was exposed to tyranny by the witness of Bajazeth. Marlowe addressed the conflict between the European forces and the Muslim army; Consequently, the Europeans were sympathized with Tamburlaine due to the continuous incitements against Turks. For this reason, the Turkish army was addressed under Hydra or referred to them through this monster.

 

Undoubtedly, the purpose of depicting the Turkish army as the monster Hydra was not a coincidence because the characteristics of the Turkish army were modified to match the characteristics of the Greek monsters. Marlowe warned the Europeans about the danger of the Turkish army by depicting them as Hydra. Barski (2011:183)explained the danger of Hydra; it was described as a very nasty enemy, and it attacks its enemies with its many heads, so his opponents need to chop off his heads as early as possible to defeat it or else it will overcome them because it has an extraordinary power that enables him to grow a new head pending each round of battle. The Turkish threat to Europe could be comparable to Hydra  in  the  play  since  Europe  was eager to defeat Muslims. Moreover, Green (2009:120)mentioned different descriptions of the monster Hydra by emphasizing that it is a mythic serpent-headed monster of Greek legend that can regain its power. For instance, if someone cuts off its head, double heads will grow in its root. Similarly, Marlowe conveyed his message to the European community that the Turkish army is more dangerous than any other force “and as the heads of Hydra, so my power, Subdued, shall stand as mighty as before” (Marlowe, 2013:49)Pt1, III, III.170-172).

 

Depicting the Turkish Islamic army similarly to Hydra reveals the orientalist thought that Marlowe wanted to enforce it. Marlowe realized that Persian forces or even Mongols were far-flung from Europe; consequently, the Persian threat was much less than the Turks, who reunified after their defeat by the Persian forces to conquest Constantinople. Clark (2019:32)argued that the fear of Turks was raised due to crossing Europe and defeating the Serbs in the 14th century.

 

Many European people also feared the ferocious Turks who struck consternation in their hearts. Marlowe wanted to emphasize that Europe had to stand against Turkey, whose location shapes a severe threat to Europe. For this reason, he referred to the Turkish Islamic army as Hydra.Representing the Muslim army as monsters were planned to achieve three purposes of Orientalism; the first purpose was to represent the overthrow of the Muslim army as similar to the overthrow of the Greek monsters. The second purpose is to represent the Muslim army without morals and so wildly. The third purpose is to portray Eastern Muslims as torn apart and that their colonization would be appropriate by provoking internal conflicts and civil wars. Representation of Muslims through the above three purposes achieves the purpose of Orientalism. Although few scholars have been exposed to these purposes, orientalist purposes are still uncovered through other scholars' points of view. Edward Said emphasized that there was no superiority in Islam over the Greek tradition in which the Muslim army or Muslims may have shared qualities. Said illustrated that the Greek traditions were only superior around Europe. At the same time, the Orient had its traditions that were different on both sides of classification and hierarchy (Said, 1979:57).

 

Since there were no shared qualities between Islam in the East and Greece in the West, this clarifies that there were intentions to distort the Orientals or to depict them as inferiors while westerners are superiors. Mis-representation of Muslims in literary works led to lasting Islamophobia for centuries, and the main reason for this dilemma was not Islam but orientalists who resorted to imagination, brutality, and myths to represent Islam.

As  other nations overseas have their own cultures, Islam also has its own culture that originated from Arabic culture, and then it continued to develop other cultures from those nations that converted to Islam and influenced it. The concept of culture is so broad, and it is not easy to control such a topic, but we have to focus on in this research how Marlowe used Greek culture to conceal the Islamic culture through his depiction of Muslims in Tamburlaine the Great. First, knowing the characteristics or aspects of the concept of "culture" paves the way to analyze the orientalist thought that Marlowe worked on it.  According to a definition stated by Cao, Traditional culture implies all the long historical developments that formed nations, such as customs and habits, ethics and moral principles, religious beliefs, literary types, and philosophical ideas (Cao, 2014:167). Seidman also, another scholar explained the cultural meanings of culture to distinguish its elements; consequently, according to him, the values, symbols, codes, narratives, religions, moral worldviews, and political ideologies that are embedded in the cultural settings of every given nation are what constitute that nation's culture (Seidman, 2016:323).  Since we were exposed to the culture’s definitions and elements according to what Scholars had mentioned, we noticed how they categorized those culture’s characteristics and elements in general. Among those elements, there are common characteristics that are existed in any nation. Some common characteristics are religious beliefs, morals, values, myths, legendries, language and customs, and habits.

 

Therefore, taking into consideration the elements of culture that appeared in Tamburlaine the Great reveals that the literary work was all about internal conflict between two political and religious groups, both are Muslims, but what was irritating in Tamburlaine the Great is the orientalist thought, which was oriented to distort the Islamic culture. Since Tamburlaine the Great was exposed to the historical events between Muslim Tumors in central Asia and Muslim Ottomans in the Middle East, the culture of both Muslim Ottomans and Muslim Tumors was replaced with the Greek culture. If what was represented in Tamburlaine the Great was not Orientalism, then what is Orientalism? Islamic culture was characterized as Greek culture to conceal the reality of Islamic culture. In this research, we would like to highlight the Greek depictions of the Islamic culture in Tamburlaine the Great.  Many nations gained their culture from a different culture, or another culture may influence them, but what we have in Tamburlaine the Great is representing other cultures on behalf of another culture. In Tamburlaine the Great, Marlowe worked on distorting the Islamic culture by representing it as similar to the Greek Culture, which in fact, are different from each other. Moreover, he enforced the Greek culture to be superior in the play. The elements of the Greek culture were presented as Part of Islam; in reality, they were not as the following: Greek beliefs, myths, legends, and western conceptions of the Orient like Barbarism.

 

Greek legends

 

As Marlowe depended on ancient Greek theology to portray the Muslim belief similarly to polytheism, he also used classical legends to conceal the Islamic culture and replace the Greek ones. Although Islam has a golden age full of legends, Marlowe never indicated any Islamic legend in Tamburlaine the Great since the play about Muslims. All that Marlowe depended on was the Greek legends as he an eager to hide the popular facts of Islamic culture that were most known in all of Europe because of trading and relations. Kennedy (2015:1)emphasizes that the golden age of Islam that extended through the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates was more politically and culturally developed than the West.

 

This hints that Marlowe targeted the Islamic culture intentionally because there was no illusion of its origins, even by coincidence. Moreover, Islamic culture spread over Europe during that period. Said stated that Orientalism was introduced as a Western-style to have authority over the Orient by restructuring it and dominating it (Said, 1979:3), Undoubtedly, the legends of Islamic culture in Tamburlaine the Great were replaced by the legends of Greek culture as a western way to dominating the Islamic culture.

 

In Tamburlaine, the Great, Marlowe referenced the ancient Greek heroes; Achilles, Hercules, Odysseus, and Hector. However, he never referred to any Islamic heroes nor those who were heroes in the Arabian peninsula in the early ages, like Ali Ibn Abi Talab and Khalid Ibn Al- Walid nor those who conquered Europe and were known as Tariq Ibn Ziyad, Yusuf Ibn Tashfin, And Salah Ad-Din. Consequently, we understand that Marlowe oriented the Greek culture's legends to cover the Islamic legends that were popular everywhere in Europe then. For example, When Menaphon, the Persian Captain, was describing the power of Tamburlaine, he referred to Tamburlaine's power as Achilles “About them hangs a knot of amber hair,/Wrappèd in curls, as fierce Achilles' was/On which the breath of Heaven delights to play” ((Marlowe, 2013:25)Pt1, II.I.26-27). Marlowe, through Menaphon, not only referred to Achilles, but he went beyond comparison to describe Achilles in detail. This depiction reveals that Marlowe strived to represent the Greek legends to show the superiority of Greek culture, while he was never exposed to the Islamic culture or legends that flourished much at his time. On the contrary, Marlowe depicted Tamburlaine's fear through his speech in Part two of the play when Tamburlaine confessed that he was like Hector. In contrast, Orcanes is similar to Achilles to prove to his audience that the Muslim leader is not qualified enough to be as similar to Achilles "And set his warlike person to the view, of fierce Achilles, a rival of his fame: I do you honor in the simile; for if I should, as Hector did Achilles"((Marlowe, 2017:48)Pt2, III, V.81-84).

 

Hercules also is another hero whom Marlowe referred to   in   Tamburlaine   the   Great.   According   to   Kleiner  (2015:120), Herakles (the Roman Hercules) was the greatest hero, the son of Zeus and Alkmene, a mortal woman. Marlowe devoted his efforts to representing the Greek heroes in more than one place in the play. Moreover, he magnified depicting the Greek heroes on behalf of the Orientals. He went far away to refer to the alternative name of Hercules Alcides in Act V.Scene I and to his twelfth labor who was responsible for carrying the dog Cerberus from the underworld to the upper world “To pull the triple-headed dog from hell” ((Marlowe, 2013:21)Pt1, I, II.189). Marlowe's representations of the Greek heroes generally and Hercules mainly reveal that Marlowe aimed to hide the reality of the Orient even in their heroes who were known to England than Greece because of the Islamic conquest of Europe. To realize Marlowe's orientalist thought, we must consider Gould's description of Hercules. Gould (1966:319)states that the Greek personification of Hercules represented physical strength, compassion, courage, and power of character and was thus synonymous with the Assyrian Hercules. Marlowe has introduced the Greek culture to England on behalf of the Islamic culture in this play.

 

To prove our argument, we have to highlight what Said stated in his book Orientalism about the westerner's view towards the orient culture. Said explained that westerners consider the oriental part an aspect of the West. Moreover, Said (1979:67)states, “Yet the Orientalist makes it his work to be always converting the Orient from something into something else: he dos this for himself, for the sake of his culture, in some cases for what he believes is the sake of the Oriental.” Consequently, what Marlowe made in Tamburlaine the Great is either prejudice to the Greek culture that he was influenced by or prejudice against Islamic culture that orientalists aimed to distort.

 

References to Greek battles

 

References to the Greek History in Tamburlaine the Great is one of the cultural elements that Marlowe used to depict Muslims as those with no background history and was inspired by Greeks. For example, the Trojan War mentioned in the Iliad about the war between Greeks and Trogons because of abducting the beautiful Helen from her husband, the Greek king Menelaus (Noble and Smith, 2008:54). It was addressed in Tamburlaine the Great extensively. Marlowe, through Tamburlaine and others, referred to this combat, “These are my friends, in whom I more rejoice, than doth the King of Persia in his crown, and by the love of Pylades and Orestes” ((Marlowe, 2013:23)Pt1, I, II.293-295).

 

Marlowe endeavored to depict the abilities of Muslim warriors in history as inspiration from the Greeks. Although Tamburlaine the Great centered on the combat in the Central Asian and Middle Eastern regions, Greek history and  culture  were  represented  much  more  than actual events. For instance, the Tragon war was referred to in the following lines, part one in Act I.Scene I 74,292-295, Act II. Scene I 22-23, Act V.Scene I 456, 468, and in Part two Act II, Scene IV. 94-96 Act III, Scene V 79-82, these references just what aimed to weaken the History of Muslims and Arbs based on the superiority of Greek history. In addition, Marlowe went beyond the available historical events to create Zenocrate, a fake character comparable to Helen, while in reality, the Orient has a History that is more ancient than the History of Greece. Gilgamesh is an ideal example of the History of the Orient, which was absent not even one illusion, while Greek epics, warriors, and gods most of them included in this play. In his book, Orientalism, Said explained Southern's analysis of perspectives on Islam in the West and its development. Said argues that the ignorance of western people had become much more nuanced and sophisticated, not the excellent knowledge that grows in size and precision. Regarding fiction, they have their logic and pedantic of development or decay.

 

Greek dictions and Muslim culture

 

According to Russ McDonald (as cited in Mehdizadeh, 2014), understanding Marlowe's uniqueness of his works and their relation to his contexts, contemporaries, and our perspectives. It is supposed to concentrate on what is unique and comprehensible about how he wrote, not only what he wrote or why. How he made or made his works complete with stunning high terms astounds the eyes or ears with incomparable linguistic, cognitive, rhetorical, and ideological levels. Russ McDonald pointed out that Marlowe used rhetorical cognitive terms; consequently, his sayings prove our claim that Marlowe Orientalized Muslim culture based on his Greek inspiration. Depicting Muslims with Greek dictions to misrepresent the actual image of Muslims or to represent Muslims as inferior is one of the orientalist ways that Marlowe utilized to specify the Greek negative dictions as Part of Islam. When Said explained the difference between the Occident and the Orient, he categorized four dogmas to clarify the absolute and systematic differences. One of those dogmas is the Orient which is assumed to be timeless, homogenous, and incapable of self-designation, necessitating an extensive and organized language for characterizing the Orient from a Western perspective., at least to be inevitable and scientifically objective (Said, 1979:302). In Tamburlaine the Great, Marlowe used many Greek dictions to distort the actual image of Islam, such as Barbarism, Slavery, gods and goddess, monsters and Greekish wine, and Greek fire. Since we have been exposed to gods and monsters previously, we have to highlight the other Greek dictions that Marlowe used to manipulate the cultural conception of the Orient.

 

One of   Marlowe’s dictions is using the term Barbarism for mocking.  Although  Islam had its golden age from the 8th to 14th century in which the Orient flourished culturally, economically, and scientifically, it was backward and barbarous from the westerners' standpoint. The concept of Barbarism, according to Woolf (2000:106), could be defined in negative terms, such as the absence of civilized merits. In Tamburlaine the Great, Marlowe endeavored to depict the Muslims as Barbarians, the term that Orientalists strived to orient towards the Muslims afterward while it was supposed to be titled to West-Europe countries at this period. De Angelis (2020:46)explained that Barbarism was a way to express the passivity and acquiescence to the domination of the Greek cultural offerings.  Focusing on the text reveals that Marlowe used this term extensively to depict Muslims as barbarians and westerners as no barbarians. He aimed to specify this Greek diction on the East to draw geographical boundaries between the West and the East. Marlowe spoke out his orientalist thought through Meander“Trading by land unto the Western Isles,/and in your confines with his lawless train,/Daily commits in civil outrages,/Hoping (misled by dreaming prophecies)To reign in Asia/, and with barbarous arms” (Marlowe, 2013:10)Pt1, I.I.43-47).

 

Barbarism was oriented against Islam to misrepresent its unique culture, leading to even a great civilization in parts of Europe like Spain. Not only were these terms released on African Muslims and Turks, but Marlowe went beyond those geographical boundaries to include Muslims of central Asia. Moreover, Bajezeth addressed Kings from Morocco in Africa to Syria in Asia as Barbarian, and this is the most horrible image that Marlowe used to distort the Islamic culture by presenting his prejudice and hatred through his characters. The primary purpose of nominalizing the Greek term barbarism on Muslims comes under the Western understanding of the Orient. In Tamburlaine the Great, Marlowe utilized the term Barbarism to distort the image of Muslims both in Africa and Asia "These barbarous Scythians, full of cruèlty,/And Moors, in whom was never pity found,/Will hew us piecemeal, put us to the wheel" ((Marlowe, 2017:44)Pt2, III, IV.26-28). All these depictions led to a negative image of the Orient and its culture. The Orient's image has dehumanized and grown cruel, primitive, and barbaric in the twenty-first century. These depictions have been accepted since the Renaissance until the objectives of Orientalism were recently realized.

 

Slavery is another Greek diction oriented to denigrate the value of Islamic culture. Although Slavery was a common practice of the Greek culture that was much popular since classical times, it was oriented in Tamburlaine the Great toward Muslims to reflect a negative image of Islam. Marlowe targeted the Islamic culture based on his knowledge of the Greek culture that considered Slavery as a primary element of it. From Homer to Aristotle and beyond, the massive majority of Greeks regarded the act of Slavery  as  an  indispensable fact of life (Garland, 2008:105). As Slavery was much widespread in Greek history, it was similarly common among Arbs, but When Islam came, the concept of Slavery was restricted according to conditions under which the persons could be enslaved. Keddie (2012:41)referred to Islam's view towards Slavery. The Quran recognized both Slavery and concubine. However, it recommends where recognized in the Quran, which recommends good manners for dealing with enslaved people.

 

Moreover, it considers the manumission of enslaved people as an honorable act. Muslims never deny that during the crusades, they captivated some Christians, and some of them were captivated by Christians, but what Muslims deny is the negative image that orientalists tried to present Slavery to the West as an essential practice in Islam. In Tamburlaine the Great, Marlowe was prejudiced against Muslims for representing their culture, morals, and religion.

 

Additionally, Marlowe showed his prejudice against Islam and towards Christianity in representing the Greek practice of Slavery as a practice was used against Christianity. Marlowe emphasized through the king of Jerusalem that Muslims chained Christians with chains "By Mahomet! he shall be tied in chains,/Rowing with Christians in a brigandine" ((Marlowe, 2017:49)Pt2, III, IV.110-111). Marlowe depicted Slavery as cultural practice in Islam, and Muslims apply that practice even to Muslims. What was depicted in Tamburlaine the Great about Slavery contradicts the teachings of Islam. In Islam, there is a vast difference between captivity and Slavery. Captivity is allowed as a political practice, while Slavery declined after coming to Islam. Bacharach (1992:13)illustrates that the Islamic World never operates on Slavery as a system of production in the same manner rumored in classical antiquity. However, Slavery was not either entirely. What was represented in Tamburlaine the Great about Slavery was orientalist thought to conquer the Islamic World of the Orient under the concept of releasing either the Christian slaves. Said mentions that Cromer 1910 argued that the western colonization of the Orient was liberty more than regarding as a conquest (Said, 1979:172). Undoubtedly, Marlowe had used the Greek concept of Slavery to draw the pathway for the Western orientalists to distort Islam under this concept which appeared in the nineteenth century with this prediction. Moreover, Said mentioned in his book Orientalism that Western writing adopted the idea of Chateaubriand and the orientalists who came after him in teaching the Orient, especially Muslims,  the meaning of liberty because Europeans did believe the Orientals did not know anything about it (Said, 1979:172). Now, we come to the result that Slavery was a Greek practice, and then it was Orientalized to be Part of Islamic culture. Finally, it changed to a device Westerners used to conquer the Orient to overcome the false claim they had constructed since the early ages of the Crusades.Greekish wine was another Greek concept oriented as a typical drink in the Islamic culture but was not. A close reading of the text reveals the orientalist thought, which was developed to represent Muslims as disbelievers (people drink wine forbidden in their religion) who practice part of their religion and deny the other. As part of constructing the orientalist thought, Marlowe spoke out through Orcanes about the tree of hell Zoäcum that Sigismund the king of Hungary will eat it in hell "And feeds upon the baneful tree of hell,/That Zoäcum, that fruit of bitterness" ((Marlowe, 2017:29)Pt2, II, III.26-27). Before depicting Muslims as drunks, Marlowe irritated his audience with Zoäcum, the tree of hell mentioned in chapter 37:62-68 of the  Holy Quran. By mentioning the Zoäcum, Marlowe wanted to emphasize that he is familiar with the Islamic culture and religion. Consequently, what will come later on about the Greekish wine, the audience or readers will consider it as part of the truth that Marlowe was familiar with, but it was an orientalist thought to distort the Islamic faith and to represent the Greek dictions on behalf of the Islamic culture. Marlowe spoke through Orcanes about celebration with wine "And happily, with full Natolian bowls,/Of Greekish wine, now let us celebrate,/Our happy conquest and his angry fat" ((Marlowe, 2017:30)Pt2, II,III.58-60). Orcane, the King of Natolia, celebrates with wine forbidden in his religion; it could be a distortion of Islam as a religion or its culture. Wine is forbidden in Islam, and there is a restricted punishment for those who are found drunks. Fitzpatrick and Walker (2014:213)illustrated how Islam strictly deals with wine(alcoholic drinks ). The prohibition of alcoholic drinks was started first in the Holy Quran as prohibited drinks, and the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) further expanded the meaning of prohibition that was mentioned in the Quran to include trading in alcohol, even with non-Muslims. Marlowe included these negative dictions to normalize the negative conception to be Part of Islamic culture, while Islamic culture is far away from these dictions.

The construction of orientalist images in Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great reflected the westerners' fashion towards misrepresenting the Orientals. Although Marlowe's society had its own experience of the religious conflict which occurred during the beginning of the Renaissance era, Marlowe left behind the internal affairs of his community to target the Orient instead. The orientalist representation of Tamburlaine the Great that this research discussed is the Greek depiction of Islam in Tamburlaine the Great. Marlowe resorted to Greek depictions to distort the Islamic army and culture. Greek mythology and its monsters were depicted as Part of Muslim heritage only to represent Islam much cruel and its warriors more savage. The Greek legendary, faith, and terminological dictions were dominated while Islam and its culture were hidden. Marlowe tried to represent Islam as inferior and the West, either with its religions or culture, as superior. Moreover, in Tamburlaine, the Great, Marlowe provided us with a horrible image of Islam that undoubtedly was shaped according to the Western mentality that sees itself as a model for Western supremacy, civilized progress, and civil advancement. In contrast, it sees the Eastern Muslim other opposites to it as a model of backwardness, barbarism, violence, and inferiority. Examining Tamburlaine the Great from different angles reveals that it was an oriental play aimed to perpetuate the general tendency of Westerner polemicists to represent Islam negatively.

 

This research could also be a gateway for studying the same topic from a different perspective, for instance, regarding the falsifications woven in Tamburlaine the Great. Many historical facts were counterfeited. Consequently, a Comparative Study of Islamic History and Marlowe’s work could interpret the ambiguity of this literary work. Tamburlaine the Great could be studied from a different angle, for example, Marlowe’s atheism and Islam. The previous suggestions can be suggested for further research.

The authors have not declared any conflicts of interests.