Borrowed words that should not be returned

by Isabella Vaj

Fifteenth century Central Asia culture is in no way inferior to the beauty of the Italian Renaissance. Practically ignored by Italian culture which does not even possess the terms to describe certain elements of the Timurid architectural masterpieces, Western language must borrow terms from Persian and Arabic to describe many structures, as any translation would be inadequate. In our culture, the Timurids, but more generally Central Asia as a whole, do not enjoy the status they deserve for purely political reasons, as explained by Edward Saïd in his book Orientalism.