Earth's shape?

Question

Why does Earth's shape make it arbitrary which
countries are considered oriental?

b. How did the convention develop as to which countries are considered oriental?

Answer 1

Oriental means "of the east". You can pick any point on earth, except the poles, and go east, around and around the world, indefinitely, so declaring eastern Asia "The Orient" is a purely artificial convention.

During the Middle Ages, Europe's trade with the outside world was very limited. The trade that did exist was mostly done with places further east. Marco Polo made trips overland to the Orient (China, in this case.) West of Europe was only the wide-open Atlantic, there was really nowhere to go in that direction until the 15th century, when Spanish and Portuguese ships crossed the Atlantic, discovering the New World, and also went south, trying to sail around Africa, in hopes of finding a seaborne route to the East Indies, so that they could bypass the Ottoman Turks, who had cemented their control of the Middle East around that time.

Later, during the Renaissance, as European civilization became more and more powerful, it began to send many more ships to explore, trade with, and sometimes conquer the other continents. European cartographers placed the line of 0 degrees longitude as running through London, England. European countries and their offshoots and colonies dominated the world for centuries, because of their military might and their generally prosperous economies. History is written by the conquerors, so the Orient has come to mean the place far to the east of the center of world civilization when the traditions and customs of cartography were settled.

Answer 2

So allah doesnt know what shape the earth is! If he did he would have chosen something that was round and not egg-shaped. For instance, how about a full moon or the iris of your eye? As you said yourself 'The Arabic word Dahaha also means an expanse.' how convenient you ignore this along with all the other references to the earth being flat. How come the word 'Duhiya which specifically refers to the egg of an ostrich' was not used in the koran so there could be no doubt. Incidentally another explanation of the ostrich egg claim is that before an ostrich lays an egg it scratches at the ground creating a flat surface free from small rocks etc. The desperate and frankly laughable attempts at connecting science with the koran shows the gullibility of followers of this particular religion. I quoted your own words 'The Arabic word Dahaha also means an expanse.' so as I said why do you choose to ignore all other references in the koran that refer to the earth as an expanse and choose to apply the 'interpratation' of it being egg-shaped?

Answer 3

The word oriental comes from idea of the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. People used the term orient for the east because thats where the sun was believed to "start." Since the Earth is round, we know that the sun doesn't actually rise in the east and set in the west, we just revolve and orbit it.

Answer 4

The "middle east" was where life/civilization (of humans) started. East of there is Asia (oriental means eastern). Maps in Asia have them centered...

Also, earth's shape makes the term oriental arbitrary because everyone is East of someone else, it's all perspective.

Answer 5

EARTH'S SHAPE
The earth is an oblate spheroid, which means the earth is a sphere which bulges slightly at the equator and is slightly flattened at the poles. The earth appears round from outer space.

Answer 6

The shape of erth is oblate spheroid or geoid