Dispersion of the Syrian Army by a Sand Storm 

Gustave Doré created this engraving, "Dispersion of the Syrian Army by a Sand Storm," during the 19th century's surge in Orientalism. Doré, a French artist, never actually visited the Middle East. Instead, his image reinforces a Western fantasy about the ‘Orient’ as a place of exoticism and peril. Note how the Syrian soldiers are anonymous figures, their individual identities erased by the overwhelming force of nature, a nature rendered as both spectacular and destructive. The sandstorm, a natural phenomenon, becomes a metaphor for the perceived chaos and uncontrollability of the East. This image was likely consumed by a European audience already primed to see the Middle East as a land of turmoil, justifying colonial interventions. How do you think this image contributed to the construction of cultural stereotypes and power dynamics?