The Types of Orientalists' Studies about Islam and the Pathology of Their Studies

The analysis of Islam and its teachings has a scientific appeal for Orientalists, and especially after the Islamic Revolution of Iran, attention to the teachings of Islam and Imamia grew to the point where some researchers equate the term "Oriental Studies" with "Islamic studies". Of course, the examination of religious teachings requires a method and a style that is called "methodology of religious studies". Eastern scholars seek to use these methods in the analysis of Mahdiism teachings, but in studies of the religion and especially the attitude towards the religious teachings of others, it is necessary to observe their accepted style and principles. In other words, a researcher is obliged to observe minimum standards in researching the teachings of others. The present paper aims to answer these questions with a descriptive-analytical data processing method first, what is the method of Islamic studies in the West? Second, what harm is there in the theories of Orientalists in some teachings of Mahdiism? The authors believe that due to the increase of Islamic studies and Imamiyah in the West, it is necessary to know the method of their studies, and by knowing the harms of the method in Western Islamic studies, it is easy to criticize the views of the Orientalists and then determine that what are the basic problems in analyzing the teachings of Imamiyah from their side? The findings suggest that most of the Orientalists have used the historiography method and their research suffers from damages such as "generalizing an event", "ignoring the validity of texts", " Taking teachings from other people's books", "not mastering the Arabic language", "confusion between Islam and the Muslim community" and "ignoring the rules of taking teachings from religious sources".