The article deals with oriental themes in the history textbooks of K.J. Skrzetuski Historia powszechna dla szkół narodowych na klasę III and Przypisy do historii powszechnej na klasę III. The two books are devoted to the history of the Ancient East. In the introduction, the author of the article writes about the interest in the Orient shown during the Age of Enlightenment, which was connected with the modern historiographie convention which a made a break with Eurocentrism. He then proceeds to show the sources used by Skrzetuski. Skrzetuski made use only of Classical authors and, in line with modern conceptions, he decided to disregard the Bible as a historical source. The author believes, however, that the Bible could have had an impact on the picture of the Ancient East as presented by Skrzetuski. He then analyzes the visions of particular oriental countries and peoples presented in the two textbooks. After a comparative analysis of the works of Classical writers and books of the Bible, the author concludes that Skrzetuski was not very accurate in using the former, while the latter probably had an impact on his emotional attitude towards the countries, people, and personnages, which he described and evaluated in ethical terms. Skrzetuski's assessments invariably followed Classical and biblical stereotypes. The vision of the reality that Skrzetuski presented was a deliberately simplified one; this was done for educational purposes, which Skrzetuski found to be of prime importance. The description of the rise and fall of Oriental countries was in his view to be a lesson of the repeatability of history, a lesson from which conclusions were to be drawn for the future. The examples from history were to shape moral and patriotic attitudes, with the objective of providing information taking a second place.
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