Academic study of Islam only began with Orientalism’s language training

Evidence

Orientalism was a discourse first, and then the narrative and its attendant ideas gradually morphed into material objects in the form of literature, art, formal state policies, academic disciplines and departments, and most saliently, the very worldview from which state leaders and governments engaged Muslim-majority states and their inhabitants. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 160 (#complicates, via linked claim)

In sum, the Orientalist view of the East as it emerged in the nineteenth century was based on a racial and civilizational vilification of Muslims. This is not, however, to suggest that Orientalist scholarship existed or was used in colonial contexts without contradiction. There were Orientalists who rejected notions of racial superiority; at the same time, however, they agreed that race was a useful category of analysis. There were those who admired Islam and others who disparaged it; some actively aided the colonial mission while others saw themselves as producing objective knowledge. Orientalist ideas were used differently in various contexts. Put simply, the relationship between Orientalist thought and the project of empire-building is complex. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 132 (#expands, via linked claim)

With the invasion of Egypt by Napoleon in 1798, the French embarked on a grand colonial project that, as one of its effects, established Orientalism as the colonial and scholarly movement that survives to this day. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 381 (#responds-to, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Reformation-era Christian scholars rarely studied Islam seriously — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 147; Orientalist scholarship varied internally but shared the racial category — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 132; Orientalists reframed Islam as a political system rather than a religion. (+3 more)

Related

• Islamic Orientalism resisted internal critique while cognate fields engaged it. (similarity 0.89)
• Orientalism began as discourse before hardening into material institutions and state policy. (similarity 0.89)
• Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt modernized Western knowledge of the Orient. (similarity 0.88)
• Orientalist scholarship varied internally but shared the racial category (similarity 0.88)
• Napoleon’s 1798 Egyptian campaign founded modern Orientalism (similarity 0.87)
• Napoleon’s failed occupation nonetheless founded the entire modern discourse of Orientalism. (similarity 0.87)
• Said’s Orientalism changed the meaning of ‘Orientalism’ from benevolent human interest in the East to an apparatus of knowledge and writing aligned with western imperial power. (similarity 0.87)
• Institutional Orientalism, not all Orientalist scholarship, served colonial power (similarity 0.86)
• Academic Islamic studies began only with eighteenth-century Orientalism (similarity 0.86)
• Colonization was not Islam-specific but Orientalism shaped its distinct form (similarity 0.86)
• Orientalism was internally divided rather than a monolithic colonial tool (similarity 0.86)
• Orientalist scholarship expanded in tandem with European imperial conquest. (similarity 0.86)
• Orientalist scholarship was internally diverse and historically contingent, not monolithic (similarity 0.86)
• Orientalism functioned as fuel for colonial conquest before American independence. (similarity 0.86)
• American Orientalism persists fragmentarily but ideologically coherently (similarity 0.85)

Broader Connections

• Orientalism began as discourse before hardening into material institutions and state policy. #complicates (0.50) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 160
• Orientalist scholarship varied internally but shared the racial category #expands (0.40) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 132
• Orientalists reframed Islam as a political system rather than a religion. #expands (0.30)
• Napoleon’s 1798 Egyptian campaign founded modern Orientalism #responds-to (0.30) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 381