Authority is humanly constructed and analytically accessible, not natural or mysterious.

Evidence

There is nothing mysterious or natural about authority. It is formed, irradiated, disseminated; it is instrumental, it is persuasive; it has status, it establishes canons of taste and value; it is virtually indistinguishable from certain ideas it dignifies as true, and from traditions, perceptions, and judgments it forms, transmits, reproduces. Above all, authority can, indeed must, be analyzed. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 86

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines authority as formed, disseminated, and analytically open — a foundational premise for critical analysis of Orientalist claims.
• XREF: Connects to Foucault’s power/knowledge and to later Islamophobia readings that treat scholarly authority as constructed rather than neutral.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 86