German Orientalism’s weak colonial ties show interests did not drive sovereign thought

Evidence

The diminutive presence of the blatant colonial and political in German Orientalism is perhaps the best argument for my thesis, namely, that it is neither the political nor colonial-economic interests as such that primarily gave rise to the structure of thought of sovereign domination. — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 776

Categorization

• QUESTION: This is a key claim of the book — that the structure of sovereign-domination thought predates and exceeds colonial-economic interest. Worth holding against counterexamples like British/French Orientalism.