Imperial control depended on constantly refined knowledge of the Orient.

Evidence

The cornerstone of the whole system was a constantly refined knowledge of the Orient, so that as traditional societies hastened forward and became modern commercial societies, there would be no loss of paternal British control, and no loss of revenue either. … From the days of Sir William Jones the Orient had been both what Britain ruled and what Britain knew about it: the coincidence between geography, knowledge, and power, with Britain always in the master’s place, was complete. To have said, as Curzon once did, that “the East is a University in which the scholar never takes his degree” was another way of saying that the East required one’s presence there more or less forever. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 535

Categorization

• XREF: Directly scaffolds the Islamophobia module’s Orientalism foundation; the knowledge-power coincidence echoes the field’s core mechanism that representation constructs the Other.
• DEFINE: Defines the core Orientalism mechanism: geography, knowledge, and power coincide with the West in the master’s place.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 535