Orientalist scholarship justified itself by declaring the Orient’s texts unreadable by Europeans without transformation

Evidence

Sacy was much too intelligent to let his views and his practice stand without supporting argument. First of all, he always made it plain why the “Orient” on its own could not survive a European’s taste, intelligence, or patience. Sacy defended the utility and interest of such things as Arabic poetry, but what he was really saying was that Arabic poetry had to be properly transformed by the Orientalist before it could begin to be appreciated. The reasons were broadly epistemological, but they also contained an Orientalistic self-justification. Arabic poetry was produced by a completely strange (to Europeans) people, under hugely different climatic, social, and historical conditions from those a European knows; in addition, such poetry as this was nourished by “opinions, prejudices, beliefs, superstitions which we can acquire only after long and painful study.” Even if one does go through the rigors of specialized training, much of the description in the poetry will not be accessible to Europeans “who have attained to a higher degree of civilization.” Yet what we can master is of great value to us as Europeans accustomed to disguise our exterior attributes, our bodily activity, and our relationship to nature. Therefore, the Orientalist’s use is to make available to his compatriots a considerable range of unusual experience, and still more valuable, a kind of literature capable of helping us understand the “truly divine” poetry of the Hebrews. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 343

Categorization

• XREF: The raw material needing ‘proper transformation’ before appreciation echoes the civilizing/domestication logic seen across colonial discourse — connects forward to how Islamophobia arguments gatekeep Muslim texts behind specialist hermeneutical authority.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 343