Orientalists claimed authority to reconstruct Eastern traditions without consulting Easterners

Evidence

Worse of all, however, is the Orientalists’ pretension to understand Eastern traditions better than the Easterners themselves, having made “the most incredible travesty of them.” Of course there is no question in the Orientalist’s mind of “accepting the opinion” of learned Easterners as sources for his writings; “instead they act as if called upon to reconstruct vanished civilizations” out of a trenchant and entrenched “belief in their superiority.” — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 317

Categorization

• XREF: Reflects Said’s core thesis in Orientalism about the West speaking for the East; connects to postcolonial studies and the critique of epistemic authority. — connects to: Orientalist painters invented imagery of Eastern despotism they never witnessed