Textual knowledge of the Orient made it seem conquerable

Evidence

Napoleon considered Egypt a likely project precisely because he knew it tactically, strategically, historically, and—not to be underestimated—textually, that is, as something one read about and knew through the writings of recent as well as classical European authorities. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 206

Categorization

• XREF: The mechanism by which representation enables domination — reading-as-conquest — ties directly into the scaffold for understanding how Orientalist texts were functional for empire.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 206