The invented Oriental category predicts all Semitic behavior from a pre-existing essence outside history.

Evidence

The Oriental, whether Jew or Muslim, develops as a “transtemporal, transindividual category, purporting to predict every discrete ‘act’ of ‘Semitic’ behavior on the basis of some pre-existing ‘Semitic’ essence, and aiming to interpret all aspects of human life and activity in terms of some ‘Semitic’ element.” In the literature, Oriental Semites are often described as relics of the past, a type that lived “outside history.” Muslims and Jews were commonly compared to each other, “nomadic Arabs, conveniently enough… remained trapped in the state of childhood [seen as] characteristic of the ancient Israelites.” — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 403

Categorization

• DEFINE: Precise analytical definition of the ‘Oriental’ as a transtemporal, essentialist category predicting behavior from essence.
• XREF: The essence-forecasting-behavior structure is the same mechanism the reader tracks across monster, demon, and giant figures elsewhere in the book.