Orientalism was a discourse first, and then the narrative and its attendant ideas gradually morphed into material objects in the form of literature, art, formal state policies, academic disciplines and departments, and most saliently, the very worldview from which state leaders and governments engaged Muslim-majority states and their inhabitants.

XREF: This directly engages Said's core thesis in Orientalism — that discourse precedes and produces material reality. Connects naturally to any reading of Foucault's discourse/power framework also.

Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Unde…, loc. 160