 In Defending the West : A Critique of Edward Said 's Orientalism ( 2007 ) , Ibn Warraq said that the varied origins and cultural attitudes of European Orientalists over @-@ rode factual and historical considerations , which Said ignored in order to construct a stereotype of Europeans befitting his thesis about the nature of Orientalism . In For Lust of Knowing : The Orientalists and Their Enemies , Robert Irwin said that Said ignored the domination of 19th @-@ century Oriental studies by German and Hungarian Orientalists , scholars from countries without imperial colonies in the Orient . Earlier critics said that the brief survey of German Orientalist scholarship limited the book , leading Said to counter in " Orientalism Reconsidered " ( 1985 ) that no one had demonstrated that the brief survey of German Orientalism limits the scholarly value and application of the thesis of Orientalism — the politics of discourse applied to the Eastern world in opposition to the Western world . 
