Orientalism as a concept was first applied to Western colonial views of the East. Subsequently, different types of orientalism were discovered but the premise was that these took their lead from Western-style orientalism, applying it in different circumstances. This book, on the other hand, argues that the diffusion of interpretations in orientalism was not uni-directional, and that the different orientologies, Western, Soviet and Oriental, did not develop in isolation from each other and were interlocked in such a way that a change in any one of them affected the others; and that those being orientalised were active, not passive, players in shaping how views of themselves developed.
