I have begun with the that the Orient is not an inert fact of nature. It is not there, just as the Occident itself is not just there either. We must take Vico's great that men make their own history, that what they can know is what they have made, and it to geography: as both and entities - to say nothing of entities - such locales, regions, geographical sectors as "Orient" and "Occident" are man-made. Therefore as much as the West itself, the Orient is an idea that has a history and a tradition of thought, , and vocabulary that have given it and in and for the West. The two geographical entities thus support and to an extent each other.

From Orientalism by Edward W Said