How did Michel Foucault's ideas about power and knowledge influence Edward Said?

Michel Foucault’s conceptualization of the relationship between power and knowledge significantly influenced Edward Said in his foundational work, Orientalism (1978).1

Foucault’s theory of power-knowledge (pouvoir-savoir) posits that in any given era, structures of social power and governing systems of thought—or "epistemes"—mutually reinforce and legitimate one another. Said adapted this framework to analyze how Western representations of non-European cultures were not neutral observations but were instead deeply embedded in a web of institutional and political forces.21

By applying Foucault’s insights, Said provided a critical angle to demonstrate how the academic and artistic production of "the Orient" served to justify and sustain Western imperialism. This approach allowed Said to "unmask" how Enlightenment thought and Western discourse functioned as instruments of control, shaping what could be known or thought about non-European peoples to maintain colonial dominance.12