From Refashioning Iran, p 32:
Based on these and other collated texts, it seems that in its formative phase European students of the Orient, rather than initiating “original” and “scientific” studies, had relied heavily on research findings of native scholars. By rendering these works into English, the colonial officers in India fabricated scholarly credentials for themselves, and by publishing these works under their own names gained prominence as Oriental scholars back home. The process of translation and publication enabled Europeans to obliterate the traces of the native producers of these works and divest them of authorality and originality, attributes which came to be recognized as the distinguishing marks of European “scholars” of the Orient.