Question

what were the orientalist seeks seek to discover

Answer 1

Orientalism is a name used by art historians, literary and cultural studies scholars for the copy/depiction of aspects in West Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian and East Asian cultures.  

Those pointings are normally performed by writers, designers and artists from the West.  

Orientalist painting showing more internally "the Middle East" was one of the many specialisms of 19th-century academic art and the literature of Western countries took a similar interest in Oriental themes.