New Books Network

Indian Ocean World
Gaurav Desai, “Commerce with the Universe: Africa, India, and the Afrasian Imagination” (Columbia UP, 2013)
Gaurav Desai
Commerce with the Universe
Africa, India, and the Afrasian Imagination
Columbia University Press, 2013

Indian Ocean WorldNBN Special SeriesNew Books in African StudiesNew Books in Arts & LettersNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Literary StudiesNew Books in Middle Eastern StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in South Asian StudiesNew Books Network August 3, 2020 Micheal Rumore and Ahmed AlMaazmi

Gaurav Desai’s Commerce with the Universe: Africa, India, and the Afrasian Imagination (Columbia University Press, 2013), offers an alternative history of East Africa in the Indian Ocean world. Reading the life narratives and literary texts of South Asians writing in and about East Africa, Gaurav Desai highlights many complexities in... Read More
Lakshmi Subramanian, “The Sovereign and the Pirate: Ordering Maritime Subjects in India’s Western Littoral” (Oxford UP, 2016)
Lakshmi Subramanian
The Sovereign and the Pirate
Ordering Maritime Subjects in India's Western Littoral
Oxford University Press, 2016

Indian Ocean WorldNew Books in British StudiesNew Books in GeographyNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Military HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in South Asian Studies July 27, 2020 Ahmed Yaqoub AlMaazmi

Lakshmi Subramanian’s The Sovereign and the Pirate: Ordering Maritime Subjects in India’s Western Littoral (Oxford University Press, 2016) offers an amphibious history written around the juncture of the nineteenth century, when the northwestern littoral of India—largely comprising of Gujarat, Kathiawad, Cutch, and Sind—was battered by piratical raids. These attacks disrupted... Read More
Laurie M. Wood, “Archipelago of Justice: Law in France’s Early Modern Empire” (Yale UP, 2020)
Laurie M. Wood
Archipelago of Justice
Law in France’s Early Modern Empire
Yale University Press, 2020

Indian Ocean WorldNew Books in French StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in LawNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in World Affairs July 23, 2020 Julia M. Gossard

Historians have long treated the Atlantic and Indian Ocean routes of early modern French empire separately. But, early modern people understood France as a bi-oceanic empire, connected by vast but strong pathways of commercial, intellectual, and legal exchange. Laurie M. Wood’s Archipelago of Justice: Law in France’s Early Modern Empire... Read More
Edward Alpers, “The Indian Ocean in World History” (Oxford UP, 2014)
Edward Alpers
The Indian Ocean in World History

Oxford University Press, 2014

Indian Ocean WorldNew Books in African StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Middle Eastern StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in South Asian StudiesNew Books in Southeast Asian StudiesNew Books Network July 22, 2020 Ahmed Yaqoub AlMaazmi and Kelvin Ng

Edward Alpers’s The Indian Ocean in World History (Oxford University Press, 2014) is a concise yet an immensely informative introduction to the Indian Ocean world, which remains the least studied of the world’s geographic regions. Yet there have been major cultural exchanges across its waters and around its shores from... Read More
Jatin Dua, “Captured at Sea: Piracy and Protection in the Indian Ocean” (U California Press, 2019)
Jatin Dua
Captured at Sea
Piracy and Protection in the Indian Ocean
University of California Press, 2019

Indian Ocean WorldNew Books in African StudiesNew Books in AnthropologyNew Books in Middle Eastern StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in SociologyNew Books Network April 1, 2020 Jeffrey Bristol

Captured at Sea: Piracy and Protection in the Indian Ocean (University of California Press, 2019) is a pirate story of a different kind. Based on years of ethnographic fieldwork in Somalia, the UK and other parts of Africa and the Middle East, Jatin Dua describes a tale that is not... Read More
Scott S. Reese, “Imperial Muslims: Islam, Community and Authority in the Indian Ocean, 1839-1937” (Edinburgh UP, 2017)
Scott S. Reese
Imperial Muslims
Islam, Community and Authority in the Indian Ocean, 1839-1937
Edinburgh University Press, 2017

Indian Ocean WorldNew Books in British StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Islamic StudiesNew Books in Middle Eastern StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in Religion & FaithNew Books in South Asian StudiesNew Books Network May 15, 2019 Kristian Petersen

Religion and empire are often intertwined. Regarding Muslims there are well known dynasties like the Umayyad, the Abbasid, the Fatimid, the Ottoman, and many others. But the empire governing the largest Muslim population was, of course, the British. In Imperial Muslims: Islam, Community and Authority in the Indian Ocean, 1839-1937 (Edinburgh University... Read More
Patrick Eisenlohr, “Sounding Islam: Voice, Media, and Sonic Atmospheres in an Indian Ocean World” (U California Press, 2018)
Patrick Eisenlohr
Sounding Islam
Voice, Media, and Sonic Atmospheres in an Indian Ocean World
University of California Press, 2018

Indian Ocean WorldNew Books in African StudiesNew Books in AnthropologyNew Books in Islamic StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in Religion & FaithNew Books in Sound StudiesNew Books in South Asian StudiesNew Books Network January 2, 2019 Shobhana Xavier

Sounding Islam: Voice, Media, and Sonic Atmospheres in an Indian Ocean World (University of California Press, 2018) by Patrick Eisenlohr is an exciting ethnographic study of Mauritian Muslims’ soundscapes. Through the exploration of na‘t, or devotional poetic recitations that honor the prophet Muhammad, Eisenlohr captures the sensory dimension of Islam,... Read More
Fahad Bishara, “A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1780-1950” (Cambridge UP, 2017)
Fahad Bishara
A Sea of Debt
Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1780-1950
Cambridge University Press, 2017

Indian Ocean WorldNew Books in African StudiesNew Books in EconomicsNew Books in HistoryNew Books in LawNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in South Asian StudiesNew Books Network April 3, 2018 Siobhan Barco

Today I talked to Fahad Bishara about his book A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1780-1950 (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Dr. Bishara is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Virginia. He specializes in the economic and legal history of the Indian... Read More
Pedro Machado, “Ocean of Trade: South Asian Merchants, Africa, and the Indian Ocean, c.1750-1850” (Cambridge UP, 2014)
Pedro Machado
Ocean of Trade
South Asian Merchants, Africa, and the Indian Ocean, c.1750-1850
Cambridge University Press, 2014

Indian Ocean WorldNew Books in African StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in South Asian StudiesNew Books in World AffairsNew Books Network May 5, 2015 Ian Cook

Pedro Machado‘s Ocean of Trade:South Asian Merchants, Africa and the Indian Ocean, c.1750-1850 (Cambridge University Press, 2014) is a richly detailed and engaging account of Gujarati merchants and their role in the trade of textiles, ivory and slaves across the Indian Ocean. The book not only enhances our understanding of... Read More

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