Description
In this essential new work, Christopher D. Bahl departs from the established historiography on trade, shipping, and pilgrimage to argue for the emergence of Arabic learning as a crucial form of transoceanic mobility from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. From Egypt to the Hijaz, Yemen and further on to Gujarat and the Deccan, networks of manuscript circulation created shared social and cultural spaces across the early modern western Indian Ocean, in which South Asia was a key node of connection. Largely unstudied Arabic manuscripts from collections in eight different archives offer a new source base to explore the region as a hub of Arabic scholarly culture, while marginalia and notes provide an empirical treasure trove for the study of social spaces and cultural practices. This is the first book to trace these truly transoceanic encounters between scholars, sultans, scribes, readers, and librarians.
Table of Contents
Introduction; 1. The prosopographical world of maritime mobilities; 2. The Royal Library of Bijapur: the emergence of a textual entrepot; 3. Arabic philology in early modern South Asia; 4. Mobile Arabic learning from Egypt to the Deccan; 5. From the Deccan to Istanbul: a transoceanic community of readers; Conclusion: Arabic learning across the early modern western Indian Ocean world; Bibliography; Appendix; Index.
