Monsoon islam: Trade and faith on the medieval Malabar coast
Prange, S.R. (2018). Monsoon islam: Trade and faith on the medieval Malabar coast. Cambridge Oceanic Histories, 2. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. ISBN 9781108424387. 344 pp. https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781108334860
Part of: Cambridge Oceanic Histories. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, more
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| Keywords |
Asia > South asia > Commonwealth of nations > Developing countries > India
Commerce
History
Islam
Occupations > Merchants
Politics
Ports and harbors
Religion
Marine/Coastal |
| Abstract |
Between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, a distinct form of Islamic thought and practice developed among Muslim trading communities of the Indian Ocean. Sebastian R. Prange argues that this 'Monsoon Islam' was shaped by merchants not sultans, forged by commercial imperatives rather than in battle, and defined by the reality of Muslims living within non-Muslim societies. Focusing on India's Malabar Coast, the much-fabled 'land of pepper', Prange provides a case study of how Monsoon Islam developed in response to concrete economic, socio-religious, and political challenges. Because communities of Muslim merchants across the Indian Ocean were part of shared commercial, scholarly, and political networks, developments on the Malabar Coast illustrate a broader, trans-oceanic history of the evolution of Islam across monsoon Asia. This history is told through four spaces that are examined in their physical manifestations as well as symbolic meanings: the Port, the Mosque, the Palace, and the Sea. |
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