The Gulf in World History : Arabia at the Global Crossroads

## A new interdisciplinary approach to Gulf Studies The Gulf sits at an ancient crossroads of cultures and faiths, and at the heart of modern trade stretching back to the origins of civilization. As a site of both conflict and peaceful encounter, it can be studied in the context of world history, as a place of cultural and historical encounter. From medieval astrology to museum architecture, from the trade of glass and pearls to the role of Indians, Africans, Christian monks, Mandaeans and merchants, this book spans historical periods and disciplinary approaches. It is united by one overarching theme: the Gulf as a cosmopolitan nexus and space of encounter. The chapters describe a Gulf simultaneously perched on the edge of empires and at the centre of world events. Presenting new evidence, new theoretical approaches, and new arguments, this volume aims to change understandings of the Gulf in the world. ## Key Features * The first interdisciplinary study of the Gulf incorporates scholarship on cosmopolitan and global connections in archaeology, history and heritage studies * Includes contributions from leading scholars from many disciplines who link the Gulf to the history of the Mediterranean and of the Indian Ocean * Presents new ideas, new evidence and new approaches to the archaeology, theory and history of the Gulf * Focuses on diversity within the Gulf given its location on the edge of empires ## Contributors * Allen Fromherz, Georgia State University * Richard McGregor, Vanderbilt University * Valeria Piacentini Fiorani, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan * Charles Häberl, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey * Ghulam A. Nadri, Georgia State University * Abdulrahman al Salimi is an Omani Researcher, Sultanate of Oman * Johan Mathew, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey * Matthew S. Hopper, California Polytechnic State University * Mark Horton, University of Bristol * Michael A. Ryan, University of New Mexico * Eric Staples, Zayed University * Timothy Power, Zayed University * Robert Carter, University College London (UCL) Qatar * Carolyn M. Swan, University College London (UCL) Qatar * William G. Zimmerle, Farleigh Dickinson University * Karen Exell, University College London (UCL) Qatar * Lamya Harub is an Omani Diplomat CONTENTS List of Illustrations Map of the Gulf Acknowledgements List of Contributors 1 Introduction: World History in the Gulf as a Gulf in World History Part I Gulf Cosmopolitanism 2 The Cosmopolitan Figure as Ethical Exemplar: Notes from a Tenth-century Gulf Encyclopedia 3 The Gulf: A Cosmopolitan Mobile Society – Hormuz, 1475–1515 CE 4 From Jerusalem to the Karûn: What can Mandæan Geographies Tell Us? Part II The Gulf and the Indian Ocean 5 Merchant Communities and Cross-cultural Trade between Gujarat and the Gulf in the Late Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 6 The Banians of Muscat: A South Asian Merchant Community in Oman and the Gulf, c. 1500–1700 7 Khaliji Hindustan: Towards a Diasporic History of Khalijis in South Asia from the 1780s to the 1960s Part III East Africans in the Khalij and the Khalij in East Africa 8 Africans and the Gulf: Between Diaspora and Cosmopolitanism 9 East Africa, the Global Gulf and the New Thalassology of the Indian Ocean Part IV Diversity and Change: Between Sky, Land and Sea 10 Astrology as a Node of Connectivity between the Pre-modern Mediterranean and Gulf 11 Ships of the Gulf: Shifting Names and Networks 12 The Role of Indian Ocean Trade Inland: The Buraimi Oasis Part V Recent Gulf Archaeology 13 Pearl Fishing and Globalisation: From the Neolithic to the Twentieth Century CE 14 An Archaeology of Glass and International Trade in the Gulf Part VI Heritage and Memory in the Gulf 15 From History to Heritage: The Arabian Incense Burner 16 Doha’s Msheireb Heritage House Museums: A Discussion of Memory, History and the Indian Ocean World 17 Omani Identity amid the Oil Crisis Index