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A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1780-1950

Hardback

Main Details

Title A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1780-1950
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Fahad Ahmad Bishara
SeriesAsian Connections
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:288
Dimensions(mm): Height 234,Width 157
Category/GenreAsian and Middle Eastern history
Economic history
ISBN/Barcode 9781107155657
ClassificationsDewey:909.0982408
Audience
Professional & Vocational
Illustrations 2 Tables, black and white; 1 Maps; 8 Halftones, black and white

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 10 March 2017
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

In this innovative legal history of economic life in the Western Indian Ocean, Bishara examines the transformations of Islamic law and Islamicate commercial practices during the emergence of modern capitalism in the region. In this time of expanding commercial activity, a melange of Arab, Indian, Swahili and Baloch merchants, planters, jurists, judges, soldiers and seamen forged the frontiers of a shared world. The interlinked worlds of trade and politics that these actors created, the shared commercial grammars and institutions that they developed and the spatial and socio-economic mobilities they engaged in endured until at least the middle of the twentieth century. This major study examines the Indian Ocean from Oman to India and East Africa over an extended period of time, drawing together the histories of commerce, law and empire in a sophisticated, original and richly textured history of capitalism in the Islamic world.

Author Biography

Fahad Ahmad Bishara is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Virginia. He received his Ph.D. in History from Duke University, North Carolina in 2012 and holds an M.A. in Arab Gulf Studies from the University of Exeter. His research, in the fields of legal history and the history of capitalism, has been supported by the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies. He was also previously a Prize Fellow in Economics, History and Politics at the Center for History and Economics at Harvard University, Massachusetts.

Reviews

'... essential reading for anyone interested in the Indian Ocean world, Islam, economic life, and of course, the law.' Johan Mathew, H-IslamInAfrica