Muslim Cultures of the Indian Ocean

Front matter

MUSLIM CULTURES OF THE INDIAN OCEAN

DIVERSITY AND PLURALISM, ESSE AINIDE isle eus SEIT

MusLIM CULTURES OF THE INDIAN OCEAN

I

Developing the Harari Mushaf: The Indian Ocean Milieu of Ethiopian Scribes Sana Mirza

. The Making of a Qur'an Manuscript in Lamu Archipelago: The

Indian Ocean Cross-cultural Influence

. Muslim Identities of the Indian Ocean: The Ibadi Al Bu Sa’id of

Oman during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Beatrice Nicolini

. Religion, Ethnicity and Identity in the Zanzibar Sultanate

. Transcending Boundaries: Sayyida Salme/Emily Ruete and Siti binti Saad Farouk Topan vii

OI

CONTENTS

6. Exploring the Geographies and Locales in Shaykh Jamali Dehlawi's Siyar al- 'arifim (The Virtues of Gnostics) Gulfishan Khan

7. A Persian View of the Maritime Muslim Frontier in Southeast Asia: The Jami‘ al-barr wa l-bahw Roghayeh Ebrahimi

8. 'Sword of the Two Sanctuaries': Islam of and in the Modern Indian Ocean

Part Ii: Monuments And Heritage In Muslim Contexts

9. The Indian Ocean as a Maritime Cultural Landscape and Heritage Route Eric Falt ro. Indian Ocean Heritage and Sustainable Conservation, from Zanzibar to Kilwa Stephen Battle and Pierre Blanchard

11. Early Swahili Mosques: The Role of Ibadi and Ismaili Communities, Ninth to Twelfth Centuries Stéphane Pradines

12. Traditional Bohra Dwellings of Gujarat, India: Architectural Response to Cultural Ethos Madhavi Desai

13. Regionalism in Religious Architecture of India: A Comparative Study of Mosques in Gujarat and Kerala Miki Desai

14. Architecture of Coral Stone Mosques of the Maldives Mohamed Mauroof Jameel

15. The Development of Early Islamic Architecture and Decoration in the Malay-Indonesian Archipelago (Nusantara) Bernard O’ Kane

About the Contributors Index

— yi —

346 348

Figures

Map of the Muslim cultures of the Indian Ocean

Single-volume Qur'an, Harar, completed Dhu al-Qa’da 1180/ March 1767 and signed by ‘Umar b. Abd al-’ Aziz b. al-Amir Hashim

Folio from a Qur’an, late 15th century

Detail, Qur'an, completed Dhu al-Qa da 1180/ March 1767 and signed by ‘Umar b. Abd al- Aziz b. al-Amir Hashim

Qur'an, from India or Indian Ocean World, 18th—r9th centuries Arabic Grammar, Aceh, Indonesia

Qur'an from Siyu, Kenya, early roth century

Qur an, copied by Hajji Khalif b. Kabir Hamid, 1120/1708

Juz 1 of the Qur'an, Harar, endowed in 1203/October-November 1789 by Amir ‘Abd al-Shakur ibn amir Yusuf

The page layout and chapter title in MS QURoo2 AKL-QUR^oos, Naskh script at Surat Taha (Q. 20), fol. 7v RAS Arabic 12a, Naskh script at Surat Taha (Q. 20), fol. or Ornament and illumination in QURoo2

Marginal ornaments marking parts of a juz’, Hizb, Nisf and Rub’ MS-QURoo2 (Q48: 19) insertion of part of the verse that was missed out in the writing

No.2220, Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, Sultanate of Oman

An 1860 view by Colonel Robert Smith of the ruins of the Qutb complex of ancient Dehli with the Jamali Kamali Mosque in the distance

FIGURES

6.2 6.3

IO.I5

10.20

II.I II.2 IL II.4 II.5

II.Ó 114 11.8 II.9 II.IO par

Tomb of Shaykh Jamali, exterior view

Ground plan of the mosque and the tomb of Shaykh Jamali Kanbuh

Mosque of Shaykh Jamali, exterior view, 1885

Old Dispensary building in Zanzibar

Slave chamber, Zanzibar

Map of Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara

The Great Mosque and wall of the Great House, Kilwa Kisiwani Cemetery of Malindi Mosque, Kilwa Kisiwani

Husuni Kubwa Palace and small Domed Mosque, Kilwa Kisiwani Plan of the Palace, Songo Mnara

Insertion of a copy of the door in the Gereza Fort, Kilwa Kisiwani Creation of structures to protect against the erosion in the Husuni Kubwa Palace, Kilwa Kisiwani

View of the ruins at Songo Mnara

Skilled craftspeople working with local villagers in the ruins Over 600 people had been employed on the project

Group of local women working at the site

Field schools and internships were established during the course of the project

GIS software and rescue and mitigation archaeology were employed

Works in progress, Husuni Kubwa, Kilwa Kisiwani

Works in progress, Songo Mnara

View of doorway inside the Palace at Songo Mnara

Section drawing showing conservation work done on the Great Mosque, Kilwa Kisiwani

Section drawing showing conservation work done on the Makutani Palace, Kilwa Kisiwani

Map

Mosque of Sanje Ya Kati, eleventh century

Mihrab of the mosque of Kizimkazi, 1107 AD

Mosque and mihrab of Songo Mnara, fifteenth century

The Shirazi mosque of Kilwa Kisiwani, built between 1131

Sanje Ya Kati fresh coral blocks

The first Shirazi mosque of Gedi (1100-50 AD)

Niche minbar of the Sanga Rungu mosque

The mosque of Laghbari, Zanzibar Old Town

The minbar of the great mosque of Kua, Mafia archipelago

Map of Gujarat

— viii —

200 201 202 203 204

205 206 207 208

212 239 224 227 220

FIGURES

12.2 A typical Bohra house 249 12.3 Part plan of a Bohrwad, Kapadvanj 251 12.4 A cluster plan, Kapadvanj 253 12.5 A Gothic mansion, Siddhpur 254 12.6 View of a street in the new Bohrwad, Siddhpur 255 12.7 Floor plans of a Bohra house, Surat 256 12.8 An Art Deco staircase, Khambhat 257 12.9 Sectional and elevational views of the Bohra house, Surat 259 12.10 The division in the living/sleeping space 260 12.11 The aesthetic richness of some of the interior spaces 260 12.12 The craftsmanship in wooden facades, Siddhpur 262 12.13 Plan of a Bohra mansion with shops on the ground floor, Siddhpur 263 12.14 Example of a very elaborate interior space 265 12.15 Craftsmanship in various materials 266 12.16 Women’s strong association with interior spaces 266 12.17 The entrance space with a gate for privacy 268 13.1 Map of India showing location of important mosques and coming

of Islam to Gujarat and Kerala 272 13.2 Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra, Ajmer (1192) 274 13.3 Asafi Masjid, Bara Imambara, Lucknow (1775) 274 13.4 Facade of Jami Mosque at Sarkhej as seen from the large courtyard 275 13.5 An example of Idgah in Gujarat 276 13.6 Ground plan of Atala Devi mosque (1408) 277 13.7 Tomb at Bijapur 279 13.8 Comparison of Islamic and Hindu dome ceilings 280 13.9 Wall section of a typical wooden house in Kerala and an interior

image of a slanted lattice (charupadi) 282 13.10 Mandapa at Adalaj Stepwell, Ahmedabad and interior of Jami

mosque at Champaner 284 13.11 Mishkal Mosque, Kozhikode (14th century) 385

13.12 Cheraman Mosque, Kodungallor (629), showing the old

residential style building now masked by the new facade of 1984 286 13.13 Plan and elevation of Sidi Saiyyed Mosque, Ahmedabad (1572) 288 13.14 Jami Mosque at Champaner where the tall minarets have survived unlike other examples in Gujarat 290 13.15 Tajiyas 291 13.16 Jami Mosque, Ahmedabad (1423) 292 13.17 Thazhathangady Mosque, Kerala 294 14.1 Sketch of Kuruhinna, Laamu atoll, showing mouldings 301 14.2 The processing of coral stone construction 303 I4.3 Typical features of a mosque compound 304 x

FIGURES

15.17 15.18

15.19

Typical features of a mosque

Map with locations of the coral stone mosques of the Maldives Fandiyaru Miskiy

Malé Hukuru Miskiy

Ihavandhoo Old Friday Mosque

Isdhoo Old Mosque

Fenfushi Friday Mosque

Meedhoo Old Friday Mosque

Malé Eid Mosque

Thuluth calligraphy from Aslam al-Silahdar Complex, Cairo Coral stone grave marker from Kilifi, Kenya

Thuparamaya, Polunnaruwa, Sri Lanka

Masjid Kampung Laut, Malaysia

Exterior, Masjid Agung, Demak

Interior, Masjid Agung, Demak

Reconstruction of original form, Masjid Agung, Demak Exterior, Masjid Agung, Banten

Interior, Masjid Agung, Banten

Details showing Jepara mosque and Aceh mosque

Doors, Masjid Agung, Demak

Carved stone panels with figures, Mantingan Mosque Carved stone panel with stepped design, Mantingan Mosque Carved stone panels with winged design, Mantingan Mosque Carved stone medallions, Mantingan Mosque and tomb Wooden panel, carved stone panel and wooden panel

Carved stone panel with chinoiserie designs, Mantingan Mosque

Carved stone panel, Mantingan tomb

Winged gateway, Tomb of Sunan Sendang, Sendung Duwar Detail of base of Tomb of Sunan Sendang, Sendang Duwar complex

Details of interior screen carving, Tomb of Sunan Drajat, Paciran Detail of exterior wooden screen, Tomb of Sunan Drajat, Paciran

Panel of exterior wooden screen, Tomb of Sunan Drajat, Paciran

337 338 339

A HISTORIOGRAPHY OF INDIAN OCEAN CULTURES

Over the past couple of decades, significant new research has been undertaken across East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent leading to fresh insights into several facets of Indian Ocean cultures. Scholars increasingly recognise the centrality of the Indian Ocean in the study of Muslim cultures. Some of these studies, written about the Indian Ocean in its longue durée, focused on local and regional histories. Cultural encounters across the Indian Ocean down the centuries have given rise to cities, towns, ports and other constructions and artefacts which, while remaining distinctive in themselves, also exhibit layers of shared features. Muslim participation in these transoceanic encounters has been diverse and significant, with links that created conduits for trade, commerce and exchange of ideas, beliefs, practices, scholarship and material goods. Recent publications highlight and theorise the interlinks, connections and networks across the region. These are discussed below as a prelude to engaging with the core premise of this volume: that interconnections and mobility among Muslim localities in the region have generated ‘a cultural continuum’ whose diversity is reflected in the exchange of knowledge, beliefs, practices, scholarship, trade, commerce and other endeavours. Several edited volumes examine the interconnectivity of the Indian Ocean World by using case studies,! a method also adopted in this volume.

Some previous books had explored the story of the Indian Ocean as a world system starting with the advent of complex societies between the Bronze Age

! Simpson and Kresse, 2007; Declich, 2018; Schottenhammer, 2019; Keller, 2019.

and late antiquity.” Most of the urbanisation, city-states and complex political systems emerged due to trade and mobility in the hinterland and along great rivers such as the Euphrates and the Tigris with the Mesopotamian Empires and the Harrapan civilisation along the Indus River? At the beginning of the first millennium ce, the nautical revolution caused by using the monsoon winds of the Indian Ocean allowed for major water crossings. The Romans and the Axum kingdoms were the first to expand outside the Red Sea to Africa and India.* In the Gulf, the Sassanians expanded the maritime trade system first established in the Bronze Age to India and beyond.

During this early period, the Arabian Peninsula, the Red Sea and the Gulf played a major role in the Indian Ocean World system.? During the Abbasid Caliphate, Islam began to expand all over the Indian Ocean.ó The Abbasid period was an age of exploration and discovery, as demonstrated most famously by the Sindbad the sailor stories. Merchants from the Gulf established a series of emporiums and caravanserais from East Africa to Southeast Asia." Building on networks from late antiquity, this international trade was reinforced by the new religion, Islam, one of whose teachings required its followers to accomplish the Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca.? Long-distance trade boosted the urbanisation and development of port cities and coastal and island cultures.? Several books have been published that explore the littoral societies, cultural exchanges and trading networks in Muslim contexts.!°

Between the tenth and twelfth centuries, Shi'a traders and missionaries started to travel around the Indian Ocean. This period is also known as the Golden Age of the Shi'a caliphates, with the Fatimids in Egypt, the Qarmatians and the Buyid emirates in the Persian Gulf. Trading networks were also supported by non-Muslim communities such as the Jews in Yemen and Hindus and Buddhists in India and Southeast Asia.!! The most important phenomenon was the fact that these travellers not only converted people from the places that they visited, but some settled in these distant places. These first migrations of non-indigenous communities heavily influenced local histories and traditions, including, for example, the emergence of the ‘Shirazi’ communities in East Africa.

? McLaughlin, 2018.

Ray, 'Maritime archaeology of the Indian Ocean, recent trends and an overview', in Ray and Salles, 2012, pp. xiii-xxiv and 1—10; Beaujard, 2019, pp. 41-160.

Crone, 2004, pp. 51-83; Potts, D. T., ‘The Archaeology and Early History of the Persian Gulf, in Potter, 2009, pp. 27-43.

Hourani, 1995; Agius, 2008.

‘Becoming an Islamic sea’, in Alpers, 2014, pp. 40-68.

Toorawa, 2007; Schnepel and Sen, 2018.

Goitein and Friedman, 2008, pp. 311-36; Lambourn, 2018, pp. 37-64.

Buddhism and Hinduism also played a very important role in the diffusion of Islam in the Indian Ocean World. Several kingdoms and religions in Southeast Asia from the seventh to the fifteenth century supported Muslim trading networks such as Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, Majapahit in Java, Srivijaya in Sumatra and, of course, the kingdoms of Champa and Angkor in modern day Cambodia. Some of them, such as Majapahit and Srivijaya, were extremely powerful thalassocracies and they benefited from their strategic location between China and India.

Later, Sufi orders adapted themselves to pre-existing religious networks and gradually replaced them. These Sufi orders, such as the Naqshbandiyah and Kazaruniyya, became extremely powerful around the Indian Ocean. Sufi brotherhoods reinforced social links between maritime communities. Several articles and books explore the role of Sufi orders in Islamisation and the relationship with Buddhism in the Malay-Indonesian world within the sultanates of Malacca, Aceh and the Maldives.!? In East Africa, contemporary practices in the Swahili world show how Sufi brotherhoods are reinforcing social links between maritime communities, as highlighted in several publications.’

The geography of the Indian Ocean World has also been explored through navigation and the monsoon wind system.!^ Some publications on the Indian Ocean focus specifically on the navigation, ships and sailors in Muslim contexts, such as Hourani's iconic reference work, Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Medieval Times (1951); Dionisius Agius' Classic Ships of Islam: from Mesopotamia to the Indian Ocean (2008) and Abdul Sheriff's Dhow Cultures of the Indian Ocean (2010).

Several publications present a history of the Indian Ocean both as a world in itself and its role in world history.?^ These comparative studies on the longue durée discuss the political systems and modes of governance on the Indian Ocean coast, which were mainly thalassocracies. Swahili cities, for example Zanzibar and Kilwa, can be compared to those in the Mediterranean, such as Genoa and Venice.

The focus of some publications has been on specific regions and their cultural aspects: East Africa and the Swahili coast, South Arabia with Yemen and Oman! or India and the regions of Gujarat, Deccan and Kerala. The Yemen, in particular Aden and the port cities on the Hadramawt, were strategic locations in the Indian Ocean trade." This monopoly at the crossroads between the

Bang, 2003, ch. 1; Headley and Parkin, 2015; Ho, 2006.

Eisenlohr, 2018; Headley and Parkin, 2015; Bang, 2014.

Pearson, 2003; Alpers 2014; Sheriff, 2014.

Freitag and Clarence-Smith, 1997; Nicolini and de Silva Jayasuriya, 2017; Kresse, in MacLean, 2018, pp. 31-50.

Margariti, 2007.

Mediterranean worlds via the Red Sea and the Indian worlds was reinforced during the Rasulid and Mamluk dynasties, protecting not only the trade with Africa but also with India. Between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries most of the city-states around the Indian Ocean reached their apogee. It was also during this period that the Red Sea took over most of the Gulfs maritime international trade via Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt. Finally, Sunni Islam (of the Shafi'i persuasion) was propagated and adopted by most of the Muslim communities around the Indian Ocean.

The Indian Ocean got its name from the Indian subcontinent during the Greco-Roman period, when India played a major role in trade, politics and cultural relationships between all the regions around the Indian Ocean.? With early Roman ports such as Pattanam in Kerala and Banbhore in Sindh, which became the first Muslim port city in the Indus delta, India was connected to trade between China, Arabia and Africa. During the medieval period, Indian sailors and merchants travelled on both sides of the Indian Ocean, trading in imported products but also in Indian goods such as beads and textiles.? The main trading centres and cities were located around Kathiawar and Gujarat. Other regions involved in oceanic trade were the Deccan of the Bahmani Sultanate.” India played a major role in trade, politics and cultural relationships between all the regions around the Indian Ocean.”! Indian cultures and tastes, ranging from architecture to gastronomy, strongly influenced Indian Ocean cultures from the Maldives to Yemen to Oman and the Swahili coast. Swahili civilisation expanded from Somalia, through Kenya, Tanzania, north Madagascar and the Comoros to Mozambique. The Swahili stand at the confluence of Muslim and African worlds, resulting in che development of a unique coastal culture based initially on long-distance trade." The role of trade was crucial in the urbanisation and development of port cities and city-states.? On the Asian side, with the exception of the famous maritime expeditions of Admiral Zheng He in the fifteenth century, China never had direct contact with the Arabian Peninsula and Africa.2+ Nevertheless, trade with China in the Indian Ocean World economy was massive since, at least, the Abbasid period. Importing African ivory and trading Chinese stoneware and porcelain, China was a major player in the Indian Ocean trade called by Europeans the 'Spice Road' and by the Chinese

Das Gupta and Pearson, 1987; Hawley, 2008; Kooria and Pearson, 2018; Keller, 2019.

Pradines, 2017, pp. 211-36; Nicolini and de Silva Jayasuriya, 201 7.

Horton and Middleton, 2000, chs 1—2; Prestholdt, 2008.

Nanji, ‘A Chinese muse in the Caliph's court: the influence of Chinese ceramic technology across the Indian Ocean (eighth to fourteenth century ce)’, in Keller, 2019, pp. 47-64.

= A the ‘Maritime Silk Road’, so named after the better known land route through Central Asia, the Silk Road.”

In 1498 the discovery by Vasco da Gama of a maritime route to Asia by way of Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, the ‘Carreira da India’, completely changed the relationship between the different regions of the Indian Ocean World. During the sixteenth century the Portuguese built some fifty fortresses around the Indian Ocean, from Mozambique to Malacca. The idea was to protect and control European trade with India and to assure a monopoly for the Crown of Portugal. Piracy and violence, and attempts to protect maritime trade from them, had existed in the Indian Ocean a long time before the Europeans entered the Indian Ocean. But the advent of the Portuguese signals the beginning of the modern era for the Indian Ocean World, with the introduction of gunpowder and the establishment by Christian Europeans of new commercial networks with non-Muslim trading communities, such as the Hindus in Gujarat. Establishing Goa to the north of the Malabar coast as their headquarters, was also a strong political and economic choice for the Portuguese.” Following the Portuguese, Dutch, English and French traders also began to expand into the Indian Ocean, colonising coastal territories and islands for commercial profit. Through their trade in the Indian Ocean, the Europeans also came into direct contact with the Mughal empire. Across the Indian Ocean, from sub-Saharan Africa to Malacca, stock companies such as the Dutch and British East India companies attempted to control or get maximum benefits from the spice road.”’ The Indian Ocean World was transformed through the consumption of goods, intercultural connections, connectivity and circulation of new ideas coming from Europe,7? and there are several publications that have explored this in detail.?

Writing about Indian Ocean diasporas was and is always connected to debates on race, citizenship and identity through forced migrations.? Hence several publications refer directly or indirectly to the creolisation of Indian Ocean societies.?! Slavery in the Indian Ocean World can be traced back to at least the Abbasid period, when 500,000 revolting slaves besieged al-Basra in 869. Islamic legal traditions provided a legal framework to deal with slaves, directly inspired by late antiquity practices. Between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Omani became a mercantile superpower in the Indian Ocean, through their

25 26 21 28

Schnepel and Sen, 2019.

Silva, 2011; Prange, Monsoon Islam: Trade and Faith on the Medieval Malabar Coast, 2018.

‘Cosmopolitanism contested: anthropology and history in the Indian Ocean’, in Simpson, and Kresse, 2007, pp. 1—41.

Chaudhuri, 1978; Satis, 1987; Bose, 2009.

Shanti and Jamal, 2010; Moorthy, 2010.

29 30 31 clove plantations and their trade in ivory and slaves between India and Africa.*” In 1832, the Sultan even transferred his capital from Muscat to Zanzibar in a unique instance of political shift between two continents, and demonstrating the great mobility of Indian Ocean cultures and people. During this period, slavery would be used by the French and Omanis to provide workers for plantations in Zanzibar, Mauritius and Réunion.*?

MusrLIM CULTURES AND HERITAGE IN THE INDIAN OCEAN

A significant factor emerging from the historiographic survey given above has been the growing importance of the Indian Ocean as a field of study, and the role of Islam as a potent factor of change and transformation among the peoples of this vast region (Fig. I.1). The earlier perception of ‘Islam is the desert’, signifying the location of its origins, has been complemented by ‘Islam is the ocean’, an affirmation of its spread across the seas where Muslims have for centuries interacted with each other and with other peoples and cultures.?* Islam not only provided the framework that facilitated cultural exchanges but was also the pivot for transforming local societies in this vast region. Some of the factors and facets, reflective of the diversity of Muslim cultures prevalent in the Indian Ocean region, are explored in this book, which developed from a conference organised in 2018 by the Aga Khan University's Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC).

The papers in the book explore the role of Muslim communities through their evolving connections and mobilities across the Indian Ocean World. Spanning from the seventh century to the present day, the papers highlight different aspects of interconnectivity in relation to Islam. Analysing textual and material evidence, the book examines identities and diasporas, manuscripts and literature, as well as vernacular and religious architecture. It aims to explore networks and circulations of peoples, ideas and ideologies, as well as art, culture, religion and heritage. It focuses on both global interactions as well as local agencies in context.

The papers combine historical, archaeological and cultural approaches to the study of the Indian Ocean through a comparative study of Muslim societies within the context of three periods: the pre-colonial, the colonial and the modern. The case studies fulfil an heuristic function in terms of illustrating some of the points briefly that have been outlined above. Reflected is a dynamic

32 Bose, 2009, pp. 193—282; Freitag and Clarence-Smith, 1997; Campbell, Gwynn, ‘Slave Trade and the Indian Ocean World’, in Hawley, 2008, pp. 17-51.

9? Anderson, 2000.

34 Bose, Sugata, ‘Old Tides and New Waves in Indian Ocean History’, in Keller, 2019, p. xxii, Bose references Braudel, 1995 and Jalal, 2000.

Baghdad

Hyderabad _ Goa |

| Kerala | SriLanka |

Mogadishu arawal di Si k

Comoros Madagascar

“Reunion

Figure I.1 Map of the Muslim cultures of the Indian Ocean. Courtesy Stéphane Pradines.

expression of local agency in historical context, a continuous forging and reforging of identity, and a creative impulse generated through the interface of Islam and local cultures.?? These factors are further explored in the papers dealing with Islamic architecture; intra-Muslim perceptions of belief; colonial interaction with Muslims/Islam; the travel of texts: Muslim attitudes to the Qur'an its preservation and transport; the intertwining of religion and ethnicity in identity; the impact of trade and maritime culture; and the role of women as actors within the Indian Ocean culture.

The papers are grouped in two sections. The first, Muslim Identities, Literature and Diasporas, explores the mobility of texts and manuscripts, and the forging of identity and its relation to religion, ethnicity, politics and trade.

35 A process discussed in depth by many scholars, notably Geertz, 1968 and 1973; Eickelman, 1982; and, more recently, by Ahmed, 2016, 246-297.

The second, Monuments and Heritage in Muslim Contexts, focuses on the interaction between the local and the global in architecture. The case studies presented in the papers are drawn from Ethiopia, Tanzania, Oman, Gujarat, Kerala, the Maldives, the Malay-Indonesian archipelago and the Persianate cultural zone. The geography of the Indian Ocean as a maritime world is also explored through the specificities of the coastal natural resources, such as the mangrove and the coral reefs. Sites and monuments are looked at as parts of regional and national identities, and are presented through littoral political systems and coastal modes of governance: the thalassocracies and city-states. Finally, Indian Ocean heritage is presented through discussions about littoral societies and cultural exchanges.

Part I: Musuim [DENTITIES, LITERATURE AND DIASPORAS

The first two papers in this section relate to manuscripts of the Qur’an: their writing, production, illumination, transmission, preservation and the geographical interlinks across the Indian Ocean connecting Africa and the Indian subcontinent.

Sana Mirza’s paper presents a major centre of Islamic learning, the city of Harar, which was a nexus of key trade routes linking the highlands of Ethiopia to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Harar was also home to an extraordinary manuscript tradition that has so far remained largely unknown to historians. Produced between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, numerous Harari Qur’an manuscripts provide rich material with which to consider circuits of artistic interchange across the early modern Indian Ocean and their role in shaping local artistic idioms. The chapter argues for the development of a distinctive Harari calligraphic script and visual identity in the mid-eighteenth century, a time of increased transregional circulation around the Indian Ocean. This Harari style was formed by the active and selective participation by the city’s artisans in long-distance artistic and religious networks, and their ability to synthesise from multiple sources while largely ignoring concurrent Ottoman trends. The manuscripts provide evidence not only of the mobility of artistic forms across the Indian Ocean, but also of Harar’s position as an artistic centre within an interrelated constellation of centres of artistic production stretching from Egypt to Indonesia.

Walid Ghali introduces a rare Qur’anic manuscript from The Aga Khan Library that originated in East Africa. Despite the poor condition of the incomplete manuscript, it displayed two interesting features. The first is the calligraphy itself and the way the verses have been corrected and inserted. The second is the style of the illumination, which exhibits obvious South Asian features. Available historical information suggests three ways of establishing the manuscript’s provenance: a) the manuscript could have been written by a South Asian calligrapher, who lived in East Africa; b) the manuscript could have been brought to East Africa from South Asia by traders or scholar(s); and c) the manuscript could have been copied from a similar copy by a calligrapher in East Africa. Ghali examines the manuscript from a codicological point of view to demonstrate the similarities of the style of illumination with South Asian practices in manuscript illumination.

Staying with the East African connection, the subsequent three papers explore dimensions of authority, power, identity, diplomacy and scholarship associated with the Omani Al Bu Said dynasty, which ruled Zanzibar and the East African coast during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, ending with the Zanzibar Revolution of 1964. All three papers also reference European colonial rule, its power, authority and influence. Two papers — those of Valerie J. Hoffman and Farouk Topan — adopt a biographical approach in exploring their topics: Hoffman, through the diary of a scholar and judge from Zanzibar, and Topan, through two women prominent in modern Zanzibari history.

Beatrice Nicolini’s chapter surveys various factors that first attracted the Al Bu Said Sultans to the East African coast, and then the strategy they employed to rule over a region with diverse populations with varied ethnic backgrounds and religious affiliations. The sultans exercised power through a delicate balance of military force, religious tolerance and different social groups. Omani rule during the nineteenth century operated through a devolution of its leadership among different groups: the Baloch mercenaries, the Asian religious and mercantile communities, and the African regional leaders (the Mwinyi Mkuu, for example). And it was during this period that sultans had also to negotiate with the colonial powers, principally the British, over their territories.

Valerie J. Hoffman analyses the relationships between religion, ethnicity and identity in the Zanzibar Sultanate. The sultanate ruled a singularly cosmopolitan but highly stratified population, including Arabs of Omani background (usually Ibadis), scholars and labourers of Hadrami descent, Indians of diverse origins and religions, and Baloch and Persian mercenaries, in addition to people who self-identified as ‘Shirazi’, other people from the Banadir or Mrima coasts and large numbers of African slaves. Recent publications by John Wilkinson and Jonathon Glassman explore issues of religion, ethnicity and identity on the Swahili coast in new and interesting ways. Hoffman draws on their work while also analysing unpublished manuscript fragments by a Somali-born scholar, ‘Abd al- Aziz al-Amawi, who served as a Shafi'1 judge in Zanzibar and a counsellor and ambassador for its rulers. Sultan Barghash (r. 1870-88) sent Amawi on several exploratory and diplomatic missions to the African mainland. Amawi kept meticulous records, though unfortunately much of what he wrote is lost. Nonetheless, the remaining fragments of his diaries offer insights into his perspectives on religion, ethnicity and identity in the sultanate, which sometimes differ from those of British writers. Hoffman also explores the writings of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Ibadi scholars in Zanzibar, which adds an interesting dimension to our understanding of the relationships of different groups on the island.

The place of women in these coastal societies is discussed by Farouk Topan. His chapter explores aspects of the lives of two Zanzibari women — Emily Said- Ruete (1844-1924) and Siti binti Saad (1880-1950) — whose backgrounds and upbringing could not have been more different. Emily Said-Ruete was born as Salme, the daughter of the Sultan of Oman and the first Sultan of Zanzibar, Sayyid Said bin Sultan (d. 1856). She was raised as a royal princess in Zanzibar but had to flee the island in 1866 after falling in love with Heinrich Ruete, an official at the German Consulate. She converted to Christianity at Aden, married Ruete and settled in Germany. Her book, Memoirs of an Arabian Princess, was published in 1888. Siti binti Saad was born and raised in a village in Zanzibar and later became an accomplished singer; she was the first East African to be invited by gramophone companies — Columbia and His Master's Voice — to travel to Mumbai, India, in 1928 to record her songs. Her lyrics are about everyday life in Zanzibar, often referencing actual events. They contain social criticism, denouncing class oppression, corruption, the abuse of women by men and the shortcomings of the colonial legal system. The chapter examines the way the two women exercise their agency locally (Siti) and globally (Salme) within the cultural continuum of the East African coast, its links with Oman, and interaction with colonial powers (British and German).