From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean: Medieval History in Geographic Perspective

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that Orientalist notions of political economy were marred by geographic determinism. From Marx to Wittfogel, generic concepts such as the "Asiatic mode of production," the "hydraulic state" or "Oriental despotism" involved simplistic observations relating to climate and, particularly, the presence of large rivers and alluvial plains which were invoked to explain essential and persistent differences with the West. 1 Considering its overwhelmingly important role in this earlier literature, it is remarkable that the historical geography of the rivers and riverplains of the Indian Ocean has not yet been explored in any depth. It is perhaps to avoid being stung by charges of determinism that historians of India and the Indian Ocean area in recent decades have, if anything, downplayed the importance of geography. And, as W. A. McDougall has recently argued, it appears as if current thinking in general has become "suspicious of a subject [geography] that emphasizes distinctions among regions, invites unflattering comparisons and hierarchy among nations and cultures, and has been used in the past as an intellectual tool of empire." 2 By and large, what K. N. Chaudhuri observed in 1978 still holds true: "There can be few aspects of Indian studies more neglected than that of historical geography." 3 The aim of this essay is to reintroduce a geographic dimension in the history of the Indian Ocean area-one that is not overly deterministic and helps to account not only for continuities but also for changes in social and economic organization over an extended period of time. rivers, plains and deltas From the point of view of geography-taking our cue from the older literature-the Indian Ocean does provide a sharp contrast to the more familiar 416

Lineage specific histories of Mycobacterium tuberculosis dispersal in Africa and Eurasia

“…L2 may similarly have an origin in East‐West maritime trade across the Indian Ocean, as we infer it arose from a migration event from Eastern Africa to South Eastern Asia during the 1st millennium BCE. In this era, increased sophistication in ship technology allowed for longer voyages (Blench, ; Kent, ; Parkin & Barnes, ; Ray, ; Ray & Salles, ; Wink, ). L2 appears to have spread out of Southeast Asia, a highly connected region in our analyses of M.tb migration, and is currently found across Eastern Eurasia and throughout South Eastern Asia (Figures , , and ).…”

“…East‐West contact and trade across the Indian Ocean intensified in the first millennium BCE, when maritime networks expanded to include the eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Black Sea (Boussac & Salles, ; Dilke, ; Ray & Salles, ; Salles, ). Historical data from the Roman era indicate that crews on trading ships crossing the Indian Ocean comprised fluid assemblages of individuals from diverse regions, brought together under conditions favourable for the transmission of TB (André & Filliozat, ; Begley & De Puma, ; Rauh, ; Wink, ). These ships would have been an efficient means of spreading M.tb among the distant regions involved in trade.…”

The Gulf in World History

“…Our understanding of the Indian Ocean World is often presented as a largely Eurasian-centred view -in which connections have been followed across an Asian world (typically between Western Asia, India and South East Asia), with links to Europe through either through the Red Sea or Gulf routes, either in Classical antiquity or from the early modern period (Chaudhuri 1985(Chaudhuri , 1990McLaughlin 2014). When it has been visualised as a world system (Abu Lugard 1989), or as networks (Wink 2002), the entire western seaboard of the Indian Ocean is normally omitted -thus excluding the eastern African coast, typically from Ras Guardafui to Madagascar and southern Africa.…”

History and philosophy of geography: discipline and discourse, 2001 2002

“…The symbiotic articulation of a 'sense of place' in maps and literature in early modern England is the focus of Sanford's ( 2002) study, while Kline (2001) provides a detailed examination of the literary, visual, oral and textual evidence of the medieval mappa mundi, particularly the Hereford mappa mundi, setting them within the context of medieval art, history and cosmology. Many studies are concerned with the morphology and cosmology of medieval cities (although see Wink, 2002, for a challenge to the emphasis on cities as the prime sites of medieval economic and cultural change). Work includes specific studies of towns and cities (Baigent, 2002;Yamamura, 2002) to more wide-ranging accounts of medieval urban life such as Lilley's Urban life in the Middle Ages 1000Ages -1450Ages (2001.…”