Histories of circulation : sharing Arabic manuscripts across the Western Indian Ocean, 1400-1700
My doctoral dissertation studies the historical phenomenon of text circulation that connected communities across the early modern Western Indian Ocean. A focus on the mobility of manuscripts and scholarship enables me to link social spaces and cultural practices from the Red Sea region to the South Asian subcontinent. Thereby, I argue for the cultural integration of this transregional space along an Arabic connection from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. The thesis interrelates three lines of argumentation: Firstly, a diachronic perspective indicates a pluralisation of Islamicate texts. Secondly, the analysis of these manuscript versions exhibits a differentiation in cultural practices of Arabicised communities who peruse these texts. Thirdly, this cultural differentiation is mirrored in a social diversification of the communities among whom these texts circulated. My source base consists of multiple manuscript versions of the same texts and their marginalia, each version transmitted, collected, physically modulated, read, inscribed and commented on in a different sociocultural context. I collected reproductions of these manuscripts across India, the Middle East and Europe. Methodologically, I start
Bahl, Christopher D.
Histories of circulation : sharing Arabic manuscripts across the Western Indian Ocean, 1400-1700. My doctoral dissertation studies the historical phenomenon of text circulation that connected communities across the early modern Western Indian Ocean. A focus on the mobility of manuscripts and scholarship enables me to link social spaces and cultural practices from the Red Sea region to the South Asian subcontinent. Thereby, I argue for the cultural integration of this transregional space along an Arabic connection from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. The thesis interrelates three lines of argumentation: Firstly, a diachronic perspective indicates a pluralisation of Islamicate texts. Secondly, the analysis of these manuscript versions exhibits a differentiation in cultural practices of Arabicised communities who peruse these texts. Thirdly, this cultural differentiation is mirrored in a social diversification of the communities among whom these texts circulated. My source base consists of multiple manuscript versions of the same texts and their marginalia, each version transmitted, collected, physically modulated, read, inscribed and commented on in a different sociocultural context. I collected reproductions of these manuscripts across India, the Middle East and Europe. Methodologically, I start
histories circulation sharing arabic manuscript across western_indian_ocean doctoral study historical phenomenon text circulation connect community across early_modern western_indian_ocean focus mobility manuscript scholarship enables link social_space cultural_practice red_sea region south_asian subcontinent thereby argue cultural integration space along arabic connection line argumentation firstly diachronic_perspective indicate text secondly analysis manuscript version exhibit differentiation cultural_practice community text thirdly cultural differentiation mirror social diversification community among texts circulate source base consist multiple manuscript version texts version transmit collect physically modulate read inscribe comment different sociocultural_context collect reproduction manuscript across india middle east europe methodologically start