FALL
2009
History 3860
The
Indian Ocean in World History
Professor Aslanian
Office: 450 McGraw Hall
Office Hours: W 11:00-1:00
Email: elixe@aol.com
The
purpose of this course is to introduce students to the rapidly growing field of
Indian Ocean studies. Our approach will be to study the Indian Ocean as one of
the oldest maritime highways connecting diverse
regions, cultures and “civilizations.” The time period for the course will
roughly coincide with the emergence of Islam in the seventh century C.E. to the
intrusion of various European powers into the region and the subsequent
emergence of the global economy and colonialism in the nineteenth century. In
studying the Indian Ocean “world” within the framework of global history,
particular attention will be paid to the role of port cities and their networks
and especially to a variety of sea-borne long distance merchant communities
(Geniza Jews, Muslims, Julfan Armenians and Indians) that facilitated the
circulation of commodities, cultures, and ideas and in doing so helped to give
shape to the Indian Ocean as a “unified” aquatic space in world history. We
will rely on a variety of texts including primary sources such as travel
literature, scholarly studies of the economic history of merchant communities,
as well as Amitav Ghosh’s extraordinary novel of medieval life in the Indian
Ocean, entitled In an Antique Land.
The format of the course will be lecture and discussion. Students are strongly urged to begin reading In an Antique Land from the first week of class.
Course Policies
Expectations and
Rules of Conduct:
Students are expected to express themselves openly and participate
in creating a non-intimidating classroom environment that contributes to open
discussion. They are expected to attempt to think objectively and historically
and to listen attentively and respectfully to others’ remarks.
Students are expected and required to be present at every
class session and to be prepared for class. Unexcused absences will be
penalized. (Excused absences are illness or injury to the student; death,
injury, or serious illness of an immediate family member or the like; religious
reasons; jury duty or government obligation; University sanctioned or approved
activities. For other possibilities, check with me.) You must inform me of
these absences as soon you are aware of them.
Students may not take part in any activity that disrupts class.
All cellular phones, pagers, and alarms must be turned off during
class.
Cheating and plagiarism are serious offenses and will not be
tolerated. They are violations of university regulations. Students in this
class will be held to a high standard of academic integrity, which is defined
as "the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception."
Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarizing,
fabricating of information or citations, facilitating acts of academic
dishonesty by others, having unauthorized possession of examinations,
submitting work of another person or work previously used without informing the
instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students. Such actions
will be subject to disciplinary action. If you have any questions about
academic integrity, please talk with me. A single instance of cheating and
plagiarism will result, at the very least, in a failing grade for that
assignment. Depending on the severity of the case, other consequences may
include a failing grade for the class, regardless of performance on other assignments,
and further disciplinary actions.
Course requirements/assessment
Students are expected to write
1) book review of In an
Antique Land (8-10 pp., 25%);
2) take-home mid-term (8-10 pp., 25%)
3) final exam (8-10 pp., 25%)
4) Class participation and discussion (25%)
I will pass out guidelines for the written assignments.
All written
assignments must be typed, double-spaced, in black ink, 12-point font, and with
one-inch margins.
Class attendance and participation in
discussions:
This includes coming to class on time
having read and thought about the week's material and prepared to discuss it.
Knowledge and understanding of readings will enable us to have productive class
discussions as well as help you be prepared for other assignments. Attendance
without participation will be insufficient and will be reflected in grades. In
addition to regular participation, students will lead discussion once a week.
This involves working together to raise important issues from the week's
reading and getting the rest of the class to engage in discussion. Students are
required to meet with me first so we may discuss strategy and issues to be
raised. Our meeting should take place preferably a week in advance. Students need
to give a no more than fifteen-minute summary of the readings and raise
relevant questions or issues to spark discussion
Required texts:
Michael N. Pearson, The Indian Ocean (Routledge, 2003)
George Fadlo
Hourani, Arab Seafaring in the Indian
Ocean (2nd revised edition, Princeton University
Press, 1995)
Patricia
Risso, Merchants and Faith: Muslim
Commerce and Culture in the Indian Ocean (Westview, 1995)
Amitav Ghosh,
In an Antique Land: History in the Guise
of a Traveler's Tale
Janet
Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D.
1250-1350 (Oxford, 1991)
All books are at the bookstore ready
for purchase, except Risso’s Merchants and Faith, which you have to order
yourself from Amazon or other seller.
Other readings will be
available on electronic reserve in pdf format and are marked with an asterisk
below.
Week 1 (Aug. 28): Introduction to the Course and to “World History”
Reading: Syllabus
and begin Reading In an Antique Land.
Week 2 (week
of Aug. 31) : Overthrowing terra-centric
histories
Topic 1: Maritime Optics
and history
Readings:
Jerry Bentley, “Sea and Ocean Basins as
Frameworks of Historical Analysis,” Geographical
Review, Vol. 89, No. 2, Oceans Connect (Apr., 1999), pp. 215-224.*
Kären
Wigen, “AHR Forum Oceans of History: Introduction” History Cooperative* (only a few pages long)
Martin
Lewis, “Dividing the Ocean Sea,” Geographical
Review 89, no. 2 (April 1999): 188–214.
Recommended Readings:
Jerry Bentley, “Hemispheric Integration,
500-1500 C.E.”
Journal of World History - Volume 9,
Number 2, Fall 1998, pp. 237-254.*
Fernand
Braudel, “Prefaces” to The Mediterranean
and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II.*
Topic 2: Conceptual Problems and the Historiography of the Ocean
Readings:
Edward
A. Alpers, “Imagining the Indian Ocean
World,” Opening Address to the International Conference on Cultural
Exchange &
Transformation
in the Indian Ocean World, UCLA, 2002*
Markus
Vink, “Indian Ocean Studies and the New Thalassology” Journal of Global History (2007) 2, pp. 41-62.*
M.N. Pearson, The Indian Ocean, 1-26.
Recommended Reading:
Sugata
Bose, “Space and Time on the Indian Ocean Rim,” in A Hundred Horizons, The Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire,
pp. 1-35*
Week 3 (Week
of Sept. 7): The Classical Period
Readings:
George Fadlo Hourani, Arab Seafaring the Indian Ocean, pp.
1-51
Jacques Le Goff, “The
Medieval West and the Indian Ocean. An Oneiric Horizon,” in Time, Work, and Culture in the Middle Ages,
pp. 189-200.*
Week 4 (Week of Sept. 14): Islam,
the Ocean And the Chinese Moment in
the Indian Ocean
Readings:
Janet
Abu Lughod, Before European Hegemony: The
World System A.D. 1250-1350 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989):
251-351
George Fadlo Hourani, Arab Seafaring the Indian Ocean, pp.
51-84
M.N. Pearson, The Indian Ocean, pp. 62-112.
Ibn Battuta, Selections
online @ http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1354-ibnbattuta.html
Robert
Finlay, “The Treasure-Ships of Zheng He: Chinese Maritime Imperialism in the
Age of Discovery,” Terrae Incognitae: The
Journal for the History of Discoveries, 23 (1991), pp. 1–12.*
Recommended readings:
Geneviève
Bouchon and Denys Lombard, “The Indian Ocean in the Fifteenth Century,” in
Ashin Das Gupta and Michael Pearson, eds., India
and the Indian Ocean, 1500-1800, pp. 46-70.*
André
Wink, “Al-Hind: India and Indonesia
in the Islamic World Economy, c. 700-1800 A.D.,” Itinerario 12 (1988): 33-72*
Week 5 (Week of Sept.
21): Merchants Connect: The Geniza
connection
Readings:
Roxani
Margariti, Aden and the Indian Ocean
Trade, pp. 1-29, 206-14.
Avner Greif, ‘Reputation and coalition
in medieval trade: Evidence on the Maghribi traders’, Journal of Economic History IL/4
(1989), 857-882.
Goitein
“From the Mediterranean to India: Documents on the Trade to India, South
Arabia, and East Africa from the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries,” Speculum, XXIX (1954), pp. 181-197.
Sebouh
Aslanian, “Aden, Geniza, and the Indian Ocean: A Review Essay,” in Journal of Global History, fall, 2008.*
Amitav Ghosh, In an Antique Land (You should have
finished reading Ghosh by now)
Recommended reading:
Amitav Ghosh, “The Slave
in Ms. H 6,” Subaltern Studies: Writings
on South Asian History and Society, 1992, pp. 159-221.*
Week 6 (Week of Sept. 28): Merchants Connect: Muslim
Traders
Readings:
Patricia Risso, Merchants and Faith, pp. 1-120?
David Whitehouse,
“Maritime Trade in the Arabian Sea: The 9th and 10th
Centuries AD,” South Asian Archeology
(1977): pp. 865-885.
S. M. Stern, “Ramisht of
Siraf, A Merchant Millionaire of the Twelfth Century,” Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, (April, 1967):
pp. 1-14.
Engseng Ho, “The Two Arms
of Cambay: Diasporic Texts of Ecumenical Islam in the Indian Ocean,” Journal of the Social and Economic History
of the Orient, 50/ 2-3, 2007, pp. 347-361.*
Week 7 (Week of Oct. 5): Merchants Connect: Julfan
Armenians
(An
Indian Ocean Community?)
Readings:
Levon Khachikian, “The
Ledger of Merchant Hovhannes Joughayetsi” in Sanjay Subrahmanyam, ed. Merchant Networks in the Early Modern World. ... Hampshire, UK:
Variorum. Dharampal. 1971, pp. [??] 20 page essay
Edmund Herzig, “The Rise
of the Julfa Merchants in the Late Sixteenth Century.” Pembroke Papers 4 (1996): 305–22.*
Sebouh
Aslanian, ‘Social capital, “trust” and the role of networks in Julfan trade’, Journal of Global History, 1, 2006, pp.
383-402.*
Sebouh
Aslanian, “The Circulation of Men and Credit: The Role of the Commenda and the
Family Firm in Julfan Society,” Journal
of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (JESHO), 2007, 50:2,
pp.124-171.*
Sebouh Aslanian, “‘The
Salt in a Merchant’s Letter’: The Culture of Julfan Correspondence in the
Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean,”
Journal of World History, 19/2 (2008): 127-188.*
Recommended Reading:
Philip D. Curtin, “The
Overland Trade of the Seventeenth Century: Armenian Carriers Between Europe and
East Asia,” in Cross-Cultural Trade in
World History, pp. 179-207*
Assignment: Due date for Review of
Ghosh’s In an Antique Land. Submit as Email attachment and in hard copy on Oct.
7.
************* FALL BREAK: OCT. 10-13 ******************
Week 8 (Week of Oct. 12): No Class (I will be at Brown to give a talk.)
Week 9 (Week of Oct. 19): Merchants
Connect
Topic 1:
Indian Traders
Readings:
Ashin
Das Gupta, “Indian Merchants and the Western Indian Ocean: The Early
Seventeenth Century,” in Das Gupta, The
World of the Indian Ocean Merchant, 1500-1800, pp. 279-99.
Sinnappah
Arasaratnam, “The Chulia Muslim Merchants on Southeast Asia, 1650-1800,” in Merchant Networks in the Early Modern World,
ed. Sanjay Subrahmanyam, (Brookfield: Ashgate Publishers, 1997), 159-177*
Topic 2: Port Cities and Emporia
Trade
Readings:
Rhoads
Murphey, “Historical Evolution of Port Cities,” in Frank Broeze, ed., Brides of the Sea, 223-45.*
M.N. Pearson, The Indian Ocean, pp. 27-46.
Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean,
pp. 98-119.*
Assignment: Due date for Take-home mid-term exam on Oct. 21.
Submit as Email attachment and in hard copy.
Week 10 (Week of Oct. 26): The Portuguese and Da Gama
Readings:
Vasco Da Gama reading,
circa 25 pages: Modern History
Sourcebook: Vasco da Gama: Round Africa to India, 1497-1498 CE available at: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1497degama.html
(full text of first
diary, A Journal of the First Voyage of
Vasco Da Gama, 1497-1499, translated by E. G. Ravenstein, 1898, pp.
1-95, is available for free download
from google books.)
Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Career and Legend of Vasco Da Gama,
pp, 76-164*
K.N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean,
pp. 63-80.*
Week 11 (Week of Nov. 2): Pepper
Readings:
Sanjay Subrahmanyam,
“Birth-pangs of Portuguese Asia: Revisiting the Fateful ‘Long Decade’
1498-1509.” Journal of Global History
(2007), pp. 261-280.*
Robert Finlay, “Crisis
and Crusade in the Mediterranean: Venice, Portugal, and the Cape Route to India
(1498-1509),” Studi Veneziani, 28,
1994, pp. 45-90.*
Charles Boxer, “A Note on
Portuguese Reactions to the Revival of the Red Sea Spice Trade and the Rise of
Atjeh, 1540-1600,” Journal of Southeast
Asian History, 10,3, 1969, pp. 415-428.*
Frederic Lane, “The
Mediterranean Spice Trade: Further Evidence of its Revival in the Sixteenth
Century,” American Historical Review,
45, 3, 1940, pp. 581-590.*
Fernand Braudel, “The
Pepper Trade” in The Mediterranean,
pp. 543-570.*
Giancarlo
Casale, ‘The Ottoman administration of the spice trade in the sixteenth century
Red Sea and Persian Gulf’, Journal of the
Economic and Social History of the Orient, 49/2, 2006, pp. 170-98.*
Recommended readings:
Frederic Lane, “The Spice
Trade” in Venice: a Maritime Republic,
pp. 285-294.*
C.H.H. Wake, “The
Changing Pattern of Europe’s Pepper and Spice Imports, ca. 1400-1700,” Journal of European Economic History, 8,
1979, pp. 361-403.*
Week 12 (Week of Nov. 9): Silver
Readings:
Timothy Brook, “Weighing
Silver,” in Vermeer’s Hat: The
Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World, pp. 152-184.*
Dennis Flynn, and Arturo
Giráldes, “‘Born with a Silver Spoon’: The Origin of World
Trade in 1571,” Journal of World History, 6/ 2, 1995,
pp. 201-221.*
Sanjay Subrahmanyam, “Precious metal flows and prices in western and southern
Asia, 1500-1750: Some comparative and conjunctural aspects,” Studies in History, (N.S.), Vol. VII,
(1), 1991, pp. 79-105.*
Recommended Reading:
Fernand Braudel,
“American Silver” in The Mediterranean,
pp. 476-542.*
Week 13 (Week of Nov. 16)
The East India Companies, East Africa,
the
Swahili Coast, and Slave
trade in the Indian Ocean
Readings:
M.N. Pearson, The Indian Ocean, pp. 113-158.
K.N.
Chaudhuri Trade and Civilization in the
Indian Ocean, pp. 80-98*
Mark
Horton & John Middleton, The Swahili
(Peoples of Africa), pp. 72-115.*
Edward
A. Alpers, “Gujarati and the Trade of
East Africa, c. 1500-1800,” International
Journal of African Historical Studies, 9, 1, 1976: 22-44*
Markus
Vink, “The World’s Oldest Trade: Dutch Slavery and the Slave Trade in the
Indian Ocean in the Seventeenth Century,” Journal
of World History, 14, 2 (2003): 131-77*
Week 14 (Week of Nov. 23): No Class (I will be at MESA giving a talk, followed
by Thanksgiving Holiday)
Week 15 (Week of Nov. 30): The Indian Ocean in the Age of
Empire and the
20th Century
Readings:
John Wills, Jr., “Maritime
Asia, 1500-1800: The Interactive Emergence of European
Domination,” The American Historical Review,
Vol. 98, No. 1 (Feb., 1993), pp. 83-105.*
Barbara Metcalf and Thomas Metcalf, A Concise
History of Modern India, pp. 92-202.*
M.N. Pearson, The Indian Ocean, pp. 190-248.
Mike Davis, “Fear and
Money in Dubai” New Left Review,
(September-October) 2006*
Final
take-home exam due during finals’ week. Submit as an email attachment.