Based on the chance survival of a remarkable cache of documents, India and the Islamic Heartlands recaptures a vanished and forgotten world from the eighteenth century spanning much of today's Middle East and South Asia. Gagan D. S. Sood focuses on ordinary people - traders, pilgrims, bankers, clerics, brokers, and scribes, among others - who were engaged in activities marked by large distances and long silences. By elucidating their everyday lives in a range of settings, from the family household to the polity at large, Sood pieces together the connective tissue of a world that lay beyond the sovereign purview. Recapturing this obscured and neglected world helps us better understand the region during a pivotal moment in its history, and offers new answers to old questions concerning early modern Eurasia and its transition to colonialism.
Based on the chance survival of a remarkable cache of documents, India and the Islamic Heartlands recaptures a vanished and forgotten world from the eighteenth century spanning much of today's Middle East and South Asia. Gagan D. S. Sood focuses on ordinary people - traders, pilgrims, bankers, clerics, brokers, and scribes, among others - who were engaged in activities marked by large distances and long silences. By elucidating their everyday lives in a range of settings, from the family household to the polity at large, Sood pieces together the connective tissue of a world that lay beyond the sovereign purview. Recapturing this obscured and neglected world helps us better understand the region during a pivotal moment in its history, and offers new answers to old questions concerning early modern Eurasia and its transition to colonialism.
Über den Autor
Gagan D. S. Sood is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Educated at the University of Cambridge and Yale University, Connecticut, Dr Sood received his doctorate from Yale's Department of History. Before arriving at the LSE, he held research and teaching positions at the University of Cambridge, the European University Institute, Florence, and Yale University.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Prologue; Introduction; 1. Cognitive patterns: approaching the world; 2. A cosmic order: the meaning and end of life; 3. A familial order: ties of blood, duty and affect; 4. A relational order: intimates, strangers and plurality; 5. A communications order: language, writing and couriers; 6. A political order: temporal authority and governance; 7. Everyday practices: indispensable skills and techniques; 8. Flows and interactions: the arena's connective tissue; Conclusion; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.
