« La science de la généalogie est un grand art. Elle relève des sciences des traditions prophétiq... more « La science de la généalogie est un grand art. Elle relève des sciences des traditions prophétiques (ḥadîth). Le Prophète dit : “Apprenez de vos généalogies [à connaître] vos parents (arḥâm) qui leur sont attachés, car le lien parental (ṣilat al-raḥim) signifie amour au sein de la famille, richesse matérielle et mérite dans l’Au-delà.” [...] Parmi les bienfaits légaux qui en découlent figurent les descendants, la kafâ’a, l’évitement de l’inceste, l’aide à ceux envers qui on se trouve dans l’..
Through reading the Sejarah Melayu, this article suggests that foreigners are fundamental to the ... more Through reading the Sejarah Melayu, this article suggests that foreigners are fundamental to the constitution of Malay sovereignty. Malay polities, located at the crossroads of international trade, thrived on commerce with foreign merchants. Power and wealth necessarily engage the foreign, as does destruction. The Sejarah Melayu pays attention to how foreign powers are identified, tested and incorporated, in a compact that constitutes Malay sovereignty and polity. This process, in which a universal kingly line transforms into Malay sovereign, creates a language that enunciates the terms of alliance between local and foreign. A single process both incorporates the foreign and establishes the ritual language of Malay sovereignty. Malay sovereignty thus constituted takes diarchical forms in texts and in history. The Sejarah Melayu model of diarchic sovereignty is contrasted with the political constitution of contemporary Malaysia derived from colonial India, in which a singular, exclusive, autochthonous, native Malay culture claims sovereign rule.
This essay proposes that the study of Asia, thought of as an Inter-Asian space, can provide conce... more This essay proposes that the study of Asia, thought of as an Inter-Asian space, can provide concepts that shed light on the social shapes of societies that are mobile, spatially expansive, and interactive with one other. Inter-Asia, an old world crisscrossed by interactions between parts that have known and recognized one another for centuries, provides an unmatched depth and breadth of mobile experience and material. Such material can be recognized if seen through concepts designed to bring out the shapes of mobile societies, and to analyze their dynamics. These concepts include mobility, disaggregation-reaggregation, connection, circulation, partial societies, transregional axis/intermediate scale, and outside-in analysis. They are offered in the spirit of philosophical housekeeping, to clarify and crystalize what is innovative about recent Asian studies that move beyond globalization, and to further those efforts. They are ways out of the box of classical social theory's inte...
The Indian Ocean was the first venue of global trade, connecting the Mediterranean and South Chin... more The Indian Ocean was the first venue of global trade, connecting the Mediterranean and South China Sea. Inspired by the insights of Fernand Braudel, and by Michael Mollat, who saw it as 'a zone of encounters and contacts ...a privileged crossroads of culture,' this volume explores two inter-related themes. The first, on oceanic linkages, presents the diversity of the peoples who have traversed it and their relationships by tracing their tangible movements and connections. The second, on the creation of new societies, revisits better-known socio-historical phenomena - - such as slavery, indentured labour, the Swahili language and Muslim charity - - which tie the genesis of these social formations to the seascape of an interconnected, transcultural ocean. The chapters offer a broad and diverse view of the mobile, transregional communities that comprise Indian Ocean society, while in-depth case studies allow students and specialists to see how individual research projects may c...
« La science de la généalogie est un grand art. Elle relève des sciences des traditions prophétiq... more « La science de la généalogie est un grand art. Elle relève des sciences des traditions prophétiques (ḥadîth). Le Prophète dit : “Apprenez de vos généalogies [à connaître] vos parents (arḥâm) qui leur sont attachés, car le lien parental (ṣilat al-raḥim) signifie amour au sein de la famille, richesse matérielle et mérite dans l’Au-delà.” [...] Parmi les bienfaits légaux qui en découlent figurent les descendants, la kafâ’a, l’évitement de l’inceste, l’aide à ceux envers qui on se trouve dans l’..
Through reading the Sejarah Melayu, this article suggests that foreigners are fundamental to the ... more Through reading the Sejarah Melayu, this article suggests that foreigners are fundamental to the constitution of Malay sovereignty. Malay polities, located at the crossroads of international trade, thrived on commerce with foreign merchants. Power and wealth necessarily engage the foreign, as does destruction. The Sejarah Melayu pays attention to how foreign powers are identified, tested and incorporated, in a compact that constitutes Malay sovereignty and polity. This process, in which a universal kingly line transforms into Malay sovereign, creates a language that enunciates the terms of alliance between local and foreign. A single process both incorporates the foreign and establishes the ritual language of Malay sovereignty. Malay sovereignty thus constituted takes diarchical forms in texts and in history. The Sejarah Melayu model of diarchic sovereignty is contrasted with the political constitution of contemporary Malaysia derived from colonial India, in which a singular, exclusive, autochthonous, native Malay culture claims sovereign rule.
This essay proposes that the study of Asia, thought of as an Inter-Asian space, can provide conce... more This essay proposes that the study of Asia, thought of as an Inter-Asian space, can provide concepts that shed light on the social shapes of societies that are mobile, spatially expansive, and interactive with one other. Inter-Asia, an old world crisscrossed by interactions between parts that have known and recognized one another for centuries, provides an unmatched depth and breadth of mobile experience and material. Such material can be recognized if seen through concepts designed to bring out the shapes of mobile societies, and to analyze their dynamics. These concepts include mobility, disaggregation-reaggregation, connection, circulation, partial societies, transregional axis/intermediate scale, and outside-in analysis. They are offered in the spirit of philosophical housekeeping, to clarify and crystalize what is innovative about recent Asian studies that move beyond globalization, and to further those efforts. They are ways out of the box of classical social theory's inte...
The Indian Ocean was the first venue of global trade, connecting the Mediterranean and South Chin... more The Indian Ocean was the first venue of global trade, connecting the Mediterranean and South China Sea. Inspired by the insights of Fernand Braudel, and by Michael Mollat, who saw it as 'a zone of encounters and contacts ...a privileged crossroads of culture,' this volume explores two inter-related themes. The first, on oceanic linkages, presents the diversity of the peoples who have traversed it and their relationships by tracing their tangible movements and connections. The second, on the creation of new societies, revisits better-known socio-historical phenomena - - such as slavery, indentured labour, the Swahili language and Muslim charity - - which tie the genesis of these social formations to the seascape of an interconnected, transcultural ocean. The chapters offer a broad and diverse view of the mobile, transregional communities that comprise Indian Ocean society, while in-depth case studies allow students and specialists to see how individual research projects may c...
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