A new interdisciplinary approach to Gulf StudiesThe Gulf sits at an ancient crossroads of cultures and faiths, and at the heart of modern trade stretching back to the origins of civilisation. As a site of both conflict and peaceful contact, it can be studied in the context of world history as a place of cultural and historical interaction.From medieval astrology to museum architecture, from the trade of glass and pearls to the role of Indians, Africans, Christian monks, Mandaeans and merchants, this book spans historical periods and disciplinary approaches. It is united by one overarching theme: the Gulf as a cosmopolitan nexus and space of encounter. The chapters describe a Gulf simultaneously perched on the edge of empires and at the centre of world events. Presenting new evidence, new theoretical approaches and new arguments, this volume aims to change understandings of the Gulf in the world.Key Features. The first interdisciplinary study of the Gulf, incorporating scholarship on cosmopolitan and global connections in archaeology, history and heritage studies. Includes contributions from leading scholars from many disciplines who link the Gulf to the history of the Mediterranean and of the Indian Ocean. Presents new ideas, new evidence and new approaches to the archaeology, theory and history of the Gulf. Focuses on diversity within the Gulf, given its location on the edge of empiresAllen James Fromherz is Director of the Middle East Studies Center and Professor of History at Georgia State University. He is the author of Ibn Khaldun, Life and Times (Edinburgh University Press, 2010), The Almohads: The Rise of an Islamic Empire (2012), Qatar, A Modern History (2012) and The Near West: Medieval North Africa, Latin Europe and the Mediterranean in the Second Axial Age (Edinburgh University Press, 2016).Cover image: Folk Ming dish decorating the mihrab of Al-Masjid Al-Ayn in Harat Al-Bilad, Sultanate of Oman © Clive GraceyCover design:[EUP logo]edinburghuniversitypress.comISBN 978-1-4744-3065-4Barcode

Map of the Gulf; Acknowledgements; Author Biographies; Chapter 1: World History in the Gulf as a Gulf in World History, Allen Fromherz; Part 1: Gulf Cosmopolitanism; Chapter 2: The Cosmopolitan Figure as Ethical Exemplar: Notes from a Tenth-Century Gulf Encyclopedia, Richard McGregor; Chapter 3: The Gulf - A Cosmopolitan Mobile Society: Hormuz 1475-1515 CE, Valeria Piacentini Fiorani; Chapter 4: From Jerusalem to the Karûn: What can Mandæan Geographies Tell Us?, Charles Häberl; Part II: The Gulf and the Indian Ocean; Chapter 5: Merchant Communities and Cross-Cultural Trade between Gujarat and the Gulf: Late Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Ghulam A. Nadri; Chapter 6: Banians of Muscat: A South Asian Merchant Community in Oman and the Gulf, c. 1500-1700, Abdulrahman al Salimi; Chapter 7: Khaliji Hindustan: Towards a Diasporic History of Khalijis in South Asia 1780's-1960's, Johan Mathew; Part III - East Africa in the Khalij and the Khalij in East Africa; Chapter 8: Africans and the Gulf: Between Diaspora and Cosmopolitanism, Matthew S. Hopper; Chapter 9: East Africa, the Global Gulf and the New Thalassology, Mark Horton; Part IV: Diversity and Change: Sky, Sea and Land; Chapter 10: Astrology as a Node of Connectivity between the Premodern Mediterranean and Gulf, Michael A. Ryan; Chapter 11: Ships of the Gulf - Shifting Names and Networks, Eric Staples; Chapter 12: The Role of Indian Ocean Trade Inland: The Buraimi Oasis, Timothy Power; Part V: Recent Gulf Archaeology; Chapter 13: Pearl Fishing and Globalization: From the Neolithic to the 20th Century CE, Robert Carter; Chapter 14: An Archaeology of Glass and International Trade in the Gulf, Carolyn M. Swan; Part VI: Heritage and Memory in the Gulf; Chapter 15: From History to Heritage: The Arabian Incense Burner, William G. Zimmerle; Chapter 16: Doha's Msheireb Heritage House Museums: A Discussion of Memory, History and the Heritage of the Indian Ocean World, Karen Exell; Chapter 17: Omani Identity Amid the Oil Crisis, Lamya Harub.