Islamic Law and Commerce in the Indian Ocean

Episode 383
with Fahad Ahmad Bisharahosted by Chris Gratien
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The history of capitalism and the world economy, while increasingly global in its perspectives, remains a Eurocentric story, and one struggles to find the place of non-European modes of exchange and legal frameworks such as Islamic law within the big picture. In this episode, we talk to Fahad Ahmad Bishara about his book A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1780-1950 (Cambridge University Press), which argues that concepts and legal frameworks arising from Islamic societies deserve an important place in this narrative. As we discuss, merchants, cultivators, and financiers in the Indian Ocean world were linked in a shared understanding of commerce that employed Islamic legal frameworks. Throughout our conversation, we seek to understand what a picture of the emergence of capitalism in the Western Indian Ocean looks like when local actors are placed at its center.
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