Maritime Malabar: Trade, Culture and Power

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Maritime Malabar: Trade, Culture and Power provides a broad overview and connected narrative of Malabar, a region whose fate has been shaped and reshaped over time by a maritime consciousness and searelated activities. This volume examines the trade and faith related networks in the Asian waters through which Malabar became firmly integrated into the larger world of the Indian Ocean. By analysing the trajectories of commodities, people and ideas between Malabar and the wider Indian Ocean world, the book presents a nuanced and layered picture of the various historical processes of pre-modern Malabar vis-à-vis its various enclaves and spaces of power. Rich in empirical data, the book delves into the multiple facets and strands of the societal processes of Kerala by scrutinizing the trade as well as the urbanity of the port of Muziris and the cities of Calicut and Cochin in ways conditioned by the changing perceptions of the sea and its dynamics. The maritime orientation of Malabar's economy has been studied from different perspectives by highlighting the different types of trade and also by indicating how its traders survived as well as sustained its maritime trade over centuries against overwhelming odds. The critical reading of primary sources provides congruent, contesting and alternative images of Malabar's past, opening up fresh and challenging themes for scholars and researchers interested in the maritime history of South Asia and the socio-economic history of Malabar.