Cultural interchange along the Indian Ocean during the global middle ages (700- 1500ad): the role of Arabs and Persians in Africa-China musical exchange (original) (raw)
Related papers
Mutual Exchange: Chinese and East African Trade in the Late First/Early Second Millennium BCE
For decades, excavations along the East African coast have unearthed thousands of Chinese ceramics in several centers along this coast, which stretches for nearly 3000 km. These ceramics range from the Changsha (Du'sun) jass Yue stone wares to the white porcelains. The Changsha stone ware found in East Africa is dated in China to the early 9 th century while the Yue stone wares date from the 9 th century onwards while white porcelain date to after 900. This paper will survey the prevalence of these ceramics along the East African coast and will argue that the presence of these ceramics is an indication of a long time exchange system between China and the East African coast. An exchange system that was based not on one part exploiting the other, as it happened with the emergence of European powers later in the 16 th century, but an exchange system based on mutual respect. It will also be argued that the exchange system in this coastline was based on the understanding of geographical factors; the tide regime and the regularity of the reversal of the monsoon. There are two seasons of the monsoon winds: the fi rst is the Northeast Monsoon (in Kiswahili known as Kaskasi) that fl ows between November/December to early May and is comparatively dry while between July and September is the season of the Southeast (Kusi) monsoon that is accompanied with strong winds and
For decades, excavations along the East African coast have unearthed thousands of Chinese ceramics in several centres along this coast, which stretches for nearly 3000 km. These ceramics range from the Changsha (Du’sun) jass Yue stone wares to the white porcelains. The Changsha stone ware found in East Africa is dated in China to the early 9th C while the Yue stone wares date from the 9th C onwards and the white porcelain dates to after the 9th C. This paper surveys the prevalence of these ceramics along the East African coast and argues that the presence of these ceramics is an indication of not only long time exchange systems between China and the East African coast but also that the East African coast played an important role in the emerging global trade networks that involved the European powers of the time as well.
African Archaeological Review, Volume 31, Issue 4 (2014), Page 675-703. DOI 10.1007/s10437-014-9178-z, 2014
Although the Indian Ocean has long been recognised as a fertile zone for cultural exchange, reflecting both trade routes and colonisation, it is only now coming into prominence in terms of its significance for the past history of the continents around its rim. It is now accepted that economic plants, animals, diseases, trade goods, languages, religion and cultural elements all moved around and across the Indian Ocean, often transforming the societies and environments into which they were introduced. The paper explores one specific aspect of cultural exchange, music and musical practice in the Indian Ocean. Case studies are used to assess the value and significance of different categories of evidence for the reconstruction of musical history and the resultant chronostratigraphy. These include the history of two types of zither which occur on both sides of the Indian Ocean and which attest to the significance of geographical distributions of material culture. A related issue is the vexed question of the similarities of the xylophone in SE Asia and Africa, and role of morphology in resolving the historical direction of transfer. Slavery and the African diaspora in the Indian Ocean have only recently been the subject of in-depth scholarly examination and the paper summarises current literature and begins the process of categorising the exchange of musical subcultures. This throws into focus an important aspect of maritime transfers in the Indian Ocean; the low profile of some of the great trading nations, such as the Sassanians and the Chinese, in terms of cultural influence, despite their importance in overall trade. The paper suggests that disease and a focus on trade to the exclusion of other activities may account for this disparity.
Music and Empire: South and Southeast Asia, c. 1750–1950
Journal of Music History Pedagogy, 2024
usic and Empire is a single-semester module that currently focuses on South and Southeast Asia, especially the Indian subcontinent and the Malay world, in the transition to and through European colonialism c. 1750-1950. As a historian of music in Mughal India and the paracolonial Indian Ocean, I have taught this course in the Music Department at King's College London in various iterations since 2011 (at the time of writing, it was last taught in Semester 2 of 2021/22). Its original concept and design was closely linked to the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant of which I was Principal Investigator 2011-15/16, "Musical Transitions to European Colonialism in the Eastern Indian Ocean" (MUSTECIO). 1 Until the 2020/21 academic year, Music and Empire was taught solely as a graduate seminar option, taken for credit by Master of Music (MMus) students (as well as SOAS MMus students and KCL students from, e.g., the Departments of History, Comparative Literature, and Religious Studies) and audited by PhD students and postdoctoral fellows. But in the past two years it has been taught to both third-year undergraduates and graduate students, with a single joint lecture and separate seminars and assessments (the undergraduates have weekly quizzes, a coursework essay, and a 24-hour online open-book examination; the graduates have a verbal presentation and a coursework essay). The module