Since there are significant discontinuities between the indigenous cultural traditions around the Indian Ocean littoral, Brian Spooner in "Cultural Dynamics of the Indian Ocean" asks,

• Is there an Indian Ocean culture?
• If so, how might we best understand its dynamics?

Kenneth McPherson writes of "fisherman, sailors, merchants," as the major career tracks that take people out of their local communities into the life of the Ocean. He might have added religious scholars, poets and men of literature, and people seeking (or deputed to) positions of administrative responsibility. These additions no doubt account for much smaller numbers of people, but there overall effect has been considerable.

Islam, which entered the Indian Ocean at the beginning of the eighth century AD, and gradually over the following 500 years became the dominant paradigm of public life, provided not only new social classes of both wealthy and not-so-wealthy itinerants, but also new reasons for travel into and out of the area. Islam focuses on Mecca, close to the coast of the Red Sea in the northwestern corner of the Indian Ocean. Pilgrimage to Mecca (incumbent on the faithful once in a lifetime, under certain conditions) increases the type of interaction that promotes a regional cultural dynamic and also creates a new international class of scholars who use Arabic as a koine, or international language. Parallel to this dynamic of Arabic, is Persian, used as a language of administration and literacy, especially on the South Asian side of the Ocean.

Despite the widespread use of Baluchi, Gujarati and Swahili also beyond their local communities, Islamicate and Persianate culture percolated down to the level of everyday life throughout the littoral communities, generating cultural affinities that are comparable with a similar phenomenon (on a smaller scale) in what we know as the Levant in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Spooner—while noting that the objective representation of Islam and its historical significance in a particular area of the world, such as the Indian Ocean, is a particularly difficult task—also addresses the topic "Islam in the Indian Ocean World." Islam is not (as non-Muslims might imagine) a historical equivalent of Buddhism or Christianity. Historically it has been a universalistic religion, a civilization, and (more recently) an anti-colonial political banner. It represents a way of life, or organizing society, of understanding history and or viewing the world, which pervade the lives of its adherents irrespective of their degree of religiosity, in ways that are difficult to articulate, to make entirely explicit, and to interpret to non-Muslims.

The significant question about Islam in the current context is "What difference does Islam make, has it made, to the life of the Indian Ocean (compared to similar areas)?"

A review of its history and doctrines suggests that its significance lies primarily in its universalism and in its political orientation. Briefly, its consistent emphasis on universalism has facilitated inter-cultural interaction and mobility over vast areas to a greater extent than any other historical worldview. In the Indian Ocean this has been complemented by its political orientation, because since the eighth century, Islamic universalism has been independent of political unity. Islamic political philosophy has focused always on the need for a leader and a minimal governmental structure for the purpose of ensuring social order, sufficient to allow the people to organize their own lives according to the law of Islam. It has always been short on ideas about how leaders should be chosen, and it does not accept the principle of representation or delegation. Islam works particularly well in a world of independent port cities.

Reading List:

Ashin Das Gupta and M. N. pearson (eds.), 1987 and 1999 India and the Indian Ocean, 1500-1800, Delhi: OUP

Martin P. Charlesworth, Roman Trade with India: a resurvey, in Studies in Roman Economic and Social History, edited by Paul R. Coleman-norton, 1951, pp. 131-143.

David Mandelbaum, 1970, Social aspects of introduced religions: Jews, Parsis, Christians, in Society in India, vol. 2, Berkeley: U. of California Press.

Manfred G. Raschke, "The Spice Trade," in New Studies in Roman Commerce with the East, in Aufstief und Niedergang der Roemischen Welt, 2.2., ed H. Temporini, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1978.

H. Rawlinson, Intercourse between India and the Western World, 1926

Wilfred H. Schoff, trans., The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, New York, 1912.

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Professor of Anthropology University of Pennsylvania

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