Struggling with History: Islam and Cosmopolitanism in the Western Indian Ocean

This volume compares and contrasts anthropological and historical approaches to the study of the Indian Ocean by focusing on the vexed nature of 'cosmopolitanism'. The chapters contribute to current debates on the nature of cosmopolitanism, the comparative study of Muslim societies, and the study of colonial and post-colonial contexts. There are few books on the market that combine serious interdisciplinary scholarship and regional ethnographic expertise with comparable ambition.