ABSTRACT
Despite being geographically well-connected to Arabia and certain parts of Africa through centuries-old maritime trade routes and subsequently flourished cultural and religious linkages, many regions in the Indian Ocean such as Malabar, where Islam marked its early presence, do not reflect adequately on the study of Islam and Muslims. Abdul Jaleel reminds us the necessity of a reconceptualization of Islamic history of the medieval and early modern periods with due consideration given to various submerged strands to emerge. Despite the availability of a rich repository of texts and narratives, the scholars on Islam in the Indian Ocean often show a tendency to depend on the ‘standard histories’ written using materials kept in the colonial archives. This chapter intends to provide some preliminary insights into a more comprehensive and profound methodology making use of immensely rich but hitherto unused texts and unheard travel narratives, unseen architecture, unexperienced art forms of Muslim communities in the wider Indian Ocean region.
