About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherCambridge University Press

ISBN-101316647498

ISBN-139781316647493

eBay Product ID (ePID)242521826

Product Key Features

Number of Pages280 Pages

Publication NameBecoming Arab : Creole Histories and Modern Identity in the Malay World

LanguageEnglish

SubjectAsia / Southeast Asia, Sociology / General

Publication Year2017

TypeTextbook

AuthorSumit K. Mandal

Subject AreaSocial Science, History

SeriesAsian Connections Ser.

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.6 in

Item Weight14.1 Oz

Item Length9.3 in

Item Width6.5 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

Dewey Edition23

ReviewsAdvance praise: 'Becoming Arab presents rich, engaging and original material on Arabs in the Malay world and makes a powerful case for deeper exploration of creole and transnational histories; it makes an important contribution to Southeast Asian history and colonial history, to the study of contemporary identity, ethnicity, and race, to understandings of the salience of race and ethnicity in the making and maintenance of modern nation states.' Iza Hussin, University of Cambridge, Advance praise: 'Mandal makes an important and original contribution to our understanding of Arabs and Arabness in the Malay world, as well as to the history of colonial and postcolonial Indonesia. His lucid and accessible style makes Becoming Arab a pleasure to read. This ground breaking work will provoke various conversations that will further enrich our knowledge of the topic.' Ronit Ricci, Hebrew University, Israel

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal959.5004927

Table Of ContentIntroduction; Part I. A Creole Malay World: 1. Lord Sayyids; Part II. Colonial Transformation: 2. From sea to land; 3. Categorisation and control; 4. Scholarship and surveillance; Part III. Modern Identity: 5. Turning to Istanbul; 6. Sayyids remade; 7. The contested state of modern Arab identity; Conclusion.

SynopsisFor all readers seeking a fresh perspective on how Asians negotiated racial categorisation and control under European colonial rule. Asians - Arabs in this instance - did not acquiesce but drew on a history of integration in the Malay world, connections to the Ottoman Empire, and modern organisations and schools., Sumit K. Mandal uncovers the hybridity and transregional connections underlying modern Asian identities. By considering Arabs in the Malay world under European rule, Becoming Arab explores how a long history of inter-Asian interaction was altered by nineteenth-century racial categorisation and control. Mandal traces the transformation of Arabs from familiar and multi-faceted creole personages of Malay courts into alienated figures defined by economic and political function. The racialisation constrained but did not eliminate the fluid character of Arabness. Creole Arabs responded to the constraints by initiating transregional links with the Ottoman Empire and establishing modern social organisations, schools, and a press. Contentions emerged between organisations respectively based on Prophetic descent and egalitarianism, advancing empowering but conflicting representations of a modern Arab and Islamic identity. Mandal unsettles finite understandings of race and identity by demonstrating not only the incremental development of a modern identity, but the contested state of its birth.

LC Classification NumberDS595.2