African Settlers on the West Coast of India: The Sidi Elite of Janjira

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faaeza Jasdanwalla
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
West Coast ◽  
Political History ◽  
The Political ◽  
African Origin ◽  
The West ◽  
West Coast Of India ◽  
History Of ◽  
Princely State

Abstract This paper discusses the political history of the Indian princely state of Janjira on the west coast of India. It was ruled by Sidis (Africans) from the early seventeenth century until the merger of princely states immediately after the independence of India in 1947. The Sidi rulers of Janjira were of African origin, having initially entered India as traders and serving in administrative capacities with the medieval Deccan kingdoms. The emphasis of this paper will be on the manner in which the rulers of Janjira were elected by a group of African Sidi chiefs or Sardars from amongst them for almost two centuries, as opposed to relying on hereditary primogeniture as a system of succession, and the implications that such a system had on the history of Janjira.

The tompon-tany and the tompon-drano in the History of Central and Western Madagascar

1982 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 61-76
Author(s):  
Finn Fuglestad
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
West Coast ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Eastern Coast ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
The West ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Conceptual Revolution

At some undefined time in the fairly recent past central and western Madagascar witnessed a conceptual 'revolution' which had far-reaching political consequences. The religious beliefs and symbols which constituted the main ingredients of this 'revolution'--and probably also the people who propagated them--were in some way connected with the Zafindraminia-Antanosy and the Anteimoro of the southeastern and eastern coast. It is quite clear that these and similar groups had been strongly influenced by Islam and that they practiced what could perhaps be described as a corrupt or diluted Islam or a syncretic 'pagan' Muslim religion. (It is significant that as their name indicates the Zafindraminia claim descent from Raminia who they hold to have been the mother of Muhammad.) One of the main ingredients of this religion was the cult of the ody or guardian amulets, objects usually made of wood which are strikingly reminiscent of the so-called “charms” or “gris-gris” sold by Muslim clerics over much of Africa. Another ingredient is represented by the institution of ombiasy. The ombiasy (the main manufacturers of ody) whom the Frenchman Etienne de Flacourt at Fort-Dauphin in the seventeenth century took to be Muslim clerics were originally the “priests” (or the “devins guérisseurs,” according to Hubert Deschamps) of the Anteimoro and the Zafindraminia-Antanosy. Subsequently this institution was disseminated throughout nearly the whole of Madagascar. Yet another ingredient was the system of divination known as sikidy, which also spread to other parts of Madagascar, including Imerina and the Sakalava country.These beliefs, symbols, and institutions deeply influenced the people of the west coast (the present-day Sakalava country) and of central Madagascar (Imerina and Betsileo country).

Ritual under Change: Mongolian Influences on Horse Races and Mountain Divinity Worship in Tibet

Inner Asia ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-373
Author(s):  
Elke Studer
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Central Government ◽  
The Political ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Horse Race ◽  
Autonomous Region ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of

AbstractThe article outlines the Mongolian influences on the biggest horse race festival in Nagchu prefecture in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR).Since old times these horse races have been closely linked to the worship of the local mountain deity by the patrilineal nomadic clans of the South-Eastern Changthang, the North Tibetan plain. In the seventeenth century the West Mongol chieftain Güüshi Khan shaped the history of Tibet. To support his political claims, he enlarged the horse race festival's size and scale, and had his troops compete in the different horse race and archery competitions in Nagchu. Since then, the winners of the big race are celebrated side by side with the political achievements and claims of the central government in power.

A Questionnaire on Decolonization

October ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 174 ◽  
pp. 3-125
Author(s):  
Huey Copeland ◽  
Hal Foster ◽  
David Joselit ◽  
Pamela M. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Political History ◽  
The Political ◽  
Art World ◽  
The West ◽  
Art Activism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Point Of Reference

The term decolonize has gained a new life in recent art activism, as a radical challenge to the Eurocentrism of museums (in light of Native, Indigenous, and other epistemological perspectives) as well as in the museum's structural relation to violence (either in its ties to oligarchic trustees or to corporations engaged in the business of war or environmental depredation). In calling forth the mid-twentieth-century period of decolonization as its historical point of reference, the word's emphatic return is rhetorically powerful, and it corresponds to a parallel interest among scholars in a plural field of postcolonial or global modernisms. The exhortation to decolonize, however, is not uncontroversial-some believe it still carries a Eurocentric bias. Indeed, it has been proposed that, for the West, de-imperialization is perhaps even more urgent than decolonization. What does the term decolonize mean to you in your work in activism, criticism, art, and/or scholarship? Why has it come to play such an urgent role in the neoliberal West? How can we link it historically with the political history of decolonization, and how does it work to translate postcolonial theory into a critique of the neocolonial contemporary art world? Respondents include Nana Adusei-Poku, Brook Andrew, Sampada Aranke, Ian Bethell-Bennett, Kader Attia, Andrea Carlson, Elise Y. Chagas, ISUMA, Iftikhar Dadi, Janet Dees, Nitasha Dhillon, Hannah Feldman, Josh T. Franco, David Garneau, Renee Green, Iman Issa, Arnold J. Kemp, Thomas Lax, Nancy Luxon, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Saloni Mathur, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Alan Michelson, Partha Mitter, Isabela Muci Barradas, Steven Nelson, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi, Alessandro Petti, Paulina Pineda, Christopher Pinney, Elizabeth Povinelli, Ryan Rice, Andrew Ross, Paul Chaat Smith, Nancy Spector, Francoise Verges, Rocio Zambrana, and Joseph R. Zordan.

The beylicate in Ottoman Egypt during the seventeenth century

1961 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. M. Holt
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Political History ◽  
The Political ◽  
History Of

The period of nearly three centuries which lies between Selīm I's overthrow of the Mamluk sultanate in 1517, and Bonaparte's landing at Alexandria in 1798 is one of the most obscure in the history of Muslim Egypt. For the latter part of the period, from the early twelfth/eighteenth century, there are ample materials for the reconstruction of the political history in the famous chronicle by Jabartī. The Ottoman invasion, and the years which immediately succeeded it have also received some attention, thanks to the detailed information provided by the chronicler Ibn Iyās. In contrast, there has been virtually no investigation of the last seventy-five years of the sixteenth century and the whole of the seventeenth.

Shipbuilding in Seventeenth-Century Western India

Itinerario ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-195
Author(s):  
R.J. Barendse
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
West Coast ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Clear Distinction ◽  
Western India ◽  
Important Work ◽  
The West ◽  
Basic Work ◽  
History Of

The history of Indian shipbuilding is a relatively well-studied topic. There are two strands of literature on Indian shipping. First there is the Indian: R.N. Mukherjee (1923) is, in spite of some minor criticism which could be levelled at it, still the basic work on the topic. Among the more recent contributions should be mentioned those of L. Gopal and J. Qaisar. The second strand is Portuguese. Much of the Portuguese work on ‘Portuguese’ shipbuilding in the sixteenth century deals with shipbuilding in Goa. Now, was this ‘Portuguese’ shipbuilding or ‘Indian’ shipbuilding? ‘European’ and ‘Indian’ technology were so closely interlinked on the west coast of India that it is impossible to make a clear distinction. The seminal contributions on this topic are the already very well-established works of Commodore Quirinho da Fonsequa and of Frazāo de Vasconselhos. Their articles, which have appeared in several Portuguese journals, very much deserve an English translation. More recently the important work by A. Marques Esparteiro on the ships used in the carreira da Índia has appeared.

scholarly journals Islamic Spain 1250-1500

1992 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-122
Author(s):  
M'hammad Benaboud
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Political History ◽  
The Political ◽  
Chronological Order ◽  
The West ◽  
American Universities ◽  
History Of ◽  
Intellectual Integrity ◽  
Muslim Spain ◽  
Do So

This book presents a remarkable account of the political history of Andalusia(Muslim Spain) during the last phase of its existence. The author adoptsa cyclical approach in the sense that he traces the creation of the Banu Nasrkingdom in Granada, its development, and its decline and fall. He studies theperiod of each ruler in chronological order from the establishment of thekingdom of Granada to its collapse. Instead of limiting himself to descriptionor repetition, he chooses to adopt an analytical approach which permits himto deepen our insight regarding the period of each ruler. He reproduces a clearpicture which combines internal political developments and external relationswith the Christians.The author studies the history of the Muslims of Granada as well as thosein Christian Spain up to the Christian conquest of Granada. He is correct inincluding these two categories, for the religious, cultural, and linguistic criteriaunite these two groups, and also because their fates became similar after thefall of Granada in 1492. Thus both groups can be considered “Moriscos,” a topicwhich Harvey started working on over thirty years ago.The book is not easy to read, because it reflects many years of researchand has tremendous cultural weight. To the author’s obvious strenuous intellectualeffort, one may add his intellectual integrity as a distinguished scholarwho is credible in the West and in the East alike, somethmg which not all orientalistscan claim. He is critical of the history which he studies and its sourceswithout being offensive; the distorting influence of a personal dimension foundin other historians is here minimized. The author criticizes himself before beingcritical of others. His manner of presenting and interpreting history is convincing,as his intentions are exclusively scholarly. The author is a memberof a breed that is not very common in the politically oriented European andNorth American universities with regards to anything related to Islam andMuslims. This is not to say that he is beyond criticism, however, as the bookcould be faulted for not having relied directly on some of the fundamental andprimary Andalusian sources. We could disagree with his approach and suggestother approaches. Fortunately for his readers, the author is perhaps moreconscious of his limitations than anybody else, which is also why he did whathe proposed to do so admirably ...

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