| Popis: |
Islam was to come to South and East Asia through both overland and maritime vectors, but was to reach the polities and societies of Southeast Asia and coastal East Asia mainly by sea, along the Indian Ocean girdle of trade which extended from the Arab world through the ports of South Asia and Southeast Asia to the southern extensions of the Chinese world in the East China Sea. It is this maritime sphere which forms the context of this paper, in which efforts are made to explore the earliest manifestations of Islam in Southern India, Southeast Asia and South China, the modes of transmission of the religion and the networks which either facilitated or were created by the extension of Islam to these regions. The study extends until approximately 1500 CE by which time Islam had become a major force in the Asian maritime realm. |
