Textiles in Indian Ocean Societies considers the importance of trade, and the transformation of the meaning of objects has the move between different cultures. It also addresses issues of gender, ethnic and religious identity, and economic status. The book covers a broad geographic range from East Africa to Southeast Asia, and references a number of disciplines such as anthropology, art history and history.
This volume is timely, as both the social sciences and historical studies have developed a new interest in material culture. Edited by a foremost expert in the region, it will...

Anne Bang focuses on the ways in which a particular Islamic brotherhood, or 'tariqa', the tariqa Alawiyya, spread, maintained and propagated their particular brand of the Islamic faith. Originating in the South-Yemeni region of Hadramawt, the Alawi tariqa mainly spread along the coast of the Indian Ocean. The Alawis are here portrayed as one of many cultural mediators in the multi-ethnic, multi-religious Indian Ocean world in the era of European colonialism.