Arabia and South Asia are neighbouring regions which have been involved in each other’s affairs for centuries. While their relations are not always the most visible, peoples from the two regions enjoy a degree of familiarity and mutual knowledge that defies conventional notions of cultural and religious difference. The Beyond Bedouin and Bania conference explored the range of relations between Arabia and South Asia in the present and the past in a number of arenas.
The conference opened by noting the persistence of South Asian traditions among Gulf Arab families, and discussed a range of networks that tied the regions together, through mercenaries, merchants, scholars and imperial infrastructure. It also explored the connections between the regions through their sedimented, creole cultural forms: in Talana music in India influenced by Sufi and Arabic traditions’ Arabi-Malayalam linguistics; and Kurunegala and Vistaraya palm leaf manuscripts shared by Muslims and Shinhalese in Sri Lanaka.
The papers were presented by both young and established scholars based in Singapore and abroad (Oxford University, Duke University, City University of New York Graduate Centre, USA, Iowa State University, USA, University of Leeds, UK, Holy Names University, USA, Columbia University, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, Loyola University New Orleans, USA, Georgetown University, USA, Rice University, USA, Leiden University, University of California, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Qatar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India).
The presentations brought to light engagements away from the usual focus on states, empire and migrant labour, to plumb deeper cultural currents that have had a continuous and continuing effect on both regions together. We showcased here works employing original sources that have not been mobilized in a transregional framework, to show the range and depth of Arabia-Asia relations that are open to further research and discovery.
For more photos of the conference see: Beyond Bedouin and Bania: Arabia-South Asia Relations – Asia Research Institute, NUS