Michael Pearson . . . provides us with a fascinating collection of anecdotes, data, and quotations. We travel with him through a range of debates about world systems, littoral societies, [and] the meaning of world history.—Times Literary Supplement A deeply researched, attractively presented, and question-raising book.—Choice Pearson, a distinguished scholar of South Asia and Portuguese expansion, boldly takes on the complex history of coastal East Africa during an especially dramatic period that witnessed the coming together of two major pre-modern world systems.—Edward A. Alpers, Historian Michael Pearson has put together an imaginative and yet solidly grounded book about the east African coast extending for 1,500 miles from Mogadish to Delagoa Bay.—Colin Simmons, English Historical Review This book is valuable, well written, and clearly argued, with a refreshing sense of excitement at new interpretations . . . [It is] a pleasure to read for both its content and its style, and his elegantly argued and wide view of the trading system of the Afrasiatic Sea.—John Middleton, Journal of World History This intellectually stimulating and thought-provoking publication is recommended as essential reading for historians, anthropologists, and all those interested in the history of social, economic, and political formations in the Indian Ocean basin and the Swahili world.—Mohamed Ahmed Saleh, International Journal of African Historical Studies
A deeply researched, attractively presented, and question-raising book.
Michael Pearson has put together an imaginative and yet solidly grounded book about the east African coast extending for 1,500 miles from Mogadish to Delagoa Bay.
English Historical Review - Colin Simmons
Michael Pearson . . . provides us with a fascinating collection of anecdotes, data, and quotations. We travel with him through a range of debates about world systems, littoral societies, [and] the meaning of world history.
Times Literary Supplement
Pearson, a distinguished scholar of South Asia and Portuguese expansion, boldly takes on the complex history of coastal East Africa during an especially dramatic period that witnessed the coming together of two major pre-modern world systems.
Historian - Edward A. Alpers
This intellectually stimulating and thought-provoking publication is recommended as essential reading for historians, anthropologists, and all those interested in the history of social, economic, and political formations in the Indian Ocean basin and the Swahili world.
International Journal of African Historical Studies - Mohamed Ahmed Saleh
This book is valuable, well written, and clearly argued, with a refreshing sense of excitement at new interpretations . . . [It is] a pleasure to read for both its content and its style, and his elegantly argued and wide view of the trading system of the Afrasiatic Sea.
Journal of World History - John Middleton
This intellectually stimulating and thought-provoking publication is recommended as essential reading for historians, anthropologists, and all those interested in the history of social, economic, and political formations in the Indian Ocean basin and the Swahili world.
Mohamed Ahmed Saleh
International Journal of African Historical Studies
This book is valuable, well written, and clearly argued, with a refreshing sense of excitement at new interpretations... [It is] a pleasure to read for both its content and its style, and his elegantly argued and wide view of the trading system of the Afrasiatic Sea.
John Middleton
Michael Pearson has put together an imaginative and yet solidly grounded book about the east African coast extending for 1,500 miles from Mogadish to Delagoa Bay.
Colin Simmons
English Historical Review
Pearson, a distinguished scholar of South Asia and Portuguese expansion, boldly takes on the complex history of coastal East Africa during an especially dramatic period that witnessed the coming together of two major pre-modern world systems.
Edward A. Alpers