Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Vol. 2, The Slave Kings and the Islamic Conquest, 11th-13th Centuries [Hardcover]

Andre Wink (Author)

Book Description

Series: Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World | Publication Date: May 1997

This is the second of a projected series of five volumes dealing with the expansion of Islam in "al-Hind," or South and Southeast Asia. While the previous volume covered the 7th-11th centuries, this new volume deals principally with the Islamic conquest of the 11th-13th centuries. The book also provides an analysis of the newly emerging organizational forms of the Indo-Islamic state in these centuries, migration patterns which developed between the Middle East, Central Asia and South Asia, maritime developments in the Indian Ocean, and religious change. The comparative and world-historical perspective which is advanced here on the dynamic interaction between nomadic and agricultural societies should make it of interest to all historians concerned with Asia in this period.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...gut dokumentiert und mit einem ausgezeichneten Literaturverzeichnis versehen. -- Burchard Brentjes, Deutsche Literaturzeitung, 1992.

In many areas his comparative almost global, approach raises new questions, and brings new insights. -- M.N. Pearson, South Asia, 1992.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 428 pages
• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub; 2 edition (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9004102361
• ISBN-13: 978-9004102361
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,781,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bold Effort at a Grand Synthesis, June 29, 2000

By 

Sumit Guha (Providence, RI, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Vol. 2, The Slave Kings and the Islamic Conquest, 11th-13th Centuries (Hardcover)

This book is the second part of a projected five-part series on the history of Asia from the rise of Islam in the 7th century of the Christian era down to the 18th century. Few scholars would have the courage and even fewer the competence to undertake such an exercise. Nor is this a history of religion or of religious conversion : it is far vaster in its scope and ranges from the study of environments, demography, and economy to kinship, statecraft and military technique. What is more, the author seeks to establish structural linkages and connections between these very diverse historical phenomena - not just in a single region but right across Eurasia from Siberia to Sumatra. He touches, en passant, on issues like the (now extinct) elephant populations of China, horsebreeding in India, and the era of Tibetan military dominance in north-central Asia. The basic paradigm that informs this work is that of the interaction between the herding and trading peoples of Central Asia and the settled farming and city-dwelling populations that lived around them in West, South and East Asia. The great integrative role of Islamic society is seen in its capacity draw and integrate these diverse lifeways and fit them into a single ecumene.

It is inevitable that specialists will find some of Wink's assertions weak and some arguments speculative. Given the imperfect record of the past available to us, no grand synthesis of this type can ever be without some weak spots. I personally felt uncomfortable with the repeated citation of traditions recorded centuries after the events they purported to describe, and the heavy reliance on the stories of Marco Polo. But I would still conclude by saying that this is a book that well repays the reading - it is simply bursting with ideas and information.