This conference explores the multifaceted networks of exchange that characterized the Western Indian Ocean from the Post-Classical period through the late Mughal era (approximately aligning with the Medieval to Early Modern periods in the West). The maritime connections between South Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa created intricate webs of commercial, intellectual, and cultural exchanges that profoundly shaped the region's historical development and fostered a deeper appreciation of societies across space and time.

Presentation

The Department of Arabic Language, Islamic Studies, and the History of Art and Archaeology of the Islamic World at the University of Liège, in collaboration with Ghent University, is pleased to announce the upcoming international conference:

• Friday 27 and Saturday 28 June 2025
• Salle Lumière, Building A1 (2nd floor), University of Liège

This two-day conference will bring together scholars from Europe, North America, and Asia to explore the complex networks that shaped the Western Indian Ocean world from post-classical India to the late Mughal era.

Papers will examine the intersections of political authority, commercial exchange, intellectual production, and cultural dynamics, through a variety of case studies drawn from coastal societies and courtly milieus across the region.

You are also welcome to join us online via Teams.

The event is open to all those interested in Indian Ocean history, Islamic and South Asian studies, and the circulation of ideas in connected global contexts.

Argument

This conference explores the multifaceted networks of exchange that characterized the Western Indian Ocean from the Post-Classical period through the late Mughal era (approximately aligning with the Medieval to Early Modern periods in the West). The maritime connections between South Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa created intricate webs of commercial, intellectual, and cultural exchanges that profoundly shaped the region's historical development and fostered a deeper appreciation of societies across space and time.

The material culture of trade formed the backbone of these connections, encompassing both luxury and utilitarian goods. Indian textiles, particularly fine cottons and silks dominated the luxury trade, while spices and aromatics—including pepper and cardamom from India, frankincense and myrrh from East Africa and Arabia—created complex networks of commodity exchange. The trade in precious stones, pearls from the Persian Gulf, and ceramics from various production centers created additional layers of commercial interaction. Of particular significance was the trade in Indian wootz steel, renowned for its superior quality and sought after throughout the Indian Ocean World and beyond.

The most active hub of long-distance commerce during the time was the port-city trading network along the coastline of the western Indian Ocean, where the merchants gave life and meaning to ports. The conference aims to explore port towns such as Surat and Cambay (and others) in Gujarat as vibrant centers where merchant communities including Parsis, Jains, Hindus, and Muslim merchants operated in close proximity, developing sophisticated commercial and financial practices. These communities established complex systems of credit, insurance, and partnership that transcended religious boundaries. Parsi merchants excelled in shipbuilding, while Jain merchants dominated inland trade networks and banking services. Hindu Bania merchants maintained extensive networks stretching from the Red Sea to Southeast Asia, while Muslim merchants—including Bohras, Khojas, and Memons—facilitated trade with the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa. The port cities of Gujarat exemplified the cosmopolitan and plural character of these maritime networks.

Intellectual and religious exchanges paralleled these material connections. Manuscripts and religious texts circulated widely, particularly between North Indian Islamic courts and their counterparts across the Indian Ocean World, facilitating the spread of religious ideas and practices. Scientific works on astronomy, mathematics, and medicine crossed linguistic and cultural boundaries, enriching intellectual traditions across regions. Literary works and poetry, often translated and adapted across languages, created shared cultural references. 

Technical knowledge flowed through these same maritime networks. Shipbuilding techniques evolved through the exchange of expertise between Indian, Arab, and East African shipwrights. Navigation methods and astronomical knowledge, crucial for maritime travel, were shared and refined across cultures. Agricultural practices and crop varieties spread across the Indian Ocean World, transforming local food production and dietary habits. The exchange of textile production methods and metallurgy techniques led to technological innovations and the establishment of new production centers.

Diverse cultural forms also traversed imperial borders, thus merging, evolving and creating distinctive regional variations. Art styles, musical traditions, and culinary practices blended and evolved across regions. Languages like Arabic, Persian, and Indian dialects interacted, giving rise to new linguistic and literary traditions.

The movement of people underpinned these networks of exchange. Scholars and itinerant religious specialists traveled between courts and religious centers, spreading ideas, knowledge and spiritual practices. Merchant communities, particularly Arab, Persian, and Indian traders, established permanent settlements across the region, creating lasting cultural bridges. Artisans and craftspeople moved between production centers, spreading technical knowledge and artistic styles. 

Diplomatic missions served as vital bridges between civilizations, fostering the exchange of political ideas, trade agreements, and administrative practices. These diplomatic channels not only strengthened formal relations between courts through cultural exchanges and ceremonial practices, but also shaped international commerce. Meanwhile, the movement of forced labor, including enslaved people and indentured workers, added another complex dimension to these human networks.

This conference aims to examine these interconnected networks of exchange, demonstrating how maritime connections facilitated the emergence of universal forms of knowledge across vast geographical expanses through the circulation and mobility of people (bureaucrats, ambassadors, artisans, scholars, and writers), ideas, and goods across time and space, triggering transformative discourses in intellectual and technological fields across the Western Indian Ocean World. By bringing together diverse scholarly perspectives, we seek to illuminate the complex processes that shaped this dynamic region during this crucial period of global history.

Organizing Committee

• Professor Frédéric Bauden (Liège University)
• Dr. Hamid Moein (Liège University)
• Professor Eva De Clercq (Ghent University)
• Professor Sébastien Moureau (UCLouvain)

Online Moderator: Dr. Bogdan Smarandache (Liège University)

Program

DAY 1 - FRIDAY, JUNE 27, 2025

• 9:30 – 10:00 | Coffee
• 10:00 – 10:30 | Welcome and Opening Remarks, Professor Frédéric Bauden (Liège University), Dr. Hamid Moein (Liège University) & Professor Heleen De Jonckheere (SOAS, University of London)

10:30 – 12:00 | Panel 1: Maritime Networks and Commercial Exchanges

Chair: Professor Roxani Margariti (Emory University) [Virtual]

• Professor Kaveh Yazdani (University of Connecticut), Gujarati Commerce across the Indian Ocean World, 15th to 18th Centuries
• Anwesha Das (Emory University), Texts and Textiles: Weaving Gujarat, Yemen and Egypt into the Medieval Indian Ocean World
• Professor Jyoti Gulati Balichandra (Penn State University), Navigating the Western Indian Ocean: Family and Politics in the Sixteenth Century

12:00 – 13:30 | Lunch Break

13:30 – 15:00 | Panel 2: Knowledge Networks and Maritime Technologies

Chair: Professor Frédéric Bauden (Liège University)

• Dr. Alessandro Ghidoni (University of Exeter) [Virtual] Goods, People and Ideas: Indian Ocean Watercraft and Maritime Connections from the Late 1st Millennium CE
• Dr. Élise Franssen, Research Associate (Liège University) Indian Nights: The Egyptian Recension of the Thousand and One Nights in India
• Michele Argentini (Liège University) From the Red Sea to the Adriatic: Venice and the knowledge of the Indian Ocean (15th-16th century)

15:15 – 15:45 | Coffee Break

15:45 – 16:45 | Panel 3: Jain Networks and Maritime Trade (US Eastern Time). 

Chair: Professor Mahmood Kooria (University of Edinburgh) [Virtual from India]

• Professor Whitney Kelting (Northeastern University) [Virtual - US Eastern Time] Mythologizing western Indian Ocean Sea Trade: Vinayvijay's Śrīpālrājāno Rās and the making of the modern Jain Mahāśeth
• Professor Steven Vose (University of Colorado Denver) [Virtual - US Eastern Time] Navigating Exchange: A Fourteenth-Century Jain Monk's Translation of Perso-Arabic Knowledge of the Astrolabe in the Sanskrit Yantrarāja (King of Instruments) in the Court of Fīrūz Shāh Tughluq Official courtly exchanges between Sanskrit and Persianate intellectuals and religious leaders during the Delhi  

17:00 | End of Day 1

DAY 2 - SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 2025

9:30 – 10:00 | Coffee

10:00 – 11:00 | Panel 4: Architecture and Regional Networks

Chair: Dr. Bogdan Smarandache (Liège University)

• Dr. Percy Arfeen-Wegner (University of Düsseldorf) Rethinking Religious Architecture in Malabar: Toward a Decolonised Architectural Historiography
• Dr. Tillo Detige (Rutgers University) [Virtual] Coasting to the Sultanate court, rolling out of the Mughal empire: Digambara Jain communities

11:00 – 11:30 | Coffee Break

11:30 – 13:00 | Panel: History Writing, Authority, and Connected Worlds

Chair: Professor Heleen De Jonckheere (SOAS, University of London)

• Professor Roxani Margariti (Emory University) [Virtual] Visible Subjects: Medieval Funerary Monuments from the Dahlak Islands and Connected Histories of the Western Indian Ocean
• Professor Roy S. Fischel (SOAS, University of London) Travelling Texts and the Boundaries of History Writing in the Early Modern Persianate World

13:00 – 14:30 | Lunch Break

14:30 – 15:30 | Panel 5: Merchant Communities and Cultural Practices

 Chair: Dr. Hamid Moein (Liège University)

• Professor Shalin Jain (Delhi University) Between Land and Sea: Jain Merchants in Mughal Maritime Trade
• Professor Iqbal Akhtar (Florida International University) [Virtual - US Eastern Time] Indo-African Khoja Sacred Cuisine

15:30 – 16:00 | Coffee Break

16:00 – 16:30 | Roundtable Discussion: Synthesis and Future Directions

Moderators: Dr. Hamid Moein (Liège University) & Professor Heleen De Jonckheere (SOAS, University of London)

Open discussion on key themes, methodological insights, and future research directions emerging from the conference presentations.

• 16:30 – 17:00 | Closing Remarks and Conference Conclusions Dr. Hamid Moein (Liège University) & Professor Heleen De Jonckheere (SOAS, University of London)
• 19:30 | Conference Dinner

Venue: Les Folies Gourmandes

Rue des Clarisses 48, 4000 Liège

Practical Information

Venue: Salle Lumière, University of Liège (Place du 20-Août n° 7, second floor)

Online Access

Online Moderator: Dr. Bogdan Smarandache (Liège University)

Technical Support: Available throughout the conference

Contact: hmoein@uliege.be / hd28@soas.ac.uk 

Note: The schedule is subject to change, and the placement of some participants might be adjusted at the time of the conference.

Virtual Participants: Alessandro Ghidoni, Iqbal Akhtar, Sunil Gupta, Tillo Detige, Steven Vos, Whitney Kelting.