Ra's al-Khayma

Land and maritime realities before and after the Empires did constitute crucial issues throughout the history of the Indian Ocean. In this collection of studies, I tried to focus on more than one littoral and on more than one region, with the object of analysing different perspectives both chronological and methodological. I am aware of the role of the ‘Empires’ throughout history in these seas and on these lands, as well as of the ethnocentric views (Eurocentric included) which did accompany numerous studies for a long time, and sometimes still do; nevertheless, I would like to look at these fascinating regions - both ‘fluid’ and ‘solid’ – hopefully with more ‘open’ eyes’, with the object to re-read the history and propose new and challenging historical and historiographical scenarios. The present study is composed of four chapters, examining the roles of the international routes from the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula and the islands of Sub-Saharan East Africa from the eighteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It’s an adventurous, romantic sea and land ‘voyage’ across a vast area, with protagonists but also with actors with no voice.