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date: 07 February 2025

Commercial Laws of the Indian Ocean, 1400–1800 celocked

Commercial Laws of the Indian Ocean, 1400–1800 celocked

  • Mahmood KooriaMahmood KooriaLeiden University

Summary

Laws pertaining to commercial transactions in the Indian Ocean littoral emerged from diverse regional, political, religious, and philosophical orientations. While Muslim merchants dominated the oceanic waters up to the 15th century, European regimes attempted to assert their supremacy from the 16th century onward through various strategies such as treaty-making, diplomacy, and war. In both eras, a diverse array of legal systems contributed to the commercial frameworks in the oceanic littoral. These frameworks derived mainly from Islamic, Hindu, Christian, European, and Arabian legal systems, but regional and transregional Malay, Javanese, Indic, Persian, and Swahili frameworks also played a significant role. Jurists, rulers, companies, and traders from these various backgrounds made the commercial legal sphere of the Indian Ocean very complex and diverse, rooted in a long tradition yet breaking away from it with new forms, devices, institutions, and structures. While very few scholars have focused on the intricacies of commercial law in the Indian Ocean world between 1400 and 1800, the sources on this topic from multiple languages, regions, and collections are very extensive.

Subjects

  • Indian Ocean Studies
  • Intellectual
  • Legal
  • Middle East
  • South Asia
  • Southeast Asia

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