How did the world’s largest Muslim population become a "minority" in India? From Bombay and the Gulf to Mecca, Egypt, and Moscow, Roy Bar Sadeh follows those who refused to accept minority status as destiny—My conversation with Roy and Mohammed Alsudairi: newbooksnetwork.com/muslims-and-...

يسرني إعلان توقيع عقد ترجمتي لكتاب "مسافرو الرياح الموسمية: تأريخ الخليج من منظور المحيط الهندي" للمؤرخ الكويتي د. فهد بشارة، مع مطبعة الجامعة الأمريكية في الشارقة.

What can one Gulf-related source reveal about the wider Indian Ocean world? Join me for Sharjah Art Foundation’s “Small Sources, Wide Waters: Writing Stories from the Gulf,” 10–12 July 2026 | 6:00–9:00 pm. In English/Arabic. Scan the poster to register/use this link:

Delighted to share that I’ll be joining @NYUAbuDhabi this fall as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of History. I leave UAEU with deep gratitude. Grateful for the mentors, colleagues, students, and friends who made the journey possible!

Thrilled and honored that my dissertation, “An Enchanted Sea: Occultism, Empire, and Society in the Western Indian Ocean, 1450–1750,” received an Honorable Mention from the World History Association Dissertation Prize Committee. Very grateful to all who supported me along the way.

Upcoming workshop: “Arabia and the Sea: Histories from Below.” Magdalen College, Sophia Sheppard Room, April 13-14, 2026. It would be great to see friends in London/Oxford.

يسر الأرشيف والمكتبة الوطنية أنْ يدعوكم إلى محاضرة افتراضية بعنوان: "مقاربات تاريخية لكتابة تاريخ الأسرة في إمارات الساحل المتصالح الفترة من 1860 إلى 1960" للدكتور أحمد المازمي، أستاذ مساعد في التاريخ بجامعة الإمارات العربية المتحدة، الساعة 11:00 صباح الاثنين بتاريخ 16 فبراير 2026.

Excited to be speaking at @UniofExeter's CGS Virtual Seminar Series on "Portuguese Black Serpents Meet Safavid Dragons: The Intellectual World of Indian Ocean Imperialism." 🐉🐍 Register here: universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

“We are fundamentally storytellers…. we live in a community of storytellers.” In the new Drafting the Past episode, Fahad Bishara talks dhows, Monsoon Voyagers, and how to write history as world‑making—from microhistory to an oceanic scale. Come listen 👇 draftingthepast.com/podcast-epis...

Episode 85: Fahad Bishara Tells the Story of a World in Motion

Kate Carpenter interviews historian Fahad Bishara about the research and writing process for his new book Monsoon Voyagers.

draftingthepast.com

New Article: Fahad Bishara, “Markets of Doubt: Islamic Law and the Omani Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean, c. 1870.” Slavery & Abolition, 1–20. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

What if Sri Lanka’s Muslim past is best read through monsoon-route pilgrims & merchants—not empires? What shifts when Arabic, Tamil, Malay, Ottoman, Urdu, Dhivehi, and Sinhala sources meet for the first time in "Serendipitous Translations"?👂🏽to Nile Green: newbooksnetwork.com/serendipitou...

Join us at the "Water Ways: Epistemologies and Aesthetics" conference by @DohaInstitute Feb 18-20. I'll present "Dhows as Magical Infrastructures: Reinscribing the Occult in Indian Ocean History" Feb 20 at 12. Keynotes on Oceanic History & Ethnography by @TheNakhoda & @lalehkhalili.bsky.social

Is there a definitive Islamic ecumene? & How did the colonial period and subsequent postcolonial transitions shape the identity and practices of Muslim communities worldwide? I spoke to Eric Tagliacozzo about "Islamic Ecumene: Comparing Muslim Societies" on newbooksnetwork.com/islamic-ecum...

How has anti-blackness been historically depicted in Arabic writings, and what forms has it taken across diverse genres? Join me & Amir Al-Azraki, the translator of @NaderKadhim's groundbreaking book: "Africanism: Blacks in the Medieval Arab Imaginary" on: newbooksnetwork.com/africanism

How does the seafarer's body become a battleground for power, tradition, and exploitation in the maritime world? Explore these complexities with @LalehKhalili in her new captivating ethnography: "Corporeal Life of Seafaring" on @NewBooksNetwork Podcast: newbooksnetwork.com/corporeal-li...

How can we study Indian Ocean connections through Arabic and Persian literary circles and texts? Tune in for a journey spanning Sanaa to Hyderabad, Isfahan to Bahrain in James White's: "Persian and Arabic Literary Communities in the Seventeenth Century" on newbooksnetwork.com/persian-and-...