Under Empire: Muslim Lives and Loyalties Across the Indian Ocean World, 1775-1945

An exploration of two centuries of interactions among Muslim subjects of empires and future nation-states around the Indian Ocean world. The book traces interlinked lives and journeys, examining engagements with Western, Islamic, and pan-Asian imperial formations to consider the possibilities for Muslims in an imperial age. It covers the transition from the late eighteenth century through the period of Dutch and British colonial rule up to the rise of nationalist and cosmopolitan movements for social reform in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The narrative emphasizes how Indian Ocean Muslims sometimes asserted loyalty to colonial states in pursuit of religious freedom or looked to the Ottoman Empire or Egypt for spiritual unity. Bringing the history of Southeast Asian Islam to African and South Asian shores, it offers an expansive account of Muslim communal belonging on the world stage.