Revision of the author's thesis, Duke University, 2012.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 258 274) and index.

A geography of obligation -- Life and debt -- Paper routes -- Transl ating transactions -- Making Africa Indian -- Muslim mortgages -- Capit al moves -- Unraveling obligation.

In this innovative legal history of economic life in the Western Ind ian Ocean, Bishara examines the transformations of Islamic law and Isla micate commercial practices during the emergence of modern capitalism i n the region. In this time of expanding commercial activity, a melange of Arab, Indian, Swahili and Baloch merchants, planters, jurists, judge s, soldiers and seamen forged the frontiers of a shared world. The inte rlinked worlds of trade and politics that these actors created, the sha red commercial grammars and institutions that they developed and the sp atial and socio-economic mobilities they engaged in endured until at le ast the middle of the twentieth century. This study examines the Indian Ocean from Oman to India and East Africa over an extended period of ti me, drawing together the histories of commerce, law and empire in a sop histicated, original and richly textured history of capitalism in the I slamic world.