This volume intervenes in the growing field of transimperial history, which explores interactions across empires—European and non-European—between the mid-1800s and mid-1900s, a period of heightened imperial entanglement. It focuses on how actors from one empire came to know, interpret, and position themselves in relation to actors from other empires, emphasizing the role of socio-professional profiles, informal networks, and formal institutions. The volume is structured around three them...

‘The Necklace of the Pleiades’ is een boek over Perzische literatuur, cultuur en religie door onderzoekers uit de hele wereld. Dit boek weerspiegelt de stand zaken op het gebied van de Perzische literaire studies en is niet alleen van wezenlijk belang voor onderzoekers van de Iranese cultuur, geschiedenis en religies, maar zeker ook voor onderzoekers op het gebied van het Midden-Oosten en Zuid-Aziatische studies.

The topics of the 24 essays range from the Persian Alexander romance, to Ferdow...

Dit deel in de serie Iranian Studies onderzoekt de filosofische onderbouwing en filmische technieken die kenmerkend zijn voor Iraanse film. Het laat zien hoe thema's als martelaarschap en oorlog, gender en sociaal beleid in Iraanse cinema worden benaderd, en hoe de regisseurs ze met behulp van een verscheidenheid aan technieken behandelen. Er wordt een overzicht gegeven van de poëtische en mystieke dimensies van Abbas Kiarostami's films. Daarnaast wordt beschreven wat de effecten van de Isla...

How is it possible that three playwrights in the early modern Dutch Republic wrote dramas based on contemporary political events in Asia? Reflecting on this remarkable phenomenon, "Staging Asia" traces the passage of the stories surrounding three political revolutions from seventeenth-century Asia through to the Dutch Republic and their ultimate manifestation as dramas. This book explores the nature of the representation of the Orient in these plays and evaluates how this characterization was...

Since the origins of architectural history, proportional systems have served as objects of belief and modes of iconographical communication. Whether they are capable of fulfilling more tangible functions remains a matter of debate today, for this ancient and diverse belief system continues to infiltrate architectural thinking in subtle and sometimes surprising ways.

In this collection of original essays, twenty-six leading scholars reconsider the long history of proportional systems across nu...

This volume of the ASLU series examines perspectives on maritime and underwater cultural heritage (MUCH) in southern Africa and proposes new management approaches to advance protection and public engagement. By redefining the maritime historical narratives in countries that have predominantly interpreted their maritime past through colonial shipwrecks, it is possible to create an environment in which stakeholders become active participants in heritage management. The application of a broad ma...

In the historiography of the period of Dutch rule in the Cape of Good Hope, from 1652 until 1795, Cape burghers are represented as the perpetual underdogs bristling against the rule of a restrictive Dutch East India Company (VOC). But was this relationship really so antagonistic?

The author places Cape colonial society in the wider context of the Dutch Republic and, in doing so, compares the political structures, institutions and dynamics of the Republic and its overseas settlement. He shows ...

Gum Arabic is a natural product which grows exclusively in the Sahel and has played an ever increasing role in the global economy. In the time of the crusades, Europeans bought the ingredient in Arab countries. Soon, it was not only used in ink or medicine, but also as a symbol of its putative Arab origin, the noble Orient. Later, gum was bought directly in the countries where it was produced, but western dependence on it grew. As European countries were laying the foundations for their colon...

The remains of Dutch East India Company forts are scattered throughout littoral Asia and Africa. But how important were the specific characteristics of European bastion-trace fortifications to Early-Modern European expansion? Was European fortification design as important for Early-Modern expansion as has been argued? This book takes on these questions by studying the system of fortifications built and maintained by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in present-day India and Sri Lanka. It unc...