The Gulf’s Forgotten Trade Routes to India & Africa | Fahad Bishara, “Monsoon Voyagers”

Pre-oil Gulf history didn't vanish when oil was discovered. It survived in places few people thought to look. Fahad Bishara, associate professor at the University of Virginia and the Doha Institute, discusses his books A Sea of Debt and Monsoon Voyages. He explains how 19th-century merchants kept long-distance trade going through extended credit, how Kuwaiti dhow captains read literature and used celestial navigation, and how he came across his grandfather's dhow logbooks in a friend's family trunk.00:00 Introduction01:36 A Family Link to the Sea07:21 Memories of Indian Ocean Trade13:58 Port Cities and Merchants20:23 Credit, Debt, and Law25:54 Routes and Commodities32:03 The Voyage of “the Crooked”40:45 Navigation and Life at Sea43:23 Gulf History Beyond Oil49:43 Further ReadingFahad Ahmad Bishara specializes in the economic and legal history of the Gulf, the Indian Ocean and the Islamic world. He is Associate Professor of History and Rouhollah Ramazani Professor of Arabian Peninsula and Gulf Studies at the University of Virginia, currently on leave and teaching at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He is the author of A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1780–1950 (Cambridge University Press, 2017), which received the J. Willard Hurst Prize (Law and Society Association), the Jerry Bentley Prize (World History Association), and the Peter Gonville Stein Award (American Society for Legal History), and Monsoon Voyagers: An Indian Ocean History (University of California Press, 2025), which follows a single Kuwaiti dhow on a 1924 trading journey around the Persian Gulf and Western Indian Ocean, drawing on the private archives of Kuwaiti merchant and dhow captain families. He holds a BA from the University of Southern California (2004), an MA in Arab Gulf Studies from the University of Exeter (2006), and a PhD in History from Duke University (2012).

Connect with Fahad Bishara 👉 https://history.virginia.edu/people/fahad-ahmad-bishara

Hosted by: Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://www.instagram.com/mikey_mu/?hl=en-gbFOLLOW & RATE THE AFIKRA PODCAST:» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/lb/podcast/the-afikra-podcast/id1529437743» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5nafoF1Zs7F48mGZjlhrze» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014643869THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=sharedABOUT AFIKRAafikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official🔗 Twitter: https://twit