Cultural Brokerage in Premodern Islamic Societies

When we speak of ‘Islamic societies’ or ‘Islamic civilisation’, we often imply that there is something distinctive about cultures wherever Islam is prominent. Yet historians have rarely examined in detail how these cultures that we call ‘Islamic’ were formed in relation to neighbouring ones. This volume addresses that gap by focusing on cultural brokerage: the process by which an individual mediates between different cultural spheres, transferring and translating ideas, practices and instit...