The City and the Wilderness recounts the journeys and microhistories of Indo-Persian travelers across the Indian Ocean and their encounters with the Burmese Kingdom and its littoral at the turn of the nineteenth century. As Mughal sovereignty waned under British colonial rule, Indo-Persian travelers and intermediaries linked to the East India Company explored and surveyed the Burmese Empire, inscribing it as a forest landscape and Buddhist kingdom at the crossroads of South and Southeast Asia. Based on colonial Persian travel books and narratives in which Indo-Persian knowledge and perceptions of the wondrous edges of the Indian Ocean merged with Orientalist pursuits, The City and the Wilderness uncovers fading histories of inter-Asian crossings and exchanges at the ends of the Mughal world.

About the Author

Arash Khazeni is Professor of History at Pomona College and the author of Sky Blue Stone: The Turquoise Trade in World History.

Reviews

"This accessible and thoughtful book…will be a rewarding read for scholars of the Indian Ocean World."
— SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia

“Recent years have seen a revival in the history of the early modern Indo-Persian world, largely focused on the Mughal Empire and the Deccan. Arash Khazeni’s The City and the Wilderness is a novel and innovative contribution to this literature, but one which largely focuses on the eastern fringes of this world, especially mainland Southeast Asia. Through a close and masterful reading of texts and their accompanying images, Khazeni demonstrates his unique capacity for bringing together cultural, social, and environmental histories.”—Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Distinguished Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles, and author of Europe’s India: Words, People, Empires, 1500–1800

“Khazeni brilliantly captures his travelers’ enchanted encounters with the world of the Indo-Persian Burmese frontier. Unique and riveting. An exceptionally rare display of comprehensive scholarship that never loses the voices, the flavor, the magic, and the astonishment of the discovery of an uncharted new world of cultures and nature. Rich with both illustrations and historical implications for contemporary Burma.”—James C. Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Science, Yale University, and author of Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States