Creole Hadramis in the Malay world in the 1800s: Fragments of biographies and connected histories

Abstract

This article explores cultural geographies at the conjunction of transregional and local histories by examining creole Hadrami biographies in the Malay world. It focuses on Abdullah al-Misri and Abdullah Munsyi and a few biographical fragments from their writings. Efforts to create national canons have led to the anachronistic application of national and ethnic categories to these nineteenth-century writers. Through biographical fragments, this article demonstrates the connected histories of creole Hadramis in the Malay world, and presents cultural geographies that bring to the fore the multi-scalar and shared histories of the citizens of contemporary nation-states. It makes a historically grounded argument for a cosmopolitan Malay world.