European Empire in the Islamic World

The items in this exhibit offer a glimpse of the so-called "Islamic World" through the experience of not just European travelers, but those who established communities in the Indian Ocean world during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Maritime history, economic developments, political accounts, and observations of dress, customs and cultural encounters can be found in the pages of these books. The reader may be left wondering how these accounts would compare to those by the inhabitants of this region and their experience of encountering their European guests who would come to lay claim to these lands.