Red Sea Citizens

By Jonathan Miran,

Book cover of Red Sea Citizens: Cosmopolitan Society and Cultural Change in Massawa

Book description

In the late 19th century, the port of Massawa, in Eritrea on the Red Sea, was a thriving, vibrant, multiethnic commercial hub. Red Sea Citizens tells the story of how Massawa rose to prominence as one of Northeast Africa's most important shipping centers. Jonathan Miran reconstructs the social, material, religious,…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Red Sea Citizens as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is a well written, accessible academic book that gives a sense of the dynamics and of the port city of Massawa, currently Eritrea, during the 1800s. Massawa here is a microcosm of the Red Sea community more broadly, and is stands against academic and political biases that treat the coasts, islands, and ports of the Red sea as belonging either to Africa or Arabia. While rooted in the colonial past, the themes are very relevant to the modern politics of the Red Sea. This is a great example of a very focused study that adds a distinctive perspective on…

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