The Sailing Scribes: Circulating Law in the Twentieth-Century Indian Ocean

What did the practice of law look like on high seas? This has been a matter some discussion among legal historians, with bulk evidence coming from encounters between European ships in Atlantic and Asia. article takes different tack, taking as its starting point series contracts copied into logbook early-twentieth century Arab dhow captain (nakhoda) ‘Abdulmajeed Al-Failakawi. Although these appear to have that nakhoda entered or witnessed, most were contractual templates presented formulas for variety written obligations members Indian Ocean maritime community. In reading alongside left behind by Al-Failakawi other nakhodas, I reflect how circulated an itinerant society mariners sought forge contours commercial world their across waters, weave it through imperial seascape. explore workaday forms epistemologies around marketplaces world, at margins colonial political economy, actors who read genres literature, moved multiple roles captain, navigator, supercargo, scribe.