Intellectual exchanges in Muslim Asia: intersections of history and geography

This chapter documents and theorises the character of intellectual exchange in Muslim Asia. It does so by exploring intellectual exchanges involving Muslims living in a particular transregional arena that cuts across the nation states of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The chapter argues that intellectual exchange in this arena takes place in a context defined by it being an intersecting point between intersecting geographical and temporal process and scales. In this specific context, a consideration of Muslim thought, activity and identity in the arena illuminates a broad range of factors that shape the character and direction of intellectual exchange. If a great deal of work in both anthropology and history has focussed on the role played by specific knowledge ecumenes and ethical traditions in shaping Islamic thought and subjectivity, a consideration of life in the transregional arena across which I have worked illuminates the significance of geopolitical processes in directing intellectual exchange in a diverse Muslim society.