Book Review: Thomas F. McDow. Buying Time: Debt and Mobility in the Western Indian Ocean.

Abstract

The study of the connection of East African coast, the Middle East and India through the Indian Ocean has been attracting great interests from scholars for centuries. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea writings in the 1st century A.D documented the connection so did Ibn Batuta and Portuguese voyage writings in the 14th, and 15th to 17th centuries respectively. Thomas McDow`s book, Buying Time: Debt and Mobility in the Western Indian Ocean (henceforth Buying Time), fits in this Indian Ocean scholarship.