Malik Ambar: Power and Slavery across the Indian Ocean (The World in a Life Series)

Part of The World in a Life series, this brief, inexpensive text provides insight into the life of slave soldier Malik Ambar. Malik Ambar: Power and Slavery across the Indian Ocean offers a rare look at an individual who began in obscurity in eastern Africa and reached the highest levels of South Asian political and military affairs in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Ambar's rise from slavery in East Africa to ruler in South Asia sheds light on the diverse mix of people, products, and practices that shaped the Indian Ocean world during the early modern period. Originally from Ethiopia--historically called Abyssinia--Ambar is best known for having defended the Deccan from being occupied by the Mughals during the first quarter of the seventeenth century. His ingenuity as a military leader, his diplomatic skills, and his land-reform policies contributed to his success in keeping the Deccan free of Mughal imperial rule.

We live in a global age where big concepts like "globalization" often tempt us to forget the personal side of the past. The titles in The World in a Life series aim to revive these meaningful lives. Each one shows us what it was like to live on a world historical stage. Brief, inexpensive, and thematic, each book can be read in a week, fit within a wide range of curricula, and shed insight into a particular place or time. Four to six short primary sources at the end of each volume sharpen the reader's view of an individual's impact on world history.

• The Indian Ocean in World History (New Oxford World History)
• Islam in the Indian Ocean World: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford Series in History and Culture)
• A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire
• Sea of Poppies: A Novel (The Ibis Trilogy)
• Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America and American in Iran
• Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy
• Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society
• The Story of Swahili (Africa in World History)
• The Ottoman Age of Exploration
• The Travels of Ibn Battutah