4 - Mobile Arabic Learning from Egypt to the Deccan

Summary

The fourth chapter is a micro-study that explores in depth the life story of one scholar on the move from Egypt to the Deccan. Through the fifteenth-century transoceanic pursuits of the Egyptian scholar Muhammad al-Damāmīnī, it argues that migrating scholars employed their textual productions to become professionally mobile, link patronage networks, and communicate with changing audiences. Al-Damāmīnī’s grammar commentaries provide a textual trail that documents how he negotiated his move from Cairo, via Mecca, Zabid (Yemen), Cambay and Nahrwala (Gujarat) to Gulbarga (Deccan), and how he interacted with sultans, scholars, and readers along the way. He employed different narrative strategies to engage with changing learned audiences. Such learned encounters were crucial for processes of transmission, but also highlight cases of knowledge formation which catered to a new readership.