Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
The majority of Japanese even today believe that the politico-cultural universe of the Edo period was fundamentally determined by the closure of the country. They also think that the opening of Japan can be reduced to the development of exchanges with the West, following the birth of the Meiji regime. It is hard for them to imagine that Japan developed in relation with other Asian countries, since they are hardly used to appreciating Asian cultures.
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16 My own book, The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500–1700: A Political and Economic History (London, 1993), drew inspiration in part from Bayly's work. There are, of course, a number of points of divergence, both stylistic and substantive.Google Scholar
17 From a rather different perspective, this parallels observations made on the study of systems of medicine by Zimmermann, Francis, Généalogie des médecines douces: De l'Inde à l'Occident (Paris, 1995).Google Scholar
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24 In this context, we may note that the social, ideological and political ramifications of the important Mahdawi movement in sixteenth-century northern India will be discussed in the forthcoming work of Derryl Maclean, Waiting for the End of the World.
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29 For the best discussion to date of early sixteenth-century Iran, see Aubin, Jean, ‘L'avènement des Safavides réconsideré’, Moyen Orient et Océan Indien 5 (1988), 1–130.Google ScholarMy discussion of Isma'il, Shah draws liberally on this extensive, and very welldocumented, essay. But, see also several of the essays in Calmard, Jean (ed.), Études safavides (Paris-Teheran, 1993).Google Scholar
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