Arab-Turko-Persianate and Malay World Relations: Past, Present, and Future

This article explores Arab-Turko-Persianate (ATP) and Malay world relations from a longue durée perspective. It introduces new nomenclatures that more accurately reflect the realities of these two regions. I argue that interactions between these areas can be characterized as "unremittingly dialogical," with Islam as a connective tissue. These regions have continuously interacted, collaborated, and even collided regarding ideas, beliefs, governance, kinship, and trade. Their dialogues are circulatory rather than unidirectional, with each region impacting the other. By emphasizing the diverse forms of inter-regionalism between the ATP and Malay worlds across centuries, this article challenges the diffusionist view that considers the Malay world a peripheral node within the Islamic world system.