Call For Papers
3rd Spiced Islam International Conference
Material Culture and Commodities
in the Indian Ocean World, 7th to 13th Centuries
20-23 August 2025, Tapanuli, North Sumatra, Indonesia
INTRODUCTION
Following the success of our previous Spiced Islam conferences (November 2022 and October 2023), the third round will be held from 20 to 23 August 2025, titled Material Culture and Commodities in the Premodern Indian Ocean World. Hosted by the Sultanate Institute in collaboration with the Magister Program of Islamic History and Culture at State Islamic University Jakarta and the Edinburgh Centre for Global History, University of Edinburgh, the event aims to advance research on the pivotal role of material culture in shaping the communities that flourished across the Indian Ocean world during the early Islamic period, from the seventh to thirteenth centuries.
The movement of people across the seas had profound implications for the circulation of knowledge, art, statecraft, and religious ideas, making these areas centers for the rise of civilizations. Islamic glassware, known for its intricate craftsmanship and widespread distribution, played a crucial role in cultural and commercial exchanges over vast distances. Likewise, aromatics such as camphor, agarwood, frankincense, and other spices were highly prized commodities that connected regions across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and beyond. This conference aims to shed light on these maritime exchanges that linked various regions throughout the Indian Ocean.
This edition of the conference series highlights the ongoing archaeological explorations in Northern Sumatra, particularly at Bongal in Tapanuli, where significant material finds from Arabia, Persia, India and China dating from the seventh to twelfth centuries, have been unearthed. These materials range from potsherds and Abbasid coins to medical tools and inscriptions. A systematic study of these artefacts, in collaboration with specialists working on similar materials in the Middle East, South Asia and East Asia and across the Indian Ocean world, would be highly beneficial. In this regard, the conference serves as a key milestone, facilitating discussions among colleagues and institutions about the cultural and material connections between North Sumatra and the broader Indonesian and Indian Ocean regions. We envision this event as a transdisciplinary platform and thus extend an invitation to historians, archaeologists, philologists, epigraphists, and numismatists whose research focuses on early Islamic materials in the Middle East or their links to the eastern Indian Ocean between the seventh and thirteenth centuries.
SUBTHEMES
We have identified the following subthemes as key focus areas for this conference. However, scholars are welcome to propose additional topics related to the conference’s main theme.
- Technological transfers and craftsmanship across maritime networks
- Material culture of Islam’s maritime expansion
- Islamic glassware: innovation, craftsmanship, and transoceanic trade
- Medicine and pharmacy: alchemy and chemical expertise
- Aromatic goods and spice commodities
- Shipbuilding, navigation technologies, and instruments
- Manuscripts, seals, tombs, and gravestones
- Coins, ingots, and scales
- Architectures, built environments, and spatial practices
FORMAT AND SUBMISSION
The conference will be held in a hybrid format, offering both in-person and virtual presentation options. While we encourage all speakers to attend in person, virtual presentations will provide participants with the same opportunities as those presenting on-site. To accommodate the diverse research interests of the speakers, we will organise multiple panels in both online and offline formats.
If you wish to participate, please submit a 500-word abstract along with a brief 150-word biography to [email protected] and [email protected] by 30 April 2025. The selection committee will review all submissions, and notifications will be sent to the selected participants.
We look forward to your contributions and to welcoming you to this exciting event.
VENUE
Museum Fanshuri Situs Bongal, Tapanuli, North Sumatra, Indonesia.
IMPORTANT DATES
- Abstract Submission Deadline: 30 April 2025
- Announcement of Selected Abstracts: 30 May 2025
- Press Release: 10 July 2025
- Conference Dates: 20–23 August 2025
- Submission of Revised Papers: 30 November 2025
ORGANIZERS
- Jajat Burhanuddin, UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta
- Mahmood Kooria, University of Edinburgh
- Sonny Wibisono, Senior Archaeologist
- Ery Soedewo, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN)
- Shinatria Adhityatama, Griffith University
- Abu Bakar, Sultanate Institute
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