Acknowledgements Introduction: The Connected World of Empires, by C. A. Bayly and Leila Fawaz Section 1. Trade Routes and Patterns of Exchange from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Centuries Trade and Port Cities in the Red Sea - Gulf of Aden Region in the Sixteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, by Michel Tuchscherer A Divided Sea: The Cairo Coffee Trade in the Red Sea Area during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, by Andre Raymond The Red Sea Ports during the Revolution in Transportation, by Colette Dubois Section II. Cities as Centers of Exchange Port Cities as Nodal Points of Change: The Indian Ocean, 1890s - 1920s, by Kenneth McPherson Haifa at the Crossroads: An Outpost of the New World Order, by May Seikaly Islamic Universalism and Regional Identity in Turn-of-the-Century Basra: Sheikh Ibrahim al-Haidari's Book Revisited, by Hala Fattah Section III. Survival of the Inland Cities Damascus and the Pilgrim Caravan, by Abdul-Karim Rafeq Aspects of Economy and Society in the Syrian Provinces: Aleppo in Transition, 1880-1925, by Peter Sluglett Section IV. Cultural Production and Diffusion Representing Copts and Muhammadans: Empire, Nation, and Community in Egypt and India, 1880-1914, by C. A. Bayly Izmir 1922: A Port City Unravels, by Resat Kasaba Negotiating Colonial Modernity and Cultural Difference: Indian Muslim Conceptions of Community and Nation, c. 1878-1914, by Ayesha Jalal Section V. Politics Race and Community The Tangled End of Istanbul's Imperial Supremacy, by Engin Deniz Akarli Racial Readings of Empire: Britain, France, and Colonial Modernity in the Mediterranean and Asia, by Susan Bayly Section VI. Representing the Modern Alexandria: A Mediterranean Cosmopolitan Center of Cultural Production, by Robin Ostle Between Politics and Literature: Journals in Alexandria and Istanbul at the End of the Nineteenth Century, by Elisabeth Kendall Printing and Urban Islam in the Mediterranean World, 1890-1920, by Juan Cole Section VII. Comparisons and Connections Space and Time on the Indian Ocean Rim: Theory and History, by Sugata Bose