Philippe Beaujard is an Emeritus Director of Research at theCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut des Mondes Africains, Paris.

'… an ambitious and thoroughly comprehensive book … It will be a standard reference volume for many generations of anthropologists, archaeologists, economic historians and classicists interested in the deep history of the Indian Ocean.' Chapurukha M. Kusimba, Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

• Volume 1. Prologue: the geography of the Indian Ocean and the navigation; Part I. The Ancient Routes of Trade and Cultural Exchanges and the First States (6th–2nd Millenia BC): Introduction; 1. The birth of the state; 2. Early Bronze Age I in Western Asia and in Egypt (ca. 3000–2700 BC); 3. Early Bronze Age II (ca. 2700–1950 BC); 4. The new spaces of the Middle Bronze Age in Asia and in Egypt (ca. 2000–1750 BC); 5. The Late Bronze Age (ca. 1600–1100 BC), an area unified around the Eastern Mediterranean; 6. East Asia. From villages to states (ca. 5000–1027 BC); 7. The emergence of intermediary spaces; Conclusion: were there world-systems during the Bronze Age?; Part II. The Birth of the Afro-Eurasian World-System (1st Millennium BC–1st Century AD): Introduction; 8. The beginnings of the Iron Age; 9. The roads to the Orient; 10. India. The birth of a new core; 11. Southeast Asia, an interface between two Oceans; 12. China. From Kingdoms to Unification; 13. Arabia. Maritime cultures and the rise of the caravan trade; 14. East Africa: the emergence of a pre-Swahili culture on the Azanian Coast; 15. The Austronesian expansion and the first Malagasy cultures. Volume 2. Part I. The Indian Ocean between Tang China and the Muslim Empire (7th Through 10th Centuries); Introduction; 1. Tang China and the rise of the Silk Roads; 2. Islam. The conquest of lands and oceans; 3. India. A core with four centers; 4. Southeast Asia. The rise of the Sriwijayan Thalassocracy and the Javanese Kingdoms; 5. East Africa. Dawn of the Swahili culture; 6. Madagascar (7th Through 11th Centuries). Early Cultural Métissages; Part II. Globalization during the Song and Mongol Periods (10th–14th centuries), and the downturn of the 14th century; Introduction; 7. China. The golden age of the song, the Mongol conquest and the Ming revival; 8. India: from the Chola Empire to the Delhi sultanate; 9. Southeast Asia. From the decline of Sriwijaya to the rise of Mojopahit; 10. Central and Western Asia. From the Seljuk Empire to the Ilkhanids; 11. Egypt and Yemen. The Jewish and Karimi networks; 12. East Africa. The rise of the Swahili culture and the expansion of Islam; 13. Madagascar. The development of trading ports and the interior; Part III. From the Globalization of the Afro-Eurasian Area to the Dawn of European Expansion (15th and Early 16th Centuries); Introduction; 14. Ming China, from expansion to withdrawal into threatened territory; 15. India. The flowering of the sultanates and the expansion of Vijayanâgara; 16. Southeast Asia: era of the merchant sultanates; 17 Western Asia: revival of the Persian Gulf; 18. Egypt and Yemen. Advances in state trade and the end of the Karimi; 19. East Africa and the Comoros; 20. Madagascar (15th–16th centuries): the rise of trading ports and development of the Highlands; 21. The Portuguese in the Indian Ocean; Epilogue.