This essay examines relations between eastern Africa and western India in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in respect to two related sets of problems: the changing regimes of commercial circulation, and more particularly the evolution of patterns of human movement, notably via the slave trade from Ethiopia and the Swahili coast to Gujarat and the Deccan. It argues that over the course of the sixteenth century, commercial relations between Deccan ports such as Goa and Chaul, and the Swahili coast, came to be strengthened through the intervention of the Portuguese and their military-commercial system. At the same time, large numbers of African slaves reached the Muslim states in India, especially in the period after 1530, where they played a significant role as military specialists, and eventually as elite political and cultural actors. The shifting geographical dimensions of the African presence in India are emphasized, beginning in western Gujarat and winding up in the Deccan Sultanates. This contrasts markedly with the African experience elsewhere, where the meaning and institutional context of slavery were quite different.

中文翻译：

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东非和西印度之间，1500-1650 年：奴隶制、商业和精英阶层

本文考察了 16 世纪和 17 世纪早期东非和西印度之间的关系，涉及两组相关问题：商业流通制度的变化，尤其是人类运动模式的演变，特别是通过奴隶贸易埃塞俄比亚和斯瓦希里海岸到古吉拉特邦和德干。它认为，在 16 世纪的过程中，果阿和查乌尔等德干港口与斯瓦希里海岸之间的商业关系通过葡萄牙及其军事商业体系的干预得到加强。与此同时，大量非洲奴隶到达印度的穆斯林国家，特别是在 1530 年之后的时期，他们在那里扮演了重要的军事专家角色，并最终成为精英政治和文化演员。非洲在印度存在的地理范围不断变化，从古吉拉特邦西部开始，到德干苏丹国结束。这与其他地方的非洲经历形成鲜明对比，那里奴隶制的含义和制度背景完全不同。