‘Commodities move easily, as can people… but ideas and cultural practices are easier to transplant than translate’

Nile Green is a historian of the multiple globalisations of Islam and Muslims. After beginning his career as a historian of India and Pakistan, he has traced Muslim networks that connect Afghanistan, Iran, the Indian Ocean, Africa, Japan, Europe, and America. He has published ten books on the subject, including the award-winning volumes Bombay Islam: The Religious Economy of the West Indian Ocean, 1840-1915 (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and How Asia Found Herself: A Story of Intercultural Understanding (Yale University Press, 2022). He serves as Professor & Ibn Khaldun Endowed Chair in World History at the University of California, Los Angeles. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.